Moocs

OK, I admit it. I have been somewhat against the idea of the MOOC for serious academic work for some time. Part of my trepidation has stemmed from the lack of a structured community that can be created using a traditional course shell and a great deal of instructor/student interaction. I have always felt that it is the facilitator that makes the course, acting as that "guide to the side" who helps assist students in their journey to understanding without overtly forcing content down their collective throats (now there is a picture).  Students should have the ability to build relationships to better create community and so a higher level of synthesis ala classical constructivism. This model has been my mantra for many years.

Since I have time on my hands, I have decided to dive into MOOCs and see what they have to offer from the inside. I have done this in the past with online courses when I have wanted to see the methods (for better or worse) that others use in facilitating and designing courses. I have tried one MOOC, shortly after Stephen Downes started advocating them a few years back. It was a less than stellar experience. At the time I was not impressed, as it resembled to me the online equivalent to a mosh pit. Little organization and even less self restraint in discussion.

I am currently participating in two upcoming MOOCs. The first is through Swinburne University on a type of rapid online course development known as Carpe Diem. The second will be yet another distance education certificate, this time through Coursera. I'm already detecting some real differences between what I saw in the past and the current MOOC. The Swinburne team has had the foresight to start a facebook page on the course, which I think is acting to help acclimatize students to the course prior to actually beginning the Blackboard based exercises. This is one of those AHA! moments for me, in that using a familiar widely used social platform can be a gateway to helping people transition to a system that they may not otherwise have used in the past.

More to come...