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Heather Kurto

Making Sense of MOOCs: Musings in a Maze of Myth, Paradox and Possibility | Daniel | Jo... - 0 views

  • The first course carrying the name MOOC was offered in 2008, so this is new phenomenon. Second, the pedagogical style of the early courses, which we shall call cMOOCs, was based on a philosophy of connectivism and networking. This is quite distinct from the xMOOCs now being developed by elite US institutions that follow a more behaviourist approach. Third, the few academic studies of MOOCs are about the earlier offerings because there has been no time for systematic research on the crop of 2012 xMOOCs. Analysis of the latter has to be based on a large volume of press articles and blogs. Fourth, commentary on MOOCs includes thinly disguised promotional material by commercial interests (e.g. Koller, 2012) and articles by practitioners whose perspective is their own MOOC courses.
  • The term MOOC originated in Canada. Dave Cormier and Bryan Alexander coined the acronym to describe an open online course at the University of Manitoba designed by George Siemens and Stephen Downes. The course, Connectivism and Connective Knowledge, was presented to 25 fee-paying students on campus and 2,300 other students from the general public who took the online class free of charge (Wikipedia, 2012a).
  • Can xMOOCs make money?
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  • technology has been about to transform education for a long time
  • In 1841 the 'inventor of the blackboard was ranked among the best contributors to learning and science, if not among the greatest benefactors to mankind'. A century later, in 1940, the motion picture was hailed the most revolutionary instrument introduced into education since the printing press. Television was the educational revolution in 1957. In 1962 it was programmed learning and in 1967 computers. Each was labelled the most important development since Gutenberg's printing press.
  • But first, we agree with Bates (2012) that what MOOCs will not do is address the challenge of expanding higher education in the developing world. It may encourage universities there, both public and private, to develop online learning more deliberately, and OER from MOOC courses may find their way, alongside OER from other sources, into the teaching of local institutions.
  • He notes (Siemens, 2012) that 'MOOCs are really a platform' and that the platforms for the two types of MOOC that we described at the beginning of the paper are substantially different because they serve different purposes. In Siemens' words 'our cMOOC model emphasises creation, creativity, autonomy and social networking learning.
  • teaching methods 'are based on very old and out-dated behaviourist pedagogy, relying primarily on information transmission, computer-marked assignments and peer assessment'.
  • Another myth is that computers personalise learning. Bates (2012) again: 'No, they don't. They allow students alternative routes through material and they allow automated feedback but they do not provide a sense of being treated as an individual.
  • With such support MOOCs provide a great opportunity to develop new pedagogy. In a world of abundant content, courses can draw from a pool of open educational resources (OER) and provide their students with better and more varied teaching than individual instructors could develop by themselves. The University of Michigan (2012) (which made history by using OER from Africa in its medical school) uses OER extensively in its Coursera course Internet History, Technology and Security. UC Berkeley (2012) draws extensively on OER in its course on Quantum Computing.
  • pedagogy is not a familiar word on the xMOOC campuses. It is a myth that professors distinguished by their research output are competent to create online courses without help.
  • This, in turn, will put a focus on teaching and pedagogy to which these institutions are unaccustomed, which will be healthy. At the same time academics all around the world will make judgements about the intellectual quality and rigour of the institutions that have exposed themselves in this way.
  • With such support MOOCs provide a great opportunity to develop new pedagogy. In a world of abundant content, courses can draw from a pool of open educational resources (OER) and provide their students with better and more varied teaching than individual instructors could develop by themselves.
Amy M

MOOC Mythbuster - What MOOCs are and what they aren't | online learning insights - 0 views

  • motivation
  • See below for the chart I put together which attempts to clarify the differences between MOOCs, Online Course and traditional f2f courses for college credit.
  • e wonderful things, but they should not be confused with a higher education.” (Kim, 2012).  With all due respect to Mr. Kim, he’s got it wrong – the point of MOOCs is the dialogue, the interaction the construction of knowledge and re-purposing and ‘feeding forward’. This is where learning lives and breathes.
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    Myths of MOOCS
Amy M

Research Study: Self-regulated learning in massive open online courses « Lear... - 0 views

  • How do participants plan, implement and reflect upon their learning goals within Change MOOC?What strategies do they use to self-regulate their learning?What tools do they use to self-regulate their learning? How do participants draw upon collective knowledge – people and other environmental resources – when planning, implementing and reflecting upon their learning goals within Change MOOC? What are the environmental factors, in particular those related to the coherence of the information space and structure of the MOOC, that constrain or enable SRL? What are the similarities and differences in the use of SRL strategies between learners who have diverse self-regulatory profiles? For example, do learners who score higher on self-regulatory skill measures use significantly different goal planning, implementation and reflection strategies than participants who score lower on the SRL measures?
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    research on self-regulated learning and MOOCs
Amy M

Discussion of MOOCs: more links and questions - 0 views

  • Others will offer MOOCs because it’s an effective way of getting out an important message or to raise awareness about certain topics.
  • The retention and lurker behavior described above adds another differentiation to the previous list.
  • haviourist way it lends itself to automation. Shouldn’t the face-to-face class have been doing something different
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  • ays a lot about the quality of face-to-face teaching, as well as the online course. If you design a course in a very cognitive-
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    More information about why MOOCs
Amy M

elearnspace › learning, networks, knowledge, technology, community - 0 views

shared by Amy M on 04 Jun 12 - Cached
  • What is the theory that underpins our moocs?
  • Interactions are distributed, multi-spaced.
  • Fostering autonomous and self-regulated learners. At the core of the MOOCs that I’ve been involved with is a power question: what can learners do for themselves with digital tools and networks? MOOCs foster not only a particular type of knowledge in a particular area of inquiry; they also foster a self-regulated, motivated, and autonomous learner. When an instructor does for learners what learners should do for themselves, the learning experience is incomplete. Developing capacity for learning and the mindsets needed to be successful learners is a central attribute of our MOOCs. We are not only concerned with the epistemological development of learners (knowing stuff) – we target ontological development (being a certain type of person) as well.
Julie DelPapa

