Implications of Learning Technologies within Coursera

Coursera https://www.coursera.org/ is a purely online company who teaches different subjects with the help of universities around the world. The technology needed to achieve such a reputation as Coursera is the most advanced methods of digital learning technologies. I would like to pick three of the technologies they use and describe how the help or hinder learners.

Pre recorded and edited videos:  These pre-recorded and edited videos which are used on coursera make up the bulk of the learning materials used for the course. The benefits of pre recorded videos have benefits for both the students and the teachers. The learners (students) are able to watch a video, pause the video, go back and listen to something multiple times until they are able to understand the topic, or skip ahead if the learner needs to get to a certain piece of information or if they are losing focus on the video. The benefits for pre recorded videos for the teacher is that they only need to make the video once and it can be used multiple times to teach many students. The only exception to this might be that the information needs updating and the videos may need updating once or twice a year depending on the subject.

Not only are the videos audio and visual stimulus for learners but with the added ability to skip forward, go back and pause. It makes recorded videos the ideal tool to deliver information to students.


Coursera Designed Adobe Reader: Coursera has designed their own adobe reader software for displaying all text documents that need to be read as a part of the course. It integrates with the rest of their system and is easy to use and nothing needs to be installed on their own computers making it a suitable method of delivering written content to the learners. The user interface is very nice and it provides for just reading of the documents.


Discussion Threads:  The discussion threads on the Coursera Web Site are located underneath videos. This allows the teachers teaching the topic to be able to retain that interaction that is required if a student does not have the mental capacity to understand what was said in the video, it gives the teacher an opportunity to explain the topic in a different way, this is beneficial to not only the student who asked the question but also gives a better understanding to those students who understood to start off with re enforcing what they have already learnt and looking at the topic in a different way.