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I'm sure everyone is familiar with this site, but I think we may sometimes take that fact for granted as Edutopia is a great site to find information, strategies, address a problem or get idea on how to make things work better. The information is presented in an easy to understand way that makes it especially helpful when you are venturing into unknown waters.

I always appreciate the reminder that this site exists. It is wonderful, full of content, and a great source of information!

I always find myself starting with this website when asked to research. I like the articles I find here because they are relatively short and to-the-point. Also, the research is current and valid. Edutopia is a great start and resource for fresh information in education.

I was most interested in this website in section 5.4.9, where the author details the strengths and weaknesses of MOOCs, specifically the weaknesses. MOOCs have high registration numbers, but only a small number actually finish the course. They are expensive to produce and they are used mostly by those with higher education levels. Higher levels of learning are difficult to assess and so "credit" becomes difficult or impossible to grant. Copyright issues can also be a problem.

I found myself spending most of my time reading the strengths and weakness of MOOCs located at the end of the article. I found several articles that listed only the strengths, or only the weaknesses. I appreciated this article because it examined both.

Siemens is known for his theory of Connectivism. In his TedTalk, he opens with his frustration in the solutions for today's problems in education. George shares his limited view and connectedness when growing up in Mexico. He later states "our focus in education should be to collapse tot he point of a connection." George is worried about society's views of raising and teaching to the corporate setting, rather than being vital contributors to society, all in a connected way.

This case study examines which factors play into a successful MOOC (Massive Open Online Course). Some of these factors include peer interaction, professor engagement, and accessible course resources. The researchers concluded that these factors are as important in MOOCs as they are in traditional classroom settings. The article implies that classes based on the philosophy of connectivism are effective, but a number of factors must be taken into account when planning instruction.

It is difficult to maintain continuous student engagement in a traditional class setting. It is doubly so when the setting is online. This study researched what characteristics promote student engagement in online classes. Course takers identified 5 characteristics of MOOCs that encouraged their continued participation in the course. For the most part, courses that focus on problems and clear solutions, contain high levels of peer interaction and teacher participation, and include many active learning activities with accompanying course resources are well-liked by MOOC participants. The authors are certainly right to suggest that future research examine courses that are not as highly participatory as the MOOCs that are focused on in this study. I wondered as I read the article if the same level of engagement can be seen in other courses.

As this study emphasized, online courses have a unique challenge when compared to traditional brick-and-mortar courses because learners are physically separated from an instructor by a computer screen. Instructors do not just have to overcome motivation barriers, but also administrative obstacles. The article's "Table 2: Summary of Strategies Used" presented some well-designed methods to increase instructor accessibility---from the "Code Clinic" to weekly live interactive discussions.

In this article Mark McBride, a librarian at Buffalo State College, discusses the recent changes that he made to his information literacy course. He talks about how he incorporated constructivist principles and problem-based learning activities into his course structure. In the process of making these changes, however, he discovered that he is really incorporating connectivism into his classroom. He makes the case that librarians should begin to adopt connectivist principles when teaching information literacy concepts. Additionally, he acknowledges that if librarians are going to move in the direction of the connectivist theory, the Association of College and Research Libraries must take a look at its information literacy standards and update them to acknowledge the ways in which learners can share and create information through the use of social media.