MEET THE MOOCS

MOOC

• Massive

• Open

• Online

• Course

• Arguments about each part of the definition

http://infocult.typepad.com/infocult/2008/07/connectivism-course-draws-night-or-behold-the-mooc.html

WHERE DO MOOCS START?

• Bryan alexander coined the term (Senior Fellow for the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education)

• Part of a course on Connectivism

CONNECTIVISM

• “At its heart, connectivism is the thesis that knowledge is distributed across a network of connections, and therefore that learning consists of the ability to construct and traverse those networks. Knowledge, therefore, is not acquired, as though it were a thing. It is not transmitted, as though it were some type of communication”

• “…And while it is convenient to talk as though knowledge and beliefs are composed of sentences and concepts that we somehow acquire and store, it is more accurate -- and pedagogically more useful -- to treat learning as the formation of connections.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephen-downes/connectivism-and-connecti_b_804653.html

THE CONNECTIVIST MOOC OR CMOOC

• Aggregation/distribution

• Remixing/Repurposing

• Lack of boundaries, except maybe time

• Emphasis on social

• Producing information, tied usually through hashtags

IMPLICATIONS OF CONNECTIVISM

• Large number of participants is actually a feature, not a bug

• “Sage on the stage” is less important because they represent only one connection

• The process of navigating the course is just as important as the course itself

CHALLENGES/CRITIQUES

• Lots of education or meta courses

• Validity of knowledge

• Coherence

• Eschewing of assessments (Can you drop out of a MOOC?)

RISE OF THE “XMOOCS”

• These are the most well-known of the bunch

• So named because of edX

• Difference between cMOOC and xMOOC can be problematic

DEFINITION OF AN XMOOC

• Massive

• Video

• Automated tasks

• Discrete begin and end points(?)

• Centered around a list of materials

• “Crowd-sourced” feedback (some courses)

THE MAJOR PLAYERS

• Udacity

• EdX

• Coursera

UDACITY

• Started from Stanford AI class

• Class was essentially offered as an xMOOC

• Professor left Stanford; started Udacity

• Focus on Math and Computer Science

• Some high school courses offered as well

FEATURES OF UDACITY

• Videos with quizzes

• Automated testing

• Discussion forums

• Optional certification test for a fee

• Resume passed on to “partner companies”

EDX

• Cross-institution platform includes MIT, Berkeley and Harvard

• Each site is an “_____x”

COURSERA

• For profit started by Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller from Stanford University

• Initially a focus on Math and Computer Science

CANVAS.NET

• Instructure launches its own blogging platform

• Aimed at being a more egalitarian MOOC

CONTROVERSY

THE PLACE OF THE PROFESSOR

• Focus on

• Performance

• Big credentials

• Abuse

LEARNING

• Cary Nelson, the outgoing president of the American Association of University Professors, said that online models such as Coursera – an online entity offering free courses from Stanford University, Princeton University, University of Michigan and the University of Pennsylvania – can be terrific for delivering educational materials to retirement homes, “where folks are unlikely to assume any social responsibilities for the ‘knowledge’ they have acquired.”

Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/05/23/faculty-groups-consider-how-respond-moocs#ixzz1zZj2iaXo Inside Higher Ed

PEDAGOGY

• Little person-to-person interaction

• What is there is students teaching themselves

• “Sage on the stage” returns

GRADING

• Peer or automated grading

• What’s the value?

• Research is ongoing

CERTIFICATES

• Number awarded up 800% in the last 30 years

• Concern about gender discrepancy

• What do they mean for an employer?

ACCESS

• Survey of Machine Learning course

• 20% were graduate students

• Many white and male*

• Many already had familiarity with the topic

• Developing nations can’t afford the fees

*Some criticism that applies to instructors as well

CONTEXT

• Helter-skelter catalog

• Prior learning

• Cultural imperialism

• Misconceptions (11 year old and Game Theory)

SUSTAINABILITY

• High dropout rates (varies; around 80-90%)

• What is the financial model for MOOCs?

• Credits? Certificates?

• Large up-front costs for delivery

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

QUESTIONS?