MOOCmassive open online course

Rebecca J Jones

What is it?

Background

MOOC was coined in 2008 by Dave Cormier of the University of Prince Edward Island

consisted of 25 tuition-paying students at the University of Manitoba,

as well as over 2200 other students from the general public who took the course online free of charge.

All course content was available through RSS feeds, and online students could collaborate through online social media

Innovation

Allows users a larger unlimited collaborative space

“ivy league for the masses”

EduKart mainly provide individual lessons that students may take at their own pace, interactive webinars

Udemy allows teachers to sell online courses

Udacity does not have a calendar-based schedule, offers interactive lessons with activities, quizzes and exercises between short videos and talks

Coursera present lectures online, typical to those of traditional classroom.

How it works

Built for a world where information is everywhere

Not a school, a way to connect and collaborate

Participatory, you engage to learn

Not asked to complete specific assignments

Hows it any different from an online class?

Social networking

Engages in the learning process

An event where people who care about a topic can talk about it in a structured way

Can take the course without paying for it

Material shared and open, networking

No single path

No single path

Benefits

You can use any online tools, blogs, social media (Fb, twitter)

It can be organized as quickly as you can inform the participants (which makes it a powerful format for priority learning in e.g. aid relief)

Learning can happen incidentally

You don’t need a degree to follow the course, only the willingness to learn

You add to your own personal learning environment and/or network by participating in a MOOC

participating in a MOOC forces you to think about your own learning and knowledge absorption

Cons

It feels chaotic as participants create their own content, no calendar

It demands digital literacy

It demands time and effort from the participants

It is organic, which means the course will take on its own trajectory (you have got to let go).

As a participant you need to be able to self-regulate your learning and possibly give yourself a learning goal to achieve

Relevance with knowledge transfer

Keeping the presentation in mind. . .

Do you think that learning in a MOOC would be too chaotic? Are you personally driven enough to succeed in a MOOC environment?

Resources

http://moocguide.wikispaces.com/2.+Benefits+and+challenges+of+a+MOOC

http://www.scilogs.com/scientific_and_medical_libraries/librarians-and-the-era-of-the-mooc/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW3gMGqcZQc