Group items tagged

In the interest of exploring MOOCs and the various discussions they've given rise to, Hybrid Pedagogy will host MOOC MOOC: a mini-MOOC (if there is such a thing), a meta-MOOC (if they aren't all this already) -- a MOOC about MOOCs -- beginning on August 12. Over the course of one week, MOOC MOOC will explore the pedagogical approach, the sustainability of the form, and alternatives to MOOCs. Too many people are drinking the MOOC Kool-aid (or dumping it out hastily) when what we need to do is look closely at the Kool-aid to see what we can learn from it. At this point, MOOCs are all untapped potential, mostly misunderstood and only potentially gangrenous.

...scholars of international education have always warned against "a one-way transfer of educational materials from the rich north to the poor south will amount to a wave of 'intellectual neo-colonialism.'" But, again, because the MOOC movement is dominated by providers eyeing the world "market" for education, whatever they proclaim to be their motive, their attempts to make MOOCs "accessible" to international learners goes to show that they are either ignorant or unwilling to acknowledge geopolitical dynamics that shape learning experience on a global scale.

The academic conversation on MOOCs is starting to polarise in exactly the talking-past-one-another way that so many complex conversations evolve: with very smart points on either side, but not a lot of recognition that the validity of certain key points on one side does not undermine the validity of certain key points on the other. I regret this flattening of online learning into a simple binary of 'politically and financially motivated greed' on the one hand and 'an opportunity to find out more about learning' on the other. Some of both in different situations can be true.

"Taxonomy based on pedagogy ... it is important to define a taxonomy of MOOCs not from the institutional but the pedagogic perspective, by their learning functionality, not by their origins." via Donald Clark Plan B

The honeymoon with MOOCs is over. The reality check has finally arrived which was inevitable. MOOCs will not solve all the woes of higher education. It is unfortunate it had to be a class on how to design an online course; it was the Fundamentals of Online Education: Planning and Application [FOE] offered through Coursera that brought things to a screeching halt. But this experience can provide an opportunity for institutions to re-focus-identify the role and purpose of MOOCs and move forward with a thoughtful, purposeful strategy.

Each type of MOOC has all three elements (networks, tasks and content), but each has a goal that is dominant.

The Taming of the MOOC--With ePortfolio Evidence

I find it interesting how they only talk about ePortfolios as you having to "sign up" for them. Students in my course will have options to use Wordpress, Google Sites, etc. because these need to be public, but Evernote works as well. You don't have to use an expensive product to have an ePortfolio.

interesting idea for second-language learning MOOC, but where's the French?

Dr. Heather Farmakis shares some keys to successful online learning - especially as it relates to participation in MOOCs

Article explaining chaos theory in relation to MOOC participation

Stephen Downes was asked (along with Dave Cormier and George Siemens): "How might it be possible to show that cMOOCs are effective for learning, in the sense of providing evidence that institutions might accept so as to support opening up more courses to outside participants (a la ds106, Alec Couros' EC&I 831, etc.)? Or, more generally, providing evidence that participation in and facilitating cMOOCs is worthy of support by institutions... What I'm looking for are criteria one might use to say that a cMOOC is successful. What should participants be getting out of cMOOCs?"

"...an alternative means of categorising MOOCs, based on their key characteristics."

Good discussion of learning design in a MOOC.