Episodes
Friday Aug 12, 2022
Massive Open Online Courses: Episode Transcript
Friday Aug 12, 2022
Friday Aug 12, 2022
What would you do if you were trying to build a dinosaur robot, how would you get your parts? How would you think about the mechanics and the circuit boards that control those tiny wobbling legs and the tiny hand? And how would you get the tail to work? How would you get it to move? How would you get it to read its space?
How would you get it, to acclimatize? How would you get the 3d printed files to be ready and everything in between? Well, you learn, right? You go online and you find some good resources and you begin to work your butt off till you get something done. That's what we're talking about today. Well, not dinosaurs per se, but massive open online courses.
Welcome to the show. This is Tuoyo. I'm your host here at the average African kid podcast. And today we're gonna be talking about massive open online courses. That's right, the courses that you need to take if you want to learn outside a higher institution of learning. Imagine you are about to start your own podcast.
How do you do that? Maybe you come over to my channel, which is, which would be nice, and learn a bit more, or maybe you go online or to YouTube and you try and pick up the skills you want to learn about starting a new course. Maybe you find pat Flynn and his videos, or you find someone else and you try and learn from them.
Or maybe just, maybe you take a course online. There are so many courses online right now. You have some very big podcasters and YouTubers who do different courses right now. And you decide to take one of their courses and you get some value from it. Then you go on, you're like, wait a minute. Is there another platform I can get more courses on?
Can you take another course, you go onto coursera and you think, how do I edit my podcast professionally? And then you take a class on that. And then after that you just get excited and you start taking classes upon classes, upon classes, on things that you love and you want to do. And before you know it, you've become a pro.
A podcasting pro. Yeah. That's our story here today. That's what we're talking about. We're talking about massive open online courses, the MOOCs. The term MOOCs became popular way back in 2014. I think it might have extended beyond that, but that's when edX decided to make it quite popular. If you don't know them, ed X they're basically the pioneers in this field, they were before Coursera and other things. But now edX is not as pertinent or not as on top, as they used to be. Let me give you the reasons I think so because right now Google decided to launch a massive open online course. They chose to use coursera. Facebook meta decided to do the same thing.
They also chose coursera, which tells me that edX is not as pertinent as it used to be. Okay, so let's get into it. So why massive open online courses? Personally, I love learning, and something that you have learned from me and you know about me is that I'm a lifelong learner. I do a lot of things. I am a saxophonist.
I design wristbands, which hopefully will soon be on sale at some point once I figure out logistics and everything and I love learning. Because I love learning so much, I find as many avenues to learn, like during the pandemic, during COVID times, what I ended up doing was that I took some time off.
I did, I started doing classes. I did some certifications. I took an anatomy and physiology, specialization of four different courses from Coursera. I did some certifications in Cardiac respiration, CPR, advanced CPR, advanced life support for children, and other things like that. There are quite a few courses online.
And there's a reason that I'm talking about massive open online courses because, in 2022, the condition in Nigeria, where I am right now in Nigeria. The condition is simple. For eight months, the government has been on strike that's it!!! The union, of staff, has been on strike, which is ASUU (Academic Staff Union of Universities).
They are the ones that are trying to get the government to pay salaries and fix infrastructure in schools they've been on strike, which means that for eight months, students have been at home, which incidentally means that people have to find new skills. And I hope, if you listen to this, you might have found a new skill and if you haven't found a new skill, I hope this can help you do that. But if you have family members or friends who are in this situation, I hope this podcast can direct you to direct them on what to do and how to get started. So massive open online courses have been around for a while now, but. I believe that in 2022, they're more wonderful than ever.
I found one really interesting class on edX and it was "The Rise of Superheros and their Impact on Pop Culture". It was actually taught by, guess who, Stan Lee. Stan lee taught that course. I mean, he was a guest on the show, but they were like three instructors on that course. Stan Lee is one of them. If you don't know Stan Lee, then you don't know Marvel.
Spiderman, the Avengers, all these are Stan Lee's creations and he died a few years ago, but his course is online, which he released before he died. So go check out his course and you can audit it for free. If I can get some links, you see them below here. Okay. So what else is there about massive open online courses?
Well, let's list them out. We have edX, we have Coursera. We have Skillshare, we have Udemy. We have other platforms for example, I host some of my classes on Skillshare. I host two classes actually. One of the classes I host is how to play the Yamaha Venova. And the next course I host is how to play any musical instruments.
It took some time to work on those courses, but I have them released already. And the same way that I, who knows something about a subject matter released courses, is the same way other people are releasing courses, but even better. Universities and higher institutions of learning like Harvard, Stanford, and John Hopkins, they're releasing courses.
I just finished a class on data. I took a course from John Hopkins about data and analytics. And it was quite interesting actually because podcasting, YouTubing, and content creation are all about data. I don't think you know this, but podcasting is not really about me telling you what I want to tell you.
