Category Archives: MOOC
by jennymackness
The MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching (JOLT at http://jolt.merlot.org/) has released a Call for Papers for a special issue on Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), to be published in Summer (June) 2013.
The Guest Editors of the special issue are George Siemens (Athabasca University), Valerie Irvine (University of Victoria), and Jillianne Code (University of Victoria).
Proposals in the form of extended abstracts (500 words) are due on November 15, 2012, with full manuscripts due on January 31, 2013.
The full Call for Papers is available at the following URL: http://jolt.merlot.org/jolt_moocs_cfp.pdf
The Oxford Brookes FSLT12MOOC team is thinking about this. For me it raises again the question of what makes a good Abstract. In this case the …
Fantasy and science fiction: Eric Rabkinby Heli
I want to continue my blogging on the course ‘Fantasy and science fiction. The human mind. Our modern world’ by telling about our professor Eric Rabkin. His videos created the atmosphere needed to maintain motivation and hard work. He spoke to me and to everyone, from heart to heart. I learned a lot about literature as a science (this was my first course) but it was not the only point. Professor Rabkin has the ability to empower students, he helps to find the best inside us (how to say that better in English?)
In the discussion forums there are many threads owned to Eric Rabin. We want to thank him and should like to continue studies with him. The best.thread.ever. …
Fantasy and science fiction: peer feedbackby Heli
My course of Fantasy and science fictionis ending this weekend and it is time to analyze my experiences. I had to work very hard during these eight weeks. All the novels were new to me (never read those books in English) and I work slowly when I use English. Now I am tired and happy. The course worked well: our teacher Eric Rabkin is brilliant and the student community learned to support each others. This time I will handle the feedback I got from my peers. How did it function as a source of learning?
The feedback was organized so that everybody got feedback from four randomized, anonymous peers every week (after sending the feedback to four others). Peer …
Is structure counter to cMOOC philosophy?by jennymackness
This was a question that came out of our FSLT12 Research Review meeting today. We were discussing what we have found out about the ways in which people participated and learned in the FSLT12 MOOC - and the extent to which this was constrained by the structure and curriculum we designed into the MOOC.
These questions have been timely for me. I have been pondering for quite a few days now about the approach taken by George Siemens and Rory MGreal to their Openness in Education MOOC, which I signed up for.
I was completely baffled at the start of the MOOC on September 10thwhen there was nothing on the site. Apparently this was down to technical …
Fantasy and Science Fictionby Heli
A new episode in my life in the internet is going on; I study literature on the course‘Fantasy and Science Fiction. The Human Mind. Our Modern World’. This is my third week on the course and I am writing my essay about Edgar Allan Poe today. I took a break in writing and came here to tell why I am committed to these studies. All important things are excellent:
- the course is well organized and it helps to proceed in learning and monitoring with other participants
- the expert Eric Rabkin loves literature and languages and us, his students. I can feel it when watching his videos.
- the learning environment / platform is clear and everything works there, no problems
…
by Heli
Eleni Boursinou and Jenny Mackness are researchers and they want to understand learning in the course fslt12 (May-June 2012, Oxford Brookes University). I have blogged eight posts about my thoughts and this will be the last one. I want to help the researchers but I am not sure if I have anything new to say. I was an outsider, with assignments and assessment the experience had been different. I am an old, individual moocer and do what I want and when I can take the time.
Jenny is interested in this question: What evidence is there for the ways people learnin MOOCs. ( Jenny’s blog post). After my comment she asked: How finding evidence differs from measuring learning?…
Academic BEtreat – the technical challengesby jennymackness
Academic BEtreathas got off to a shaky start, with lots of technology difficulties. There are sixteen people in this BEtreat (18 if you include Etienne and Bev) and 8 of those are online. This is a great mix of people, all working on very interesting aspects of communities of practice in their very differing contexts. It is this diverse mix of people that will enrich the experience.
One of the principles of these BEtreats is that online and face-to-face participants should be fully integrated, so for the most part the online people are projected into the face-to-face room through video on Adobe Connect – where presentations can also be shared. However, bandwidth issues make it difficult to use the …
Are MOOCs immune to rigorous investigation?by jennymackness
The title of this post is taken from David Wiley’s blog postthat he made earlier this year. And this week on Twitter Apostolos Koutropouloscommented that there is currently a lot of comment on MOOCs, but much less research.
David Wiley mentions that his PhD student is researching MOOCs and I know that Eleni Boursinou of the Caledonian Academy in Glasgow– is researching the FSLT12 MOOC, so I suspect there are many more PhD students who are investigating MOOCs.
I think it’s probably true that there is more comment on MOOCs than published research, but the body of research is slowly growing. Here are a couple of links which point to research and there are more:
A …
The Business Model for MOOCsby jennymackness
Last week I was at the HEA/SEDA day conference in Birmingham, UK
HEA/SEDA Conference on OER and Staff Development: Open Horizons: Sharing the future
I was there with my colleagues George Roberts, Marion Waite and Liz Lovegrove because we had a slot in which we shared the work we have done on the FSLT12 MOOC. George has posted his slides to Slideshare.
What is Necessary and what is Contingent in Design for Massive Open Online Courses?
You will see that there are a lot of slides (48), but in fact we only got to slide 27 because there was so much interest in the MOOC and so many questions – and of course, so little time for discussion.…
The MOOC Bandwagonby jennymackness
As others have noted – most recently Bon Stewart in her Inside Higher Ed article – everyone seems to be jumping on the MOOC bandwagon at an alarming rate.
This week the JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee, UK ) has jumped on it with a webinar entitled
What is a MOOC – JISC Webinar 11-07-12
Four speakers were invited. Here is the programme and here is the recording
12.00 Definitions of MOOCs (Martin Weller)
12.10 Tutor perspective (Jonathan Worth)
12.20 Learner perspective (Lou McGill)
12.30 MOOCs and online learning (David White)
12.40 Q&A
Martin Weller presented a useful overview of the history of MOOCs and some thoughtful ideas about the benefits of MOOCs and the associated concerns in …