MOOC - 1 views

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    What is a MOOC?
Hedy Lowenheim

Master's Degree Is New Frontier of Study Online - NYTimes.com - 0 views

  • Although it is just one degree at one university, the prospect of a prestigious low-cost degree program has generated great interest. Some educators think the leap from individual noncredit courses to full degree programs could signal the next phase in the evolution of MOOCs — and bring real change to higher education.
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    The affordable price for this online master's degree in computer science from a very reputable institution is refreshing to see. If the program is successful hopefully it will lead to others like it. The program will be MOOC-based.
Amy M

Creativity & Multicultural Communication - 0 views

shared by Amy M on 04 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • CMC11  is an open online course that over 13 weeks explores the domain of Creativity and global communication in multidisciplinary venues. Participation is open to everyone and there are no fees or subscriptions required. Please make sure you register here to receive the daily newsletter, NewPosts.
    • Amy M
       
      There are also some youtube videos at the bottom that might be of interest.
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    An example of a MOOC offered through a college.  Some students received college credit.
Amy M

Virtual and Artificial, but 58,000 Want Course - NYTimes.com - 0 views

  • Stanford University on artificial intelligence, to be taught this fall by two leading experts from Silicon Valley, has attracted more than 58,000 students around the globe — a class nearly four times the size of Stanford’s entire student body.
  • For example, the Khan Academy, which focuses on high school and middle school, intentionally turns the relationship of the classroom and homework upside down. Students watch lectures at home, then work on problem sets in class, where the teacher can assist them one on one.
  • Dr. Widom said that having Stanford courses freely available could both assist and compete with other colleges and universities.
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    An article about MOOCs and AI open courses, including Standford's.
Amy M

Observations about learning, knowledge and technology: Research publications on Massive... - 0 views

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    Reasearch on MOOCS
Amy M

European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning - 0 views

  • Agency and activity are required to thrive in a semi-autonomous learning environment mainly distributed on the Cloud, outside the scope of institutional educational support. It was clear from the research that learners have their own ideas on what type of activities would suit them, their life styles and their confidence levels, and the majority chose to be involved in aggregating, ‘remixing’ and sharing of information, without getting involved in the creative production stage. However, the majority of participants believed that the creative production of digital artifacts by some learners, and the discussions that followed on the network, inspired them in the development of ideas and in their learning.
  • it gave people the support they needed to feel comfortable and connected to other participants.
  • y using micro-blogging tools and discussion forums, inspired and motivated people into creating.
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    Research of creativity and motivation in a MOOC
Amy M

A pedagogy of abundance or a pedagogy to support human beings? Participant support on m... - 1 views

shared by Amy M on 08 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • Participants also highlighted positive aspects related to support received. Respondents to the PLENK2010 survey were appreciative of how the facilitators led without directing and also of the work and engagement provided by the facilitators. Thus, teaching presence, especially exemplified through course design and the type of facilitation, turned out to have a powerful effect on student perceptions of support, inclusiveness, and overall satisfaction with the course. The participants valued greatly the autonomy on connections and participation in networks: “We were given free choice and allowed autonomy about our ways to connect and participate in the network. I greatly value this approach to learning and working together.”
  • table, trusted, and valued, and where people can access and interact with resources and each other. The new roles that the teacher as facilitator needs to adopt in networked learning environments include aggregating, curating, amplifying, modelling, and persistently being present in coaching or mentoring.
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    Research on teacher presence in a MOOC
Amy M

Intro to AI - Introduction to Artificial Intelligence - Oct-Dec 2011 - 0 views

shared by Amy M on 17 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • The course will include feedback on progress and a statement of accomplishment.
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    A MOOC that involves little teacher interaction
Amy M

MOOCs, Large Courses Open to All, Topple Campus Walls - NYTimes.com - 0 views

  • Mr. Thrun sent the 23,000 students who completed the Artificial Intelligence course a PDF file (suitable for framing) by e-mail showing their percentile score, but not the Stanford name; 248 students, none from Stanford, earned grades of 100 percent.
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    Standford's AI course
b malczyk

Consortium of Colleges Takes Online Education to New Level - NYTimes.com - 0 views

  • registered 680,000 students in 43 courses
  • massive open online courses, or MOOCs, that are expected to draw millions of students and adult learners globally.
  • free online artificial intelligence course attracted 160,000 students from 190 countries.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • 40,000 students downloaded his videos
  • I had about 200 years’ worth of students in my class.” Professors say their in-class students bene
  • not want to give credit until somebody figures out how to solve the cheating problem
  • Grading presents some questions, too. Coursera’s humanities courses use peer-to-peer grading, with students first having to show that they can match a professor’s grading of an assignment, and then grade the work of five classmates, in return for which their work is graded by five fellow students. But, Ms. Koller said, what would happen to a student who cannot match the professor’s grading has not been determined.
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