You are going to read an article about new types of university courses. Seven sentences have been removed from the article. Choose from the sentences A-H the one which fits each gap. There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use
You are going to read an article about new types of university courses. Seven sentences have been removed from the article. Choose from the sentences A-H the one which fits each gap. There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use.
A We have local apocalypses in our world today, in the form of earthquakes, hurricanes and terrorist attacks.
B TV shows have long launched spin-off products in the form of merchandise and video games.
C If successful, the edutainment experiment could spawn a huge range of other TV show/university hybrid courses.
D Until now, online learning experiences have been able to deliver great videos and quizzes, but student interaction was minimal and the experience for learners has been impersonal.
E Experts from the Centre for Education and Employment have reservations about the value of such online courses where there is no formal assessment or contact between the students and those delivering the courses.
F The course will consist of eight modules including a physics module on ‘the science of decay’, a public health module on the study of epidemics and a mathematics module on population dynamics.
G The University of California, which has a huge reputation to uphold, said that there had been no dumbing down in the design of the course.
H Millions of students sign up for online education courses each year.
New types of university courses
The boundaries between education and entertainment are beginning to blur, and a new type of learning, in which education merges with entertainment, is emerging – ‘edutainment’. (1) __________. But now US television company AMC has teamed up with the University of California to produce an online course based on the TV show, The Walking Dead, which features apost-apocalyptic world ridden with zombies.
With an audience of 10 million, student numbers for the course are expected to be in the hundreds of thousands. (2) ____________.
Academics from the University of California say that the online course will be a ‘legitimate educational experience’ and tackle serious issues from the fields of science, public health, nutrition, psychology and sociology. (3) _________. However, students will gain no formal qualifications or credits on successful completion of the course.
(4) _________. It insisted that all modules had been made as academically rigorous as those taught on the university grounds. One lecturer in social science stated that the university already used contemporary media examples to make theories more relevant to students, and this course was merely taking this concept one step further. ‘The curriculum is very real,’ says Josh Coates, head of Infrastructure and designer of the online platform. (5) __________. ‘The fact that the context is this fictional world of an apocalypse is incidental. This course gives us the opportunity to educate people about the science of disasters.’
The market for massive open online courses, or MOOCs, is rapidly expanding. (6) _________. However, millions fail to complete the courses, suggesting that they pose a real challenge to online learners. Part of this experiment is to find out whether the power of television can reduce the high drop-out rate characteristic of MOOCS.
The university is taking this opportunity to hone the way it delivers online courses. (7) _________. With the increasing demand for online courses, these are issues that universities looking to invest in online learning are increasingly having to face.