Group items tagged

The MOOC Business Plan- With millions of students taking high-quality MOOCs for free, schools and course providers are searching for a viable business model. Editorial: MOOC Shake- MOOCs will change higher education radically, but not in the way we expect right now. Assessment Tools for MOOCs- As MOOCs are made available for credit, scalable assessment options are essential. Building a Sense of Community in MOOCs- Massive class sizes can breed feelings of isolation, but they also enable more student interaction. Blended MOOCs: The Best of Both Worlds?- Combining in-class instruction with high-quality MOOCs may resolve some of the hurdles facing xMOOCs, but questions about cost and the impact on faculty remain unanswered. Watch video: Catheryn Cheal, AVP and senior academic technology officer at San Jose State, discusses how the school adapted a course for use in a blended MOOC. The Rise of MOOCs… What does it mean for higher education? Watch video: Cathy Sandeen, VP of education attainment and innovation at ACE, talks about the potential of MOOCs to increase the number of Americans gaining a post-secondary degree. cMOOCs: Putting Collaboration First- Alternative MOOC models are fostering creativity and collaboration with peers. How to Convert a Class Into a MOOC- The sheer size and diversity of the student body in a MOOC require a new approach to teaching. C-Level- The role of MOOCs in learner-initiated learning. MOOC News & Analysis- Georgia Tech's MOOC Degree

The purpose of this document is two-fold: - to offer an online history of the development of the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) - to use that history to describe major elements of a MOOC Each chapter of this guide looks at one of the first MOOCs and some early influences. It contains these parts: - a description of the MOOC, what it did, and what was learned - a description of the element of MOOC theory learned in the offering of the course - practical tools that can be used to develop that aspect of a MOOC - practical tips on how to be successful Contribute to this Book You are invited to contribute. If you participated in a MOOC, add a paragraph describing your experience (you can sign your name to it, so we know it's a personal story). If you know of resources or can add information about an element of MOOC theory, add to or edit the text that already exists. If you know of tools, provide a link to the tool, a short description, and your assessment of the tool. If you have a tip, add the tip. In order to participate, please email or message your contact details, and we'll you to the list of people who can edit pages. Send your request to stephen@downes.ca

Read the full text - download available. Issue is MOOC as a "tool" for educators and learners, not as an end in itself - so assessment strategies must be above and beyond test scores, satisfaction and completion rates.

Don't get seduced by retention/persistence rates - it's about the design principles, stupid!

Open field notes for a book to be written for Johns Hopkins Univ Press on trends in education, inc. MOOCs. One post is entitled: "the real disruption isn't online courses, it's their business model" George Siemens, Bonnie Stewart, and Dave Cormier have been contracted to write for Johns Hopkins University Press, and they expect the book to be published in mid-2013. They started the first Massive Open Online Course (MOOCs), together with Stephen Downes, in 2008.

"... massiveness and low teaching involvement during delivery stages is one the biggest challenges for MOOC design"

Begins September 2011, the "Mother of All MOOCs" by Downes and Siemen.

Ashton Anderson and Jure Leskovec (Stanford) Daniel Huttenlocher and Jon Kleinberg (Cornell) re Coursera students' activities/user rates: "engagement taxonomy" 5 different categories based on student interactions with the platform (http://www.openeducationeuropa.eu/en/news/mooc-study-creates-new-taxonomy-engagement): Bystanders are registered for the course, but their total activity is below a very low threshold. Collectors primarily download lectures, but don't participate much. Viewers watch lectures, handing in few if any assignments Solvers hand in assignments for a grade, viewing few if any lectures All-Rounders balance the watching of lectures with the handing in of assignments QUESTION: what about the way-finders - those who help create signposts for others to follow as learners navigate the course? or the web-makers - assisters/facilitators who help craft communities among learners?

interview with Stephen Downes and George Siemens

9 week free, open and online course designed for higher ed community but may also be of interest to secondary educators or home schoolers. Expecting people to dedicate 3-10 hrs a week starting January 10 and running through March 13, 2013.

CHE will be updating this page regularly

infographic re big initiatives looks great

Mike James urges programmers to adapt gaming techniques to allow the regular-Joe academic expert to include a simulation quickly and easily into a learning experience (instead of videotaping them as they present it via words or pre-produced visuals)

by Judith A. Pirani, a consultant at the EDUCAUSE Center for Analysis and Research (ECAR) and president of Sheep Pond Associates.

Sean Michael Morris sez "Coursera is silly" - same-old, same-old beast not far away from the correspondence course of the early 20th century or the educational TV of the 1960s

A terrific checklist for anyone looking to "build" a course: 1. Plan for 30 minutes 2. Develop content without technology (clarify goals, assumptions about students, objectives, assessments, learning outcome artifacts, sequencing, validation) 3. Implement your content using technology (inc prep to evaluate the efficacy of your course) 4. Pilot with your target audience