Welcome to MOOC.CA ~ MOOC. Three Kinds of MOOCs « Lisa. By Lisa, on August 15th, 2012 We are so into MOOCs now that it’s too much for me. Gotta apply Ockham’s Razor 2.0 to this stuff. At the Ed-Media conference, I attended a session by Sarah Schrire of Kibbutzim College of Education in Tel Aviv. In her discussion of Troubleshooting MOOCs, she noted the dificulties in determining her own direction in offering a MOOC in the “Stanford model” MOOCs versus the “connectivism” MOOCs.
I found myself breaking it down into three categories instead. Each type of MOOC has all three elements (networks, tasks and content), but each has a goal that is dominant. Network-based MOOCs are the original MOOCs, taught by Alec Couros, George Siemens, Stephen Downes, Dave Cormier. Task-based MOOCs emphasize skills in the sense that they ask the learner to complete certain types of work. Content-based MOOCs are the ones with huge enrollments, commercial prospects, big university professors, automated testing, and exposure in the popular press. MOOC MOOC. What is a connectivist MOOC? | Connectivist MOOCs. “MOOCs” are massive open online courses. Dave Cormier introduces the MOOC: There’s a great written explanation of MOOCs in the introduction to the PLENK2010 MOOC Stephen Downes explains: This longer interview with George Siemens and Howard Rheingold is also a very helpful introduction to connectivism: August 2012′s MOOCMOOC was a one-week course led by Hybrid Pedagogy which examined the MOOC medium.
As a springboard for more on MOOCs, check out the readings from Sunday and Monday and have a look at this piece on the MOOC Misnomer which does a nice job of dismantling lazy use of the term. A shorthand has emerged which distinguishes between connectivist courses – cMOOCs – and ones that are more broadcast-focused and reliant upon certification and peer testing. I’ve made my own attempt at distinguishing between xMOOCs and cMOOCs. This site exists to point people towards connectivist courses. xMOOCs are already excellently served by Class Central. Connection not Content.