It's about me connecting to what you want to learn and working on getting that information together in such a way that your wants and your desires to learn, are intersected with my level of expertise and experience in an area or curiosity, at least in that area. And that's how you get a successful episode.
That's how you get people listening to your show. So I hope I did a good job if you are listening to this episode right now, and by the way, a short plug: wherever you're listening to this podcast, please; I want you to subscribe. If it's on iTunes, the subscribe button is there. If you're listening on Podbean, follow me there wherever you are, just so that you can stay connected with the podcast. When I release new episodes when new things happen on the show, that way you will know and stay abreast of what's happening with the podcast. The future of massive open online courses is going to be huge. I think of a world like this right now. Google has at least five certifications on Coursera.
One of them is Google IT support. One of them is Google data analytics and there are other ones. UI/UX is on there. So. If you could get a course from Google at about 200 to $300, and you could get a job from that, why would you think about going to an expensive university and getting a degree when you still can't get a job with your degree?
I feel the American market, the American populace is moving towards a situation where nobody is taking classes anymore. Like the colleges are gonna start emptying out because people realize that the colleges have a big game. They talk a big game, but they don't really produce results in terms of jobs.
Job availability and job marketing. They tell you that you can get these particular jobs, but you likely do not get the jobs that you want. So, which means it's all null and void. What do you think about that? Do you think that colleges actually give you the chance to get the jobs you want?
Or do you think that they overmarket themselves? I mean, don't get me wrong. I enjoyed my experience in college. College was one of the best times for me and I got to grow and learn and become bigger and better and more. I learned more about myself and how to plan, how to think. But still, if there was a different way for me to do that for a lot cheaper, and I don't have the rigors of an F1 visa or something that keeps me having to go to school.
By the way, sidenotes. Okay. I'll do it at the end of the episode. Then you put it in here. So wait till the end and I'll tell you why Africans and Nigerians, well, Africans are the most educated people you might find anywhere in the world. Okay. So, what is my recommendation for you right now? I recommend that you go online and check out these platforms, check out Skillshare.
I have an affiliate link there. If you use that affiliate link, you support this podcast. And hopefully, I get a commission from that, which I can plow back into the show and use it to make more beautiful content. Links to Coursera, Udemy, and other platforms. So, I recommend you go in there, you find a class you like, and you learn new skills.
If you're talking about skills, Skillshare is number one on that list. If you're trying to learn how to do something creative, Skillshare is number one. If you're learning how to do something technical, like let's say, you're trying to learn how to code or you're trying to learn, how to maybe tell descriptive stories, something like that.
I would say, Coursera is really good. If you're looking for very niche content that is not on Coursera or other places. edX might have them. I don't really use edX, but that Stan Lee course got me and I had to register for it to try and take it. Now I'm taking that course for free, by the way. And if you need it, there are some scholarship options.
On Coursera, you can apply for financial aid for their courses. Many people don't know about that, but you can do that too. And if you get approved, you get to take the class for whatever amount you can afford. Okay. So let's wrap it up here. Now, let me ask the question. Why are Africans, the most educated people you find all over the world?
Let me tell you why here. It is because when you go to a foreign country and you are on a visa to study like the plan is this, you try and go to school and you try and stay as long as is necessary for you to like, get yourself acquainted in the system. For many Nigerians, many Ghanaians, many Tanzanians, and Rwandans, the most scenic route, the most effective route to becoming a citizen, becoming a green card holder is to specialize. So that's why you see, after a bachelor's degree, we try to find a job. If there are no jobs available, more school, get a master's degree, try and go to professional school like medical school, other schools, if that's not available.
Get a Ph.D. and work from there. And hopefully, from there, get a job, get a position, and get integrated with society. So that's why you see it around the world. The African populace who are educated is extremely high. Just a side note for you right there. So Yeah, I really recommend massive open online courses.
I take them a lot and I think that for the past four years, I have learned more than I would ever have learned. Well, and also, because of one thing you learn based on your interest, you don't learn based on someone else telling you that you have to take this particular class. You pick something that you like and you learn it.
And I believe that is very important. If you wanna ever achieve longstanding growth in your learning.
So thank you for listening to this episode. And I really enjoyed making this to talk with you about massive open online courses. Don't let it end there. Please subscribe wherever you get your podcast.
Be it iTunes, Stitcher, Pandora, iHeartRadio, Spotify, wherever it is, subscribe to this show. That way you can get more notifications when we have new content out and other things related to that. We have a few guests coming in, hopefully very soon, and other things. You should subscribe because that way you are on the cutting edge, you are the first to see what comes next from the average African kid podcast.
When you see what comes next, you can able to better analyze and look at trends through the eyes of the average African kid. And use that to inform your decisions. Maybe you work with Africans, maybe. You're just interested in the culture. Maybe you live in South Africa or in Nigeria, wherever you are. Hey, this is the podcast for you.
Thank you. And I look forward to talking to you in another episode next week. Okay. Bye. Bye. Stay safe.
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