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Today's big news is causing much excitement - EdX, a not-for-profit joint venture between Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to offer online versions of their classes and those of other universities.

 

I'm finding it difficult to keep up with the explosion of interest surrounding Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Until I catch up here are the latest 10 unsorted items I've collected on delicious. Further contributions are welcome!

See all iBerry's unsorted links for this topic.

See all iBerry's unsorted delicious links.

Open Online Courses are now very much in the news. By offering online support to hundreds if not thousands of international learners Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are taking over where Open Courseware (OCW) left off. Connectivist MOOCs originated by George Siemens, Stephen Downes and others were first on the scene but now other types of MOOC are being offered such as Stanford's Coursera, MIT's MITx, and Udacity. (For listings see Class Central and Open Yale Courses). Connectivist MOOCs Based on connectivist principles, these MOOCs represent one extreme and are probably most removed from what many people think of as a 'course'. Learning objectives are entirely a matter for the participants themselves and it is not considered necessary or even possible to complete all the course assignments. The facilitators act more as guides than instructors but a basic curriculum, daily newsletters and presentations by experts may be provided. Otherwise, participants determine their own levels of engagement openly sharing their knowledge through blogging, commenting, tweeting, bookmarking and whatever modes of interaction they prefer.

(MOOCow - Based on 'la vaca de los sinvaca' by José Bogado)

With so many participants it becomes impossible to follow all activities and this can lead to perceptions of chaos and confusion, particularly for people used to more formal courses or who lack familiarity with the technology. (For an excellent account of connectivist MOOCs see 'Through the Open Door: Open Courses as Research, Learning, and Engagement' by Dave Cormier and George Siemens)

Other types of MOOCs

Other MOOCs may have quite specific learning objectives and many are associated in one way or another with existing educational institutions. These MOOCs have much more in common with existing university and college courses than connectivist MOOCs but with many thousands of participants, direct access to the instructors is severely limited so inevitably a heavy reliance is placed on technology for course delivery, learner support and performance assessment. Typically, instruction is given through a series of brief videos interspersed with exercises (see the Udacity video below) so that learners can monitor their own performance. Discussion forums should also be available where participants can ask for help. MOOCs attract learners with very different levels of expertise so help may be available from other participants in addition to the limited assistance provided by the facilitators.

Getting Started with MOOCs

Unlike most offline courses MOOCs place no particular obligations on participants. Since they are open anyone can join in and since they are free nothing is lost if you find that the topic or academic level is unsuitable or you are unable to find enough time for study. 'Drop-out' rates for MOOCs are high with only a small proportion of learners fully participating but many others, for example those who are already familiar with some of the topics being covered, can still benefit from some participation. The best way to get started with MOOCs is simply to join one that interests you and see how it goes. You can also get a good idea of what goes on by looking at previous runs of MOOCs or even joining a current MOOC and becoming a 'lurker'. Of course the more you put into any MOOC the more you get out of it but with so many participants nobody will be particularly concerned whatever level of engagement you favour.

If you are more comfortable with formal courses or not so familiar with blogging, Twitter and other networking facilities then you might prefer to start with a non-connectivist MOOC. These are relatively new in concept so expect some experimentation and problems with delivery as the organizers learn how to cope with a vast multitude of learners. On the other hand, connectivist MOOCs are now well-established and offer excellent networking opportunities, particularly for educators and other professionals. Previous courses are being re-run and new ones (eg India’s First and ONLY MOOC and First Steps into Learning & Teaching in Higher Education) continue to emerge.

It is important to note that the award of qualifications for performance in a MOOC and their recognition by employers is hardly established although there are some signs that this is changing. In general, it does seem likely that MOOCs, in whatever form, will greatly influence the future course of education - don't be left behind!

Audrey Watters (HackEducation) and Philipp Schmidt (P2PU co-founder) discuss MOOCs in education 

 Plain English    This part is written in simple English to help language understanding and translation. If English is not your first language try the 'Google Translate' gadget on the right side of this page - choose your language and Google will give a translation.

Open Courseware (OCW) is usually made from lecture notes or videos of lectures given at normal university or college courses and made available for free on the web but now Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are giving extra support for online learners. A MOOC runs over a fixed period of time with some expert help for students in web forums, exercises to test progress and perhaps a certificate when the course is completed.

There are now 2 basic types of MOOC (see the links above). The first is the 'connectivist MOOC' and this may be best for teachers and other professionals who are already used to social networking tools such as blogs, Twitter and bookmarking sites. The second type of MOOC is very new and more like normal university or college courses than connectivist MOOCs. These MOOCs are being run by good universities such as Stanford, Yale and MIT as well as new companies such as Udacity.

The best way to get started with MOOCs is simply to join one that interests you. You can learn how MOOCs work by looking at ones that have finished - you could even join a current MOOC and do nothing! Among hundreds or even thousands of online learners nobody will notice very much what you decide to do but the more active you are in any MOOC the more you will learn. Do not hesitate to try out a MOOC - there is nothing to lose and MOOCs may become very important in the future!
 

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Please enjoy whatever celebrations the end of the year may bring !

We also wish everyone a happy and prosperous New Year.

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We are experiencing problems with the 'unsorted links' ('iBerry on Delicious') attached to many sections of the Open Education Directory. These are bookmarked with delicious.com, now under new ownership so changes are evidently being made to RSS feeds etc. Please bear with us while this gets sorted out. If necessary we will use another service.

Update: our problems now seem to be restricted to delicious 'bundles'; i.e. where several tags are grouped together under one name so although feeds for single tags seem to be OK anything using 'bundles' is not working or returning an error messsage. I understand from the delicious forum that this will be put right in due course but I am unclear as to when or in what form so I'll just leave things as they are now in the hope that things improve soon. Note that all this only affects the display of unsorted links on our pages here - you can always go to iBerry on Delicious and find our unsorted links there (I hope!).