MOOCs to support the Commons

Rita Kop, Fredericton, NB, Canada

International MOOC colloquium, The changing MOOC identity, Capri, September 2016

http://depositphotos.com/2956013/stock-photo-the-open-lock.html

Opening up Pedagogy

MOOC research and data

Open Connectivist Learning

Institutionalization of MOOCs

What is education for?

In today’s corporatized university, college students have become consumers who can now choose across a variety of educational products, rather than cultural citizens who must grapple to understand themselves and their world, as both individuals and participants in the welfare of the commons.

Knowledge has been reduced to a market commodity, to be bought and sold to the highest bidder. Teaching in many classrooms now resembles a market “quality-controlled” operation driven by standardization and a banking pedagogy (Freire, 1971), overwhelmingly obsessed with the use of expensive and ever-changing technology. Darder, 2016, pg. 43.

Relevance of MOOCs• MOOCs reside on the

margin of the institution• How might MOOCs serve, enhance and expand the Commons?• Could their openness foster that multiple voices will be heard?• How long might they be

used to experiment with?• Openness

Strategic decisions to inform policy with regards to MOOCs should be based on

Widening Access and Openness to Learning and Education

“Beauty does not reside in simplicity. Nor in complexity, per se. For a molecule or a song, for a ceramic vase or a play, beauty is created out of the labor of human hands and minds. It is to be found, precarious, at some tense edge where symmetry and asymmetry, simplicity and complexity, order and chaos, contend”. Hoffmann (2003, p. 7-10)

What makes us human?

Human minds are not cognitive machines

Rita Kop

• Level of communication• Technology used• Active engagement• Context• Diversity• Degree of distance

Rita Kop

MOOC design and teaching

Teacher a mere noise?

Teacher and learner are both required to “invest something of themselves” in learning which results in personal fulfilment and genuine receptivity (Bonnett, 2002, p.241). That is what makes teaching as a profession worthwhile, this genuine interaction with other human beings.

Making MOOCs meaningful

• Valuing local contextual knowledge• Creating opportunities for all

Rita Kopritakop.com rkop@yorkvilleu.cahttps://yorkvilleu.academia.edu/RitaKop