Moodle MOOC Reflection # 5
Beyond MOOCs — June 04 2014 / Presenter: Dr. Ebba Ossiannilsson/Online
Event Summary:
Dr. Ossiannilsson discussed the history and the evolution of MOOCs since its inception in 2008. Every letter of the term Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) is negotiable and forms the basis of different types of MOOCs serving different contexts and needs. The facilitator also discussed the uses of learning analytics and the European thrust towards “opening up education”. She reported that while we have solved the technical issues in MOOCs, we still need to solve the human issues related to them. She concluded the presentation with “caring is sharing, sharing is caring”.
MOOCs and Its Possible Application in Schools
Dr. Ossiannilsson discussed that every part of the MOOC acronym is negotiable. She also discussed how the early MOOCs were essentially CMOOCs (constructivist, community-centered) while more recent XMOOCs were driven by institutions/suppliers.
Of particular interest to me was how the concept of MOOCs could be tailored to fit organizational requirements. As considerable resources are needed to support MOOCs, smaller educational institutions may more likely start with SPOCs (small, private online courses) while slowly building capacity to support BOOCs (bigger, open online courses).
Even with the technology expertise and resources provided by WizIQ MOOCs, the video presentations almost always have a technical issue — lost sound, dropped video, etc.
Real-time interaction for smaller schools may present technical and resource issues as this involves some form of video streaming/application sharing. Even with the technology expertise and resources provided by WizIQ MOOCs, the video presentations almost always have a technical issue — lost sound, dropped video, etc.
Third party suppliers may be a possibility to augment internal capabilities, but we would need to see more encouraging examples of this technology in use.
I struggle to think how small school IT departments will cope with these issues should they need to support these synchronous online video activities. I also struggle to think how we can encourage our teachers to pursue such online video activities until we address these resource issues. Third party suppliers may be a possibility to augment internal capabilities, but we would need to see more encouraging examples of this technology in use.
Quality in Open Education: Implementation Considerations
Dr. Ebba’s discussion regarding different ideas that influence quality in open education were quite enlightening. She explained the concept of openness of content and presented this as “5o Shades of Openness” ☺.
She also raised the issue of Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Standard — a standard for enabling web use for disabled users — and noted that very few MOOCs were compliant. While compliance with WAI standards may not be practical for most organizations, it is an issue that the organization will need to seriously consider if it is truly support open education.
Dr. Ossiannilsson also mentioned how MOOCs can be used to develop and support 21st century skills and its particular importance to Europe in the context of maintaining the global competitiveness of its workforce. A similar report, Future Work Skills 2020 has been published by the Institute for the Future (IFTF).
She then discussed the concept of Learning Analytics and various levels of analysis (Object Analysis, Course Level, Departmental Level, Institutional, Regional, National, International). She posited that analytics could benefit users, teachers, administrators, education authorities, and national governments. She then discussed how analytics could be used to improve the entire learning process, as well as the required knowledge and skills needed to make use of these analytics.
She noted that learning analytics could be used to monitor and provide feedback on the pedagogic consequences so that changes could be made to pedagogic practices.
She then shared that if an online course complied with EADTU/OpenUpEd standards, then it could obtain the OpenUpEd label. She encouraged participants by saying that we have solved most of the technical issues and now addressing the human issues.
Dr. Ebba also shared her observations regarding the continuing evolution of MOOCs and how MOOCs will now need to continually address the question of “What is in it for me?”.
She concluded with the inspiring quote that “caring is sharing, sharing is caring”.
Thank you for the insightful presentation Dr. Ossiannilsson.
May you continue to be an inspiration to others.