Ten Tips: Keep Learners Motivated in Your Open Online Cloud Course or MOOC (Part 6) by Inge de Waard. “Don’t make a fuss about correct use of the English language—it is already difficult entering a course designed in another language. This also means that certain formulations might be awkward due to the misunderstanding of some English terms, which can lead to potential debates. Give every discussion thread or response the benefit of the doubt if at first it seems rude. It might just be a different cultural perception, or a different use of language.” Setting up an open online course (cloud course or MOOC) is one thing, but keeping the participants motivated can be quite a challenge if you never meet face-to-face. The dropout rate of online courses can be huge, and for collaborative courses this can be disastrous, as it will have an effect on the peer-to-peer learning dynamics.
Luckily, there are 10 easy things you can do to keep your learner audience motivated. Prepare the learners for information overload Provide different options for learner participation The facilitators do this. Adding Learning Analytics to Your Open Online Cloud Course or MOOC (Part 5) by Inge de Waard. “The simplest learning analytics are those that count the hits and time spent on certain content pages. So let’s take a look at how you can set this up using the free Google Analytics software, which is also available for mobiles.” Learning analytics are rapidly gaining interest and organizers are creating specialized conferences to dig deeper into the subject (e.g., learning analytics and knowledge). Learning analytics is an umbrella term for a variety of ways to analyze what happens in a course.
What are learning analytics? There are three important sets of learner analytics: Why are learning analytics important? As technology becomes more and more semantic, learning analytics will feel more natural to all. Clear indicators to enhance course content. Tools for learning analytics There is a convenient list of tools and links to them on the LAK11 Tools wiki. Getting started It is better to start simple and get an understanding of how learning analytics works. Now try it for yourself. Make Your Cloud/MOOC Course BYOD Friendly (Part 4) by Inge de Waard. “Make design and development easy for yourself—use what is already out there before starting to develop your own mobile solutions that enable access to your open, online, or cloud course.” This installment of the series on StartToMOOC focuses on mobile access for a cloud or MOOC course. The bring-your-own-device (BYOD) or bring-your-own-technology (BYOT) design enables a wide variety of mobile devices to access a training, education, or information site.
As more and more training moves into the cloud, enabling mobile access is all the rage. But doing this for a free and open course makes the designer’s life that much more exciting. Make design and development easy for yourself—use what is already out there before starting to develop your own mobile solutions that enable access to your open, online, or cloud course. Are your learners bringing their own devices? There are five basic steps to optimize BYOD options.
Make sure you promote and explain Wi-Fi use. Other steps to support BYOD. Build a Dashboard for your MOOC (Part 3) by Inge de Waard. “Netvibes makes it very easy to gather information on one topic from the Web—you only need to type in a keyword and Netvibes builds your dashboard automatically.” In Part 1 of this series I showed readers how to set up the core of an open, online course by using Google groups (for discussing content) and a course wiki (course resources, syllabus and timing). Part 2 covered how to select meaningful social media tools and add them to the core of the Cloud course. This time, I’ll go through the steps to incorporate all the course locations into a one-page, real-time, Web-based course dashboard. Why use a dashboard? There are many benefits to using a course dashboard: There are many one-page dashboard options to choose from. Using Netvibes Personally, I like Netvibes best. How to get Netvibes populated with your course locations The four-minute video below looks at an existing course dashboard from the MobiMOOC course that you can see here:
Choose and Embed Social Media in Your MOOC (Part 2) by Inge de Waard. “After signing up for the social media tools, all you need to do is to link them up to your course. You can do this in different ways. A simple way is to add an icon with a hyperlink to the tool, and add it to the course-wiki welcome page.” Last month, I showed you how to set up the core of an open, online course by using Google groups (for discussing content) and a course wiki (to hold course resources, syllabus, and timing). This month, I’ll show how to add meaningful social media tools that engage participants and increase learning in a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course). I’ll give you a look at what is out there and link it with real life implementation examples. Which tools? The main benefit of incorporating social media in any course is to increase participation and to get participants or learners to engage in conversation. First of all: keep it simple. If you want to add any of these tools, a three-step process suffices to be able to access the tool: Connecting the tool to the course.
Massive Open Online Courses: Setting Up (StartToMOOC, Part 1) by Inge de Waard. “Any course consists of some basic features: there is a schedule, a syllabus referring to content and possibly learning actions (assignments, self-assessments…), and there is a learning space where course participants can meet and exchange ideas on the subject of the course to enhance mutual learning and experiences. A MOOC is no different, but because it is online, the course spaces are as well.” Setting up courses in the cloud is a trend in online learning. Whether you are a training company, a non-profit trainer, an experienced hobbyist, or an educational institute, at some point you will want to tap into the cloud, attract new learners from around the globe, and start learning collaboratively. In this first part of a six-part series, you will learn about MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), which are courses in the cloud.
You will also learn how to set up the core spaces for MOOCs. The articles that follow in the series will move from basic to more complex course features. Authors: Inge de Waard. Inge de Waard is eLearning coordinator at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Belgium. She organized the MobiMOOC2011 and initiated the MOOCguide. Seamless Learning: Forget MOOCs, Mobile Learning, and Ubiquitous Access November 4, 2013 With so many new training technologies and trends appearing one after the other, we face a major challenge: ensuring a smooth, simple training environment for all our learners.
Here’s a look at how to create a seamless learning environment. Check the parts that your training strategy covers and the parts that you can optimize or add. Mobile Learning Supports Global Health May 6, 2013 Mobile technology for healthcare delivery and support—mHealth—is growing rapidly, and mLearning is an important part of it. MoocGuide - 0. Home Intro to MOOC.