MOOCs and Liberal Education

From the executive director of Quality Matters

We should be talking to other countries to see what they want before forcing our open American education on them...interesting read.

Watters has a compelling argument for the rewriting of MOOC history. Fascinating read.

This is indeed fascinating! I find myself feeling a little silly that I didn't already know more about the work of people like Siemens and Downes, though I've started learning bits here and there as a product of my participation in our discussion group :) And it bothers me that publications like Wired, The NYT, and the Chronicle are complicit in handing us a warped sense of the history of online learning. But I do feel like "MOOC" as a term (like all terms) has meaning through its circulation and use, and as such may have been hijacked in some senses but may be "naturally evolving" in others. What I'm certain we do need is more contextualizing pieces from the folks who know - folks like Siemens, Downes, and Watters - so I'm glad she wrote it.

A fine talk (and must have been delightfully rude in that setting). Aren't you guys glad we began this program with the xMOOC/cMOOC distinction?

An article that gives Downes credit for the first oMOOC (original MOOC).

An earlier article by Watters...

A remarkably worthwhile podcast episode, discussing digital divide issues, support for mobile phones in MOOCs, and online pedagogy.

Corey Davis' thoughts about what makes an online course good, and what makes it "open", should be worth following.

That's a big step for xMOOCs!

The comments at the bottom are interesting...

Could be a useful doc. Lots of interviews. Very Harvard-centric.

Not that I signed into their FB page (!) but thought I would share this...