Group items tagged

Blog post comparing xMooc model with large scale distance education model like the UK Open University. Suggesting amnesia is an issue in networked learning

Collection of pointers to various news releases, interviews and opinions about the recent rise of Coursera with numerous universities joining the ranks.

A Stanford Math Professor blogging his development of a MOOC

A coursera (one of the commercial MOOC providers) course starting next year.  Signed up for it.

Infographic giving a summary of MOOCs

A good brief overview of MOOCs with an argument connecting them to CoPs.

A short post the summarises the "war" between traditional hierarchica/factory-like approaches to education (almost all formal education institutions) and the more de-centarlised network-based approach characeterised by cMOOCs (the original MOOC model). This is a challenge you (and I) face in trying to bring network ideas into formal education. The link to Dave Cormier's work in the comments is a good one, I recommend following it up.

The xMOOC approach - which is the label for Coursera and most of the "AI" driven MOOCs - is taken a very automated approach. The idea that algorithms and automation can help. Personally, I think this is an incomplete foundation for learning. For me networked learning is better based on the idea of using technologies to help/augment people, rather than remove them from the process. The cMOOC approach is more along those lines, but has only started to scratch the surface.

I wonder whether different kinds of MOOCs are more suited to different contexts or to different disciplines, or even to different learning styles or aptitudes? For me, the more ad hoc nature of a cMOOC approach seems somewhat incomplete also. There are times when I'd rather put myself in the hands of a trusted, experienced guide, and if this guide has recognised the common pitfalls on the trail - through algorithms and automation - all the better. I wonder if there's room for a blended approach. Aren't you using algorithms and automation to grade our work for this course, David?