Massive open online course

In the field of open education, one of the latest trends is that of open^[1] courses, called MOOCs (Massively Open Online Courses). Such courses are founded on the theory of connectivism and an open pedagogy based on networked learning. Typically, participation in a MOOC is free; however, some MOOCs may charge a fee in the form of tuition if the participant seeks some form of accreditation.^[2] Although the courses generally do not have specific requirements all MOOCs provide rough timelines in the form of weekly topics to focus discussion. The rest of the structure can be minimal – often consisting of a weekly presentation on the current topic, discussion questions, and suggested resources. In recognition that those attending a MOOC are expected to make the course their own, guidance tends to focus on allowing curriculum and structure to emerge from the exchange between participants. Posting in discussions, reflecting on topical ideas, and sharing resources using a variety of social media are at the core of the MOOC learning process.^[3]

A Massive open online course (MOOC) is a course where the participants are distributed and course materials also are dispersed across the web. This is possible only if the course is open, and works significantly better if the course is large. The course is not a gathering, but rather a way of connecting distributed instructors and learners across a common topic or field of discourse.^[4] MOOCs are a more recent form of online course development, departing from formats that rely on posted resources, Learning Management Systems, and structures that mix the LMS with more open web resources.^[5]

Principles of MOOC organization

MOOCs are based on several principles stemming from connectivist pedagogy.^[6][7][8]

• The first principle is aggregation. The whole point of a MOOC is to provide a starting point for a massive amount of content to be produced in different places online, which is later aggregated as a newsletter or a web page accessible to participants on a regular basis. This is in contrast to traditional courses, where the content is prepared ahead of time.
• The second principle is remixing, that is, associating materials created within the course with each other and with materials elsewhere.
• The third principle is re-purposing of aggregated and remixed materials to suit goals of each participant.
• The fourth principle is feeding forward, that is, sharing of re-purposed ideas and content with other participants and the rest of the world.

An earlier list (2005) of Connectivist principles^[9] from Siemens also informs the pedagogy behind MOOCs:

1. Learning and knowledge rest in diversity of opinions.

2. Learning is a process of connecting specialised nodes or information sources.

3. Learning may reside in non-human appliances.

4. Capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known.

5. Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning.

6. Ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill.

7. Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent of all connectivist learning activities.

8. Decision making is itself a learning process. Choosing what to learn and the meaning of incoming information is seen through the lens of a shifting reality. While there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations in the information climate affecting the decision.

MOOC experiences

MOOCs attract large numbers of participants, sometimes several thousands, most of whom participate peripherally ("lurk"). For example, the first MOOC in 2008 had 2200 registered members, of whom 150 were actively interacting at various times.^[10] Learners can control where, what, how, with whom they learn, but different learners choose to exercise more or less of that control. The goal is to re-define the very idea of a "course," creating an open network of learners with emergent and shared content and interactions. A MOOC allows participants to form connections through autonomous, diverse, open, and interactive discourse.

Most MOOCs that have featured "Massive" participation have been courses emphasizing learning on the web. "Students" have been educators, business people, researchers and others interested in internet culture.

Principals of openness inform the creation, structure and operation of MOOCs. The extent to which practices of Open Design in educational technology^[11] are applied to a particular MOOC seem to vary with the planners involved. According to comments frequently appearing in MOOC discussion forums, features that are normally associated with an educational activity can appear to be completely missing. Structure, direction, purpose all seem lost in the scattering of discussions and this messiness, though unintentional(?)can make following a line of discussion or creating meaning very frustrating.^{[citation needed]}

Examples of MOOCs

Change.MOOC - Change: Education, Learning, and Technology! (Fall 2011)Facilitated by Stephen Downes, George Siemens, Dave Cormier

Creativity and Multicultural Communication - facilitated by Carol Yeager and Betty Lawrence at SUNY/Empire State College (Fall 2011) http://www.cdlprojects.com/cmc11blog/ Contents

Week 1: Orientation

Week 2: Connectivism

Week 3: PLE

Week 4: Transliteracy and Metaliteracy: Emerging Literacy Frameworks for Social Media

Week 5: Synthesizing and Refining Creativity

Week 6: Upshifting Innovation

Week 7: CPS

Week 8: Designing Online Immersive Environments for Higher Education: Current theories and practice

Week 9: Global Communication

Week 10: ds106

Week 11: TIM Education Model

Week 12: HP Catalyst

Week 13: Diversity and Inclusiveness

EpCoPMOOC - e-Porfolio / Community of Practice MOOC! (August 2011) https://sites.google.com/site/eportfoliocommunity/epcop-mooc

eduMOOC - Online Learning Today and Tomorrow (Summer 2011) by the University of Illinois at Springfield enrolled 2,600+

DS106 - Digital Storytelling (Spring and Summer 2011)
Taught by Jim Groom at the University of Mary Washington. Digital Storytelling

MobiMOOC - Mobile Learning (Spring 2011)

LAK11 - Learning and Knowledge Analytics (Spring 2011)
Facilitated by George Siemens, Jon Dron, Dave Cormier, Tanya Elias, and Sylvia Currie.

Week 1: Introduction to Learning and Knowledge Analytics

Week 2: Rise of “Big Data” and Data Scientists

Week 3: Semantic Web, Linked Data, & Intelligent Curriculum

Week 4: Visualization: Tools for, and examples of, Analytics

Week 5: Organizational implementation

Week 6: What’s next for Learning & Knowledge Analytics?

