MOOCs and Liberal Education

Critical analysis of MOOCs using video./

Various existing learning environments could scale to MOOC size and benefit learners by adding the social elements now missing, from citizen science to simulations, games, virtual reality, and augmented reality.

Useful stats.

A useful list.

Major followup study on MOOCs for learning.

Cautious optimism from admins.

"the task is to design a MOOC that leverages the best of both worlds - xMOOCs and cMOOCs."

I like the way the author breaks "disruption" into 3 chunks, two of which look more like "finding efficiencies" and are easier to understand, and one ("reconsidering our fundamental assumptions of what it means to educate and be educated") which is "profound and truly uncharted." His callout to the "atomistic" view of education, in opposition to a more holistic experience, was touched on by Ron Griggs in a keynote at a recent GLCA conference. It wasn't captured on video but I'd really like to push him to write it up for publication.

That was a fun and unusual piece. I, too, like the multi-leveled analysis. But I'm not seeing the unbundling happening.

Good description of running a cMOOC.

Interesting, useful breakdown of how learners respond to different video styles.

Seconded. I especially appreciate the way the author highlights the need to really think through the process of developing video content (as opposed to simply recording an existing experience), and the way he seems to imply that a great deal of effort ("invest heavily") will probably be required for the planning stage(s). So true.

Dang - I wanted to do this research! I recently completed Davidson's MOOC and was once again struck how the video presence matters. In her case, very little editing...which I actually found distracting (varying audio levels, bad lighting, etc.). I understand the desire to not overly produce but I think we want a level of professionalism. Very useful...thanks Bryan for finding it.

Not a lot of specifics yet, but this cMOOC sounds like it could be great for a lot of us interested in MOOCs and LE.

It does sound good. I'm looking forward to how it develops.

Interesting....

Another free, online academy.

Stephen Downes offers a nice, condensed take on MOOCs.

Interesting article about using MOOCs to identify likely teenagers for your campus.

Useful summary.

I like this idea that the MOOC may be something like the electronic version of the "trade book," in that it usefully exposes academic ideas to people outside academia. Combined with the idea in the Boyer reports that "public intellectual" work could be considered as "service" instead of research or teaching, and I think there's an interesting new way to consider MOOCs...

Important research on using MOOCs as class content.