MOOCs: Open Online Courses as Levers for Change in Higher Education George Siemens, PhD July 31, 2012 EDUCAUSE NGLC

I think this could be big the way Google was Image source: Noah Berger for The Chronicle

But the deals Coursera announced Tuesday may well prove tobe an inflection point for online education, a sector that hastraditionally been dominated by for-profit colleges knownmostly for their noxious recruitment practices and poorresults.

http://www.hybridpedagogy.com/Journal/files/MOOC_MOOC.html

Especially disturbing is that none of the major MOOCproviders have hired anyone trained in instructional design,the learning sciences, educational technology, course design,or other educational specialties to help with the design oftheir courses. They are hiring a lot of programmers http://edtechdev.wordpress.com/2012/05/04/whats-the-problem-with-moocs/

Defining MOOCsMassive (maybe)Open (sort of)Online (yep)Course (sort of)

A bit of (recent) history:2007:- David Wiley: open wiki-based course- Alec Couros: Social media and Open Education2008:- CCK08- Slew of other open courses2011:- Stanford AI births Coursera and Udacity

Phil Hill, 2012

Questions? Comments?

Lets start with CCK08

Motivation for CCK08Do for teaching what open coursewareinitiatives did for contentProvide learners with experience in socialnetworked learning (connectivism)

FormatStructured weekly topicsLive sessions (Elluminate) and guest speakersMoodle forumWherever learners wanted to learn/shareCourse tagDelicious (now using Diigo) for resource sharingThe Daily (aggregated blog posts, resources)Archive

Our Learning Design1. Starting point: readings, short videos, topicintroductions2. Unleash the learners: peer-learning, resourcesharing, etc.

Content is fragmented (not confined to a course)Knowledge is generativeCoherence is learner-formed, instructor guidedDistributed, multi-spaced interactionsFoster autonomous, self-regulated learners

What did participants do?Created new spaces (SecondLife, Google Groups, etc.)Arranged F2F meetingsTranslated the course into different languagesSelf-organizedCreated artifactsSub-network formation

And then the Romans came to Greece

The rather poor level of innovation, need more MOOC models

This is an unusual course. It does not consist of a body of content you are supposedto remember. Rather, the learning in the course results from the activities youundertake, and will be different for each person.In addition, this course is not conducted in a single place or environment. It isdistributed across the web. We will provide some facilities. But we expect youractivities to take place all over the internet. We will ask you to visit other peoplesweb pages, and even to create some of your own.

The course objectives are rather straightforward:* Develop skills in using technology as a tool for networking, sharing,narrating, and creative self-expression* Frame a digital identity wherein you become both a practitioner inand interrogator of various new modes of networking* Critically examine the digital landscape of communicationtechnologies as emergent narrative forms and genres

Coursera is committed to making the best education in the world freely available to anyperson who seeks it. We envision people throughout the world, in both developed anddeveloping countries, using our platform to get access to world-leading education thathas so far been available only to a tiny few. We see them using this education to improvetheir lives, the lives of their families, and the communities they live in.

Coursera, edX:Formal (traditional) course structure and flowDS106/EC&I831/CCK:Content as a starting point, learners expected tocreate/extend

Coursera/edX:Traditional relationship betweenteacher/learnerFormal, structured teaching/content provision.Learners expected to duplicate/master whatthey are taught

Ongoing presence

Live Weekly Lectures/Discussion sessions

CCK-style MOOCs:Changed relationship between teacher/learnerDistributed, chaotic, emergent.Learners expected to create, grow, expanddomain and share personal sensemakingthrough artifact-creation

Coursera/edX:Centralized discussion forum supportCCK/DS106:Distributed, often blog-based, learner-createdforums and spaces

Learners generally complete some level ofactivity for formative and summative evaluation(quizzes, assignments, papers, create artifacts)in open online courses.Evaluation is either automated (Coursera),instructor graded (DS106/CCK), or peer-commented (to some degree, all open courses)

MOOCs as a platform, fostering an ecosystem of innovation

But what do MOOCs actually change?Recognition of online learningRethinking course modelReflection on university structure (integrated,comprehensive)Heavy investment in technology/new toolsThreat to publishersFaculty role?

http://edfuture.net/ October 8-November 16, 2012

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