EdFutures - Futures thinking in Education (Spring 2010)

PLENK 2010 - Personal Learning Environments Networks and Knowledge (Fall 2010) Facilitated by Dave Cormier, George Siemens, Stephen Downes and Rita Kop^[12] "How this Course Works: PLENK2010 is an unusual course. It does not consist of a body of content you are supposed to remember. Rather, the learning in the course results from the activities you undertake, and will be different for each person."
Course outline:

A tour of PLEs and PLNs

Contrasting PLEs with LMSs

The neXt/eXtended Web

PLE/PLN and learning theories

Evaluating Learning in PLE/Ns

Using PLEs successfully

PLE/N Tools

Personal knowledge management

PLE/Ns in the classroom

Critical perspectives on PLE/PLN

Connect! Your PLN Lab (Fall 2009)

Connectivism (Fall 2008) - the first MOOC (also offered Fall 2009 and 2011)

Taught by George Siemens and Stephen Downes, this MOOC had a for-credit component for a limited number of students through the University of Manitoba. The term "MOOC" was coined in association with this course offering.^[13] Participants were primarily adult, lifelong learners who were not inordinately concerned about course completion. Tools for this course included an instructor blog, Moodle forums, learner's own blogs, and a weekly newsletter. Despite the establishment of their own learning tools to manage the course, many preferred the weekly newsletters offered by one of the instructors to active participation in the blogs and forums created for the class.^[14]

Topics from CCK11:

Week 1: Connectivism?

Week 2: Patterns

Week 3: Knowledge

Week 4: Unique?

Week 5: Groups, Networks

Week 6: PLENK

Week 7: Adaptive Systems

Week 8: Power & Authority

Week 9: Openness

Week 10: Net Pedagogy

Week 11: Research & Analytics

Week 12: Changing views

Influential Courses

EC&I 831 - Social Media & Open Education (January 2008)
Taught by Alec Couros at the University of Regina, this open, graduate-level course was entitled Education, Curriculum, and Instruction (EC&I) 831: Open, Connected, Social. The pedagogy was based on an array of open theory from the social constructivism to connectivism. The primary tool was Wikispaces, and students work was assessed on "the development of a personal blog/digital portfolio, the collaborative development of an educational technology wiki resource, and the completion of a student-chosen, major digital project".^[15]

INST 7150 - Intro to Open Education (Fall 2007)
Taught by David Wiley of Utah State University, this was a standard graduate course in open education, but it encouraged the blogging and connecting that became an important aspect of later MOOCs.

References

1. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Openness
2. ^ http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/con_ed/mpcp/cis/etl/
3. ^ McAuley, A., Stewart, B., Siemens, G., and Cormier.D., "The MOOC model for digital practice", University of Prince Edward Island, Social Sciences and Humantities Research Council's Knowledge synthesis grants on the Digital Economy (2010)
4. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMfipxhT_Co
5. ^ Masters, Ken, "A Brief Guide To Understanding MOOCs", The Internet Journal of Medical Education, Vol 1, Number 2 (2011)
6. ^ Downes, Stephen "'Connectivism' and Connective Knowledge", Huffpost Education, January 5, 2011, accessed July 27, 2011
7. ^ Bell, Frances "Connectivism: Its Place in Theory-Informed Research and Innovation in Technolgy-Enabled Learning", International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, Volume 12, Number 3, 2011, accessed July 31, 2011
8. ^ Downes, Stephen. "Learning networks and connective knowledge", Instructional Technology Forum, 2006, accessed July 31, 2011
9. ^ http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/934
10. ^ Mackness, Jenny, Mak, Sui Fai John, and Williams, Roy "The Ideals and Reality of Participating in a MOOC", Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Networked Learning 2010
11. ^ http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/chapters/0262033712chap2.pdf
12. ^ http://connect.downes.ca/how.htm
13. ^ Siemens, George, MOOC or Mega-Connectivism Course, Connectivism and Connective Knowledge blog, 28 July 2008.
14. ^ Fini, Antonio, "The Technological Dimension of a Massive Open Online Course: The Case of the CCK08 Course Tools", International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, Vol 10, No 5 (2009).
15. ^ Couros, Alec, "Developing Personal Learning Networks for Open and Social Learning", Emerging Technologies in Distance Education, edited by George Veletsianos, Athabasca University Press (2010)

Further reading

• A. McAuley, B. Stewart, G, Siemens and D. Cormier, The MOOC Model for Digital Practice (2010)
• R. Kop, The challenges to connectivist learning on open online networks: Learning experiences during a massive open online course, The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, Vol 12, No 3 (2011)
• D. Levy, Lessons Learned from Participating in a Connectivist Massive Online Open Course (MOOC), (2011)
• S.F. John Mak, R. Williams, and J. Mackness, Blogs and Forums as Communication and Learning Tools in a MOOC, Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on

Networked Learning (2010)

• George Siemens, Learning and Knowing in Networks: Changing roles for Educators and Designers

Presented to ITFORUM for Discussion (January 27, 2008)

• Siemens, G. (2005). Connectivism: A learning theory for a digital age. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 2(1), 3–10.
• Graham Vickery, Sacha Wunsch-Vincent, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Participative web and user-created content: web 2.0, wikis and social networking (2007)
• Dialogue and Connectivism: A New Approach to Understanding and Promoting Dialogue-Rich Networked Learning [1] Andrew Ravenscroft International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning Vol. 12.3 March – 2011

Learning Technology Research Institute (LTRI), London Metropolitan University, UK