MOOC

Draft

Introduction

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) came into existence into the late 2010s. As of July 2012 one could distinguish several forms with respect to learning materials, learning design and certification. Initially, MOOCs were tied to connectivism and included some precise model of "2.0" education.

As of 2013, it seems that today MOOCs most often are a kind of publicity tool for universities (why not...). They also build on top of the (failed) let's help the third world with "open courseware" initiatives, by adding short videos, some participant interaction and some light-weight certification, i.e. introduce a standard "lecturing" + exercising model. A new evolution is that anything is renamed "Mooc", just like anything became e-learning at some point. Good for current acceptance of what is good & visibility and therefore good for funding, but it's confusing...

Types of learning materials:

• Free on-line homogenous courseware that has a much older tradition (e.g. wikiversity, MIT open courseware, etc.)
• Assembly of various free on-line resources into a structure reading list
• On-the fly construction of materials while the course is underway.

Types of learning design:

• Read and/or watch videos, do quizes and exercices
• Like above, but interactions between participants in forums and on other channels
• Like above, but some light-weight tutoring (e.g. most interesting forum questions answered by a tutor)

Types of certification:

• None
• Informal certificates after completetion
• Reuse of MOOC contents in formal education (e.g. the ones that are produced by major universities for their own students)

Types of MOOCs:

• xMOOCs, the dominant model are a combination of educational TV + study materials + a bit of social web + pulse (weekly lessons and exercises) + a touch of deschooling. Students intake some information, then hopefully engage in doing something while getting a little bit of help from peer learners.
• cMOOCs, the original model is based on connectivist theory, e.g. see What is a connectivist MOOC?
• All sorts of distance teaching classes that have been opened and renamed "MOOCs" in order to please the powers....

See also:

• Open educational resources

Links

Introductions

• Massive open online course (Wikipedia). This article also explains the original Cormier/Alexander/Downes/Siemens perspective.

How to

• The Mooc Guide (Editor: Stephen Downes)
• Mooc Guide
• 40 Tips for running an Open Online Course or MOOC from those who have experienced them by Simon Cross, sept. 2012.
• Massive Open Online Courses: Setting Up (StartToMOOC, Part 1) to Adding Learning Analytics to Your Open Online Cloud Course or MOOC (Part 5) by Inge de Waard, 2012.

Discussions

• What MIT Should Have Done By Dan W. Butin / June 2012. This mag article introduces a welcome critical note.

• The MOOC-Led Meritocracy, The Chronicle, August 23, 2012, By Kevin Carey
• Remediation MOOcs in secondary school (EduCause)

• MOOC’s and the McDonaldization of Global Higher Education By Jason Lane and Kevin Kinser, September 28, 2012, The Chronicle of Higher Education.

• Why MOOCs Will Not Save Universities by Stefan Popenici, October 15, 2012. Blog post.

• Much Ado About MOOCs, EdSurge, Mai 2013.

• COHERE 2013. Small is beautiful and MOOCs as symptoms

• Forget MOOCs.

• A MOOC Delusion: Why Visions to Educate the World Are Absurd, by Ghanashyam Sharma, The chronicle of higher education, oct 31, 2013.

• The World is Not Flat by Ry Rivard, April 25, 2013.

• intellectual neo-colonialism

Reflective experience reports

Lerner side

• MOOC Week five, and the peer review turns
• What I'm learning from Harvard: A MOOC story - Part 1
• What I'm learning from Harvard: A MOOC story - Part 2

teacher side

• Mooctalk by Keith Devlin, Quote:“I gave my first free, open, online math course. I repeated it in spring 2013, then in fall 2013, and in February I am giving it a fourth time, each time with changes. This blog chronicles my experiences as they happen.”. This is one of the smarter XMoocs ... and it's neither hype nor propaganda.

MOOC sites

• mooc.ca (the original)
• Coursera The "Stanford" startup
• Udacity
• MITX (pilot, now part of edX).
• edX (Harward/MIT/Berkeley)
• Open Course Builder (Google)
• mooc.org A joint EdX/Google initiative (for 2014)

Older stuff

See Open educational resources, which just focused on study material, whereas MOOCs include some light-weight tutoring plus a "pace".

MOOCs for educational technology

• Learning Design for a 21st Century Curriculum" MOOC. First edition is planned from 10.1 to 13.2 2013

Bibliography

• Cormier, D., & Siemens, G. (2010). Through the open door: Open courses as research, learning, and engagement. Educause, 45 (4), 30-39. HTML.

• Carson, Stephen and Jan Philipp Schmidt; Academic Matters: The Massive Online Professor, The Journal of Higher Education Abstract/HTML

• Fini, A.. The Technological Dimension of a Massive Open Online Course: The Case of the CCK08 Course Tools. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, North America, 10, nov. 2009. Available at: <http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/643/1402>. Date accessed: 19 Nov. 2012.

• de Waard, I., Koutropoulos, A., Gallagher, M. S., Keskin, N., Hogue, R., Rodriguez, O. C., Abajian, S. (2011) mLearning and MOOCs in understanding Chaos, Emergence and Complexity in Education: The search for equilibrium and a new educational order. IRRODL, November 2011

• de Waard, I., Gallagher, M. S., Hogue, R., Koutropoulos, A., Rodriguez, O.C., Keskin, N., Abajian, S. (2011). Exploring the MOOC format as a pedagogical approach for mLearning. Proceedings of mLearn2011.

• John Mak, S.F.; R. Williams and J. Mackness, Blogs and Forums as Communication and Learning Tools in a MOOC, Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Networked Learning (2010)

• Kop. Rita, (2011). The challenges to connectivist learning on open online networks: Learning experiences during a massive open online course, The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, Vol 12, No 3. Abstract/HTML/PDF

• Levy. D, (2011). Lessons Learned from Participating in a Connectivist Massive Online Open Course (MOOC).

• Mackness, J., Mak, S.F.J. & Williams, R. (2009). The Ideals and Reality of Participating in a MOOC. Networked Learning Conference 2010, Denmark.

• Masters, K. (2011). A Brief Guide To Understanding MOOCs. The Internet Journal of Medical Education Volume 1 Number 2. Retrievable from web http://www.ispub.com/journal/the_internet_journal_of_medical_education/volume_1_number_2_71/article/a-brief-guide-to-understanding-moocs.html (accessed 29 June 2011)

• McAuley. A, B. Stewart, G, Siemens and D. Cormier. (2010). The MOOC Model for Digital Practice (2010)

• Ravenscroft, Andrew, (2011) Dialogue and Connectivism: A New Approach to Understanding and Promoting Dialogue-Rich Networked Learning International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning Vol. 12.3. Abstract/HTML/PDF/ePub

• Siemens George, (2008). Learning and Knowing in Networks: Changing roles for Educators and Designers Presented to ITFORUM for Discussion.

• Siemens, G. (2005). Connectivism: A learning theory for a digital age. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 2(1), 3–10.

• Vickery, Graham; Sacha Wunsch-Vincent (2007). Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Participative web and user-created content: web 2.0, wikis and social networking

• Walsh, Taylor (2011). Unlocking The Gates: How and Why Leading Universities Are Opening Up Access To Their Courses; Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-14874-8