Citizens have been forced to seclude themselves in their homes to protect their lives and those of their loved ones. This has resulted in the generation of large spaces of monotonous time, which were previously dedicated to moving from one place to another, and which, on many occasions today, have been used to finish that Netflix series that had been pending for several months. People thus find a way to overcome boredom, in addition to the anguish generated by the high uncertainty that is experienced as a result of this pandemic.
However, for some the marathon begins to become monotonous again, and there are those who have found ways, we could say, more productive to take advantage of time and we are not exactly talking about the work aspect, since, as if that were not enough, that is also something that It is among the concerns of many.
I just graduated from my 4 week Ancient Philosophy course with the University of Pennsylvania (@Penn). I know... my hobbies are very impractical, but it took a lot of hours after the kids were asleep. Thank you Plato and predecessors for all the "fun" over the past month! pic.twitter.com/cFTCXDjliX
- Shakira (@shakira) April 23, 2020
Shakira has fun studying
That is why, when Shakira proudly showed on her social networks the diploma she received for the completion of her MOOC course in Philosophy, she immediately aroused the interest of thousands of people around the world who could see how someone, at the level of exposure, success and relevance of the Colombian singer, she saw in a virtual short studio, a reason for happiness and pride.
People today are looking for ways to distract their minds and many are seeing in virtual education the way to do it, also with an added value: to acquire new knowledge.
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But it is not just a perception. Searches related to virtual education courses have skyrocketed in the last two months, as evidenced by the exponential growth of traffic on 2 of the most popular platforms globally, which offer virtual courses or MOOCs, such as the one studied by Shakira.
MOOCs courses you may like:
Growth of web traffic on e-learning platforms during the covid-19 pandemic
Image credits: SimilarWeb
This is demonstrated by the figures offered by the portal SimilarWeb, specialized in offering information on estimates of web traffic of any site on the Internet. In the case of Udemy, which before the month of February, had an average of 75.5 million monthly visits, went on to have 93 million visits in March and in April it reached 122 million visits. An increase of 32% only between March and April. Coursera It has also seen a notable rise in visits to its online education portal. While the average number of visits before the start of the pandemic stood at 26 million monthly visits, in March, coinciding with the start of preventive isolation measures in most countries, it rose to 45 million and in the month of April it stood at 74 million monthly visits.
Virtual education platforms have been aware that they can play a fundamental role in this crisis and in cases such as Coursera, they have taken decisive steps by offering nearly 90% of their course library, so that universities around the planet that they wish, they can enroll their students and even their teaching and administrative staff to the program Coursera Campus.
Shakira's Pride
The stir caused by Shakira was also mixed with even somewhat negative reactions when she received criticism for the fact that she was celebrating the graduation of a course that had taken her a few weeks to complete. But if Shakira, an artist who is known on half the planet, with all the possibilities of accessing the best education in the world, felt happy and proud to finish her MOOC course in Philosophy, why shouldn't anyone else feel the same? ?
In fact, Shakira's pride could be that she was indeed getting the best education in the world. Let's see: the course that Shakira studied was "Ancient Philosophy: Plato and his predecessors" offered by the University of Pennsylvania. The University of Pennsylvania is among the best universities in the world. For example, in the Shanghai University Ranking 2019 is in position No. 17, and in the QS Ranking 2020 at position No. 15.
POSITION UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA IN WORLD RANKINGS
Image credits: www.shanghairanking.com and www.topuniversities.com
Additionally, let's review who is the teacher or instructor who developed this short course. Susan Sauve Meyer She is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. She was chair of the Department of Philosophy from 2008 to 2015. She studied at the University of Toronto (BA 1982) and Cornell University (PhD 1987). Throughout her career she has written several books related to Philosophy. It is evident that someone of those academic qualities is more than accredited and qualified to offer quality educational content on Shakira's topic of interest.
Image credit: Coursera.org. Instructor profile Susan Sauvé Meyer
Of course, the study of Shakira is not a postgraduate study, which due to time, dedication and depth has much more academic weight, and that is a fact. However, having the possibility of receiving a class with the characteristics of interactivity and content quality. like those that an e-Learning platform Coursera can offer, it is a privilege that is certainly rightly valued by the award-winning artist. That whoever is reading this, regardless of her economic, ideological and educational condition, can have that same access is something simply extraordinary.
Shakira's pride is not free and should set a precedent on what it means to study MOOC courses, such as those offered by platforms like Coursera, and how we can get out of this difficult situation, in which we have to stay longer in our homes, an expensive kinder and more positive, by finding that space that we did not have before, to take advantage of it, optimize it and live new enriching experiences.
What did you think of Shakira's attitude with her Philosophy Mooc course? Do you think it is a good use of time at home to dedicate it to acquiring new knowledge and skills? Leave us your comments
