Identifying Parent's Security Requirements for Web Filtering in MOOCs for Kids

Introduction

Nowadays Massive Open Online Courses are widely available around the world offering an ocean of subjects and topics from thousands areas of knowledge. Primarily, these information technologies for learning were thought for advanced students (e.g. Undergraduate students or even High school students). Nevertheless, MOOCs face several issues as reported in this scenario as mentioned in research works such as (LeClair & Ferrer, 2014; Baggaley, 2014; Bonk, et al., 2014) including individual peer feedback convey for massive students, the massive desertion of courses, or the need of most adequate assessment mechanisms and procedures, among other barriers. Nevertheless there are great opportunities in other scenarios to use MOOCs as a complement of education or instruction not necessarily academic. One of these scenarios is the use of MOOCs for kids.

Currently, this topic it have been less explored than others and there are some counter opinions about this such as the comment posted by (Finn Jr., 2012) that makes interesting and true observations about using MOOCs for children academic education. In spite of that MOOCs could be a great support tool for training and learning in several academic and non-academic aspects, e.g. those aspects related to behavior and manners. In this way (Huerta, 2014) suggested the following three great reasons to foster integration and use of MOOCs through children education:

• 1.

  MOOCs Could Enrich and Challenge: Many children perceive school boring because activities do not represent a challenge to them. For this type of child, a challenge or an intellectually stimulating activity might be a solution. Parents or teachers could get child registered in an emotionally and intellectually appropriate MOOC according to a particular topic. This could encourage enhancements learning and classroom behavior, even spark excitement. It could also challenge children, build confidence, and jumpstart his love for learning. MOOCs could be developed by the own school and offer college credit.

• 2.

  MOOCs Could Encourage Independent Learning: In some cases, children do not have the skills to actively learn the materials provided by teachers to support or complement the conceptual explanation of specific topics. Additionally, many kids do not know how to be independent learners, it means to find some key aspects from a concept and associate them to particular situations or even solving problems. Commonly this association process becomes from teachers’ materials. The MOOC, by its design, encourages students to work independently, provides online assignments that frame the information in such a way that students process and apply knowledge to more global problems. Some MOOCs include discussion threads where kids can post assignments and receive immediate feedback from the MOOC instructor and from other students taking the MOOC. Particularly, social tools from MOOCs could contribute to increase interest in subjects and foster independence in learning. Imagine how excited a child might be to receive feedback from a student in Singapore? Another consideration. If a child can teach what he or she knows to someone else, if he or she can explain a concept, that child is actively learning and integrating knowledge. It’s what’s known in education as metacognition, which is a “must” in learning goals.

• 3.

  MOOCs Could Supplement Weak Students: Some children simply cannot learn in a traditional classroom where the instructor lectures and the student is responsible for passively taking notes. In many cases, particular topics are complex or tedious and some children cannot keep up with the lectures, they could not figure out how to summarize or pick the most important details for note taking. If a child is not an auditory learner (one who learns through listening) or if a child has a processing disorder, material delivered through lectures can be lost. MOOCs break down material into short lectures on videotape. The student learns basic concepts through the lectures and then practices these new concepts through interactive assignments or games.