250 MOOCs and Counting: One Man’s Educational Journey

If the MOOC movement has faded, nobody told Jima Ngei. Mr. Ngei, who lives in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, has completed and passed 250 MOOCs, all through Coursera, since September 2012. His self-styled education has included courses in English common law and Chinese history, data science and Latin American culture, social epidemiology and the life of Thomas Jefferson, to name a few. (Nikki Garcia, a spokeswoman for Coursera, confirms that he has passed 248 courses, 83 of them with distinction, and Mr. Ngei says he just passed two more.)

Mr. Ngei, who went to college but didn’t graduate, says he has worked as an artist, a secretary to a tribal king, and an occasional consultant and producer of school-management software for elementary and secondary schools. Now unemployed, he volunteers as a community teaching assistant for Coursera courses.

MOOCs, he says, have given him a high-quality education that he never could have imagined, and a new outlook on life. Mr. Ngei discussed his experiences via email with Carolyn Mooney; here is an edited version of their conversation.

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How did you happen to take your first MOOC, and what was it?

My love for MOOCs began when I started accessing materials from MIT OpenCourseWare. Then, two and a half years ago, I attended a social event and tried to join in a conversation but discovered I could barely understand what people were talking about. I realized I had to get re-educated fast — and soon. I also perceived my lower socioeconomic status more glaringly than ever.

I enrolled in two edX courses: “Circuits and Electronics” and “CS50x: Intro to Computer Science.” But I couldn’t complete either, because of the high bandwidth demands. Next I took a Udacity course, but I found the complete absence of deadlines and social space difficult to work with. Then I discovered Coursera and completed “Introduction to Operations Management” and “Organizational Analysis” during the fall of 2012.

You managed to complete well over 200 MOOCs, and you earned statements of accomplishment, which many Coursera courses award those who meet the course requirements, for 233 of them. What inspired you to keep going?

Taking MOOCs through Coursera was the only way I could get a high-quality education, and I had this unrelenting fear that this miracle of free access might evaporate soon.

How did you do it logistically? Taking so many courses in that period sounds as if it could be a full-time job.

I think it actually becomes easier as you do more courses. You start making connections across different fields of learning. Typically I spend a day doing lecture-video downloads (because of my slow Internet, which is the biggest waste of time, although it is a form of rest in itself). Then I spend three or four days watching videos, and finally, on Sunday mornings (the best Internet window), I take all my quizzes at once — maybe five to 20 or more. Within a few hours I am done. In courses that require peer assessments, I almost always struggle to meet deadlines. Sometimes I don’t even have time to read over my submission, since I may have only minutes to beat the submission deadlines while praying the Internet will hold up.

What are some of the other challenges of taking an online course in the part of Africa where you live?

Difficulties include inadequate electric power, intermittent Internet access with high costs, poor access to computers, little time to study after spending the whole day trying to earn a minimum living, challenges in understanding Western accents (the subtitles greatly help), a gap between African and Western education standards, and little understanding of plagiarism and copyright.

During one course, I described my frustrations trying to complete a set of three exams on the course forum: One Saturday there was no public power supply (a common experience), so I ran my portable petrol generator on my tablet to prep for exams the next day. Unfortunately I ran out of petrol late at night. After I found a peddler who sold me some the next morning, I started charging my tablet.

An hour later I had a 20-percent charge, which I hoped could take me through the three-part, 90-minute exam. I couldn’t get an Internet connection until noon (too much cloud cover), so I quickly finished one part. I tried to submit, but the Internet failed repeatedly, and I had to redo the exam four times. I had the same problem with the second and third parts, but finally I submitted all three.

On the positive side, I found MOOC instructors much more responsive to students’ needs than is typically the case in Nigeria.

What were some of your favorite MOOCs?

I took courses in the humanities, law, finance, and many other fields. I think almost all are truly magnificent, content-wise. The grading can be a different story, though. The best-graded course I have ever taken was “Epigenetic Control of Gene Expression.” The final was a peer-graded essay. However, the questions were so cleverly constructed that you were, in fact, doing a comprehensive course synthesis. Each week we had to read a relevant scientific paper and answer a few quiz questions, which really solidified the learning.

What I dislike most are strict grading policies based on when you complete the work and not necessarily how well you have learned it. One course, for example, docked 5 percent of your grade for each day you were late.

In the United States, the MOOC hype has been fading amid questions about financial sustainability and reports that many people who take a MOOC never finish. But you have said MOOCs made a real difference in your life. Can you elaborate?

MOOCs have given me a sense of agency and empowerment and a chance to catch up educationally with the rest of the world without incurring huge costs for tuition and travel, etc. Over this period I met many new and wonderful people online. I have learned about other places, periods, and cultures; improved my communication skills; and acquired cutting-edge knowledge in many areas of human endeavor, from music to medicine to business. I have also met Socrates, Kierkegaard, Jefferson, Primo Levi, the Chinese poet Su Dongpo, and Lucy (our hominid ancestor).

I have hopefully become a much better, more informed, and useful global citizen — all without ever physically leaving my apartment.

After taking some mental-health MOOCs, I self-diagnosed myself as suffering from severe depression. For years I had suffered from low self-esteem. I found that taking MOOCs was something I could do. Learning became fun and challenging, but also empowering and useful. I felt so reinvigorated and full of life.

You mentioned you have been unemployed. Do you think the education you have acquired will help you find a job?

I think of MOOCs as not merely helping me to fit within a particular job role, but more about finding a career. I have been helping others in my community take MOOCs, and passing on to them the free vouchers I receive as a community teaching assistant to have the courses officially certified. To support MOOCs, I volunteer as a community teaching assistant, course tester, and mentor.

What’s next for you?

I don’t know. I spend many sleepless nights thinking over it. What scares me most is a future where there are no more MOOCs.

Jima Ngei made this video about his life in Nigeria last year: