MOOC and OER: identity management

Open educational resources (OER) and massive open online courses (MOOC) are new and emerging issues in the international higher education context. Under the exponential growth of the supply of courses and related publications, the purpose of this chapter is to foster scientific discussion on the socio-cultural and economic impacts, as well as its technological and pedagogical implications. Supported by the methodological typology of bibliographical studies, systematized interpretative-critical analysis based on review of the concepts, and principles guiding OER and MOOC, the authors' reflections show that the enlargement terminologies without epistemological delimitation have provoked theoretical and practical mistakes. In the final considerations, the authors systematize broader problematizations around the open educational practices in universities aimed to five dimensions: spatio-time-content, theoretical models, principles of pedagogical innovation, economic aspects, and fundamentals of collaborative culture.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Massive Open Online Courses as affinity spaces for connected learning: Exploring effective learning interactions in one massive online community

This paper describes a participatory online culture – Connected Learning Massive Open Online Collaboration (CLMOOC) – and asks how its ethos of reciprocity and creative playfulness occurs. By analysing Twitter interactions over a four-week period, we conclude that this is due to the supportive nature of participants, who describe themselves as belonging to, or connected with, the community. We suggest that Gee’s concept of an affinity space is an appropriate model for CLMOOC and ask how this might be replicated in a higher education setting

Pedagogical strategies and technologies for peer assessment in Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs)

Peer assessment has been mooted as an effective strategy for scaling­-up higher education and its core values to the proportions envisaged in the idea of Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs). If this is to become reality, what role will academic technologies play? What technologies will we need to provide? What learning design strategies and patterns will those technologies need to enable? This paper aims to explore the potential role of peer assessment in MOOCs, so as to get an informed sense of technology requirements. However, as will be seen, three of the four elements in the title “pedagogical strategies and technologies for peer assessment in MOOCs” vary radically for both practical and philosophical reasons, with significant implications for technology requirements. Worse still, the picture is evolving in non­linear relation to new technologies and MOOC initiatives. An overview of the various trends and differences is useful, but not conclusive. At points in the text learning design strategies, patterns and technologies are mentioned as possible ways in which peer assessment in MOOCs of various kinds might be implemented. These cases are highlighted in bold so as to stand out. They are also, in some cases, developed into simple design patterns, described in Appendix A. It should be noted, however, that they should be read within the wider pedagogical contexts within which they appear in the main body of the text

Community tracking in a cMOOC and nomadic learner behavior identification on a connectivist rhizomatic learning network

This article contributes to the literature on connectivism, connectivist MOOCs (cMOOCs) and rhizomatic learning by examining participant interactions, community formation and nomadic learner behavior in a particular cMOOC, #rhizo15, facilitated for 6 weeks by Dave Cormier. It further focuses on what we can learn by observing Twitter interactions particularly. As an explanatory mixed research design, Social Network Analysis and content analysis were employed for the purposes of the research. SNA is used at the macro, meso and micro levels, and content analysis of one week of the MOOC was conducted using the Community of Inquiry framework. The macro level analysis demonstrates that communities in a rhizomatic connectivist networks have chaotic relationships with other communities in different dimensions (clarified by use of hashtags of concurrent, past and future events). A key finding at the meso level was that as #rhizo15 progressed and number of active participants decreased, interaction increased in overall network. The micro level analysis further reveals that, though completely online, the nature of open online ecosystems are very convenient to facilitate the formation of community. The content analysis of week 3 tweets demonstrated that cognitive presence was the most frequently observed, while teaching presence (teaching behaviors of both facilitator and participants) was the lowest. This research recognizes the limitations of looking only at Twitter when #rhizo15 conversations occurred over multiple platforms frequented by overlapping but not identical groups of people. However, it provides a valuable partial perspective at the macro meso and micro levels that contribute to our understanding of community-building in cMOOCs

MOOC/cMOOC/xMOOC

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Running an open MOOC on learning in laboratories

CONTEXT Teaching in laboratories plays an integral role in education. This includes both proximal as well as remote laboratories. In many instances, learning activities are designed around equipment and traditional laboratory activities. Pedagogical aspects and instructional design are often not considered or are an afterthought. PURPOSE The aim of this project was to help to address this gap by designing, implementing and facilitating an open online course on the pedagogy of using laboratory experiences in the curriculum. APPROACH The MOOC for Enhancing Laboratory Learning Outcomes (MELLO) has been designed to assist educators at all levels, from schools to universities, to improve the quality of laboratory experiences in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education. Experienced educators seeking to review and revise current practices or beginning educators were all welcome to participate. Based on learning theory and research literature, online course has been developed that covers constructive alignment of practical activities with the wider curriculum, learning objectives, pedagogical approaches to laboratory learning, laboratory modalities and session planning. RESULTS 120 participants from Australia and around the world took part in the course. While the participants did not work on their own laboratory activity throughout the courses (as envisaged when designing the course), participants who actively took part in the course were positive about the value of the course. CONCLUSIONS The MOOC has been capable of supporting a large number of participants including university educators around the world who use laboratory experiences and will continue to do so through future iterations of the course. Moving forward, there is scope to adapt the pedagogical approach of the course to cater for the way the participants have engaged with the material

What is it like to learn and participate in rhizomatic MOOCs? a collaborative autoethnography of #RHIZO14

In January 2014, we participated in a connectivist-style massive open online course (cMOOC) called "Rhizomatic Learning – The community is the curriculum" (#rhizo14). In rhizomatic learning, teacher and student roles are radically restructured. Course content and value come mostly from students; the teacher, at most, is a curator who provides a starting point and guidance and sometimes participates as a learner. Early on, we felt that we were in a unique learning experience that we wanted to capture in writing. Explaining #rhizo14 to others without the benefit of traditional processes, practices, roles, or structures, however, presented a challenge. We invited participants to contribute narratives to a collaborative autoethnography (CAE), which comprises an assortment of collaborative Google Docs, blog posts by individuals, and comments on those documents and posts. This strategy afforded insight into what many participants found to be a most engaging course and what for some was a transformative experience. In discussing the findings from the CAE, our intent is to benefit others interested in rhizomatic learning spaces such as cMOOCs. This authoethnography specifically addresses gaps both in the understanding of the learner experience in cMOOCs and in the nature of rhizomatic learning

Connectivism: a knowledge learning theory for the digital age?

<b>Background</b> The emergence of the internet, particularly Web 2.0 has provided access to the views and opinions of a wide range of individuals opening up opportunities for new forms of communication and knowledge formation. Previous ways of navigating and filtering available information are likely to prove ineffective in these new contexts. Connectivism is one of the most prominent of the network learning theories which have been developed for e-learning environments. It is beginning to be recognised by medical educators. This paper aims to examine connectivism and its potential application.<p></p> <b>Content</b> The conceptual framework and application of connectivism are presented along with an outline of the main criticisms. Its’ potential application in medical education is then considered.<p></p> <b>Conclusions</b> While connectivism provides a useful lens through which teaching and learning using digital technologies can be better understood and managed, further development and testing is required. There is unlikely to be a single theory that will explain learning in technological enabled networks. Educators have an important role to play in online network learning

Key pedagogic thinkers: Dave Cormier

An interview with Dave Cormier, the founder of Rhizomatic learnin