- e-Literate. In part 1 of this series, I described a new landscape of educational delivery models.
In part 2 I described the master course concept and how it presents a cultural barrier that most traditional institutions cannot cross, at least without a dedicated online organization or an outsourced partnership. Why does it matter that we describe these educational delivery models with finer granularity than just traditional and online? Because the aims of the models differ, as do the primary methods of how these models are created and delivered. With all of the recent interest in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), it would be worth summarizing the two branches of MOOCs including recent posts or interviews by the founders of the concept. Scale and Access In most online programs, at least those with more than few thousand students, the delivery method of this scale is the duplication of course sections in the manner of tract housing (for a better description, see part 2). March 5 “MOOCs for the win!” How to participate in an open online course. Forget the business case, open online courses are about learning.
Ever since MITx was unveiled last December, futurists have been predicting what it might all mean for higher education.
They're calling it "The Great Disruption", a brand name worthy of Nostradamus. The Globe and Mail says it's about time. The Atlantic is envisioning a post-campus America. For those of us actually enrolled in Massive Open Online Courses, though – or those like me who have enlisted both to teach and learn within these experimental course environments – this great disruption feels more like an augmentation than anything else.
I think higher education has something to learn from the experiences that I – and learners like me, merging non-traditional avenues with formalised classroom experiences – are engaging in. Yet here we are. Yet neither do we necessarily reject the academy. Moocs do disrupt business as usual, yes. Will these type of practice ultimately have an impact of the teaching and learning spaces of traditional institutions? How This Course Works. You are not logged in. [] [] Welcome to change.mooc.ca.
We are your facilitators, George Siemens, Stephen Downes, and Dave Cormier Login and Password When you signed up for this course, you received a login and a password. This login should work anywhere in the course (please contact us if you have problems). If you have forgotten your password, please go to this page to retrieve it: The course home page is: How this Course Works This is an unusual course. In addition, this course is not conducted in a single place or environment. This type of course is called a ‘connectivist' course and is based on four major types of activity: 1. We will give you access to a wide variety of things to read, watch or play with. Every day you will receive an edition of ‘The Daily', which will highlight some of this content. You are NOT expected to read and watch everything. 2. Once you've read or watched or listened to some content, your next step is to keep track of that somewhere. Here are some suggestions:
MOOC Mythbuster – What MOOC’s are and what they aren’t. “Welcome to the college education revolution.
Big breakthroughs happen when what is suddenly possible meets what is desperately necessary.” Thomas Friedman, Come the Revolution, NYT Mr. Friedman is right – and though he doesn’t mention MOOCs directly in the article, the ‘revolution’ he is speaking of is in the near future with the launch of edX and Coursera by the Ivy Universities. This past week I’ve been following a number of blog posts and articles about MOOCs, Massive Open and Online Courses, of which Coursera’s model is based upon [edX I predict will be something different], yet there’s been much speculation, misconceptions, exaggerations and misinformation.
Recent headlines read, Will MOOC’s provide SuperStar Teaching? 1. You may notice the similarities between what Downes outlines and traditional education: content, instruction, assessment, yet its the word OPEN that differentiates how a student participating in a Massive Open Online Courses goes about learning. 1.