My First MOOC

To start off the new year, I decided to participate in an online course on Learning and Knowledge Analytics.  I didn't know much about the course.  What I did know was that I was interested in the topic, that the course was free, it required only the amount of time and effort I wanted to put into it, and was promoted to me via an email from George Siemens, a guy in Canada whose previous work on technology and education had caught my attention.  What I didn't know was that the format of the course would catch my attention at least as much as the content itself.

The course began last week with simple introductory type materials posted on a web site and then reinforced via email.  First, I discovered that there were over 400 people registered for the course.  That was impressive.  When it came time to do the obligatory introductions via discussion thread, I discovered that the registrants were from all over the world and included some very forward thinking educators, technologists, and perhaps some budding entrepreneurs.  VERY impressive.  Finally, as I started reviewing the introductory materials, I discovered a blog post from Dave Cormier, another Canadian education type whom I had been tracking via Twitter for over a year after hearing him on an edtechtalk podcast.  The blog post took me to three videos describing a MOOC, a Massively Online Open Course.  These videos and the work and ideas behind them caught my attention.

Rather than me describing a MOOC, I encourage you to view the 3 videos - What is a MOOC? (4 minutes and 27 seconds), Success in a MOOC (4 minutes and 17 seconds), and Knowledge in a MOOC (1 minute and 53 seconds).  I hope you find them worthwhile.  To me, this type of learning concept holds real promise.  I think of the MOOC as a practical application of a lot of the educational theory that has been related to technology.  For those of us at A.T. Still University, our new strategic plan talks about ATSU as a Learning-Centered institution.  For me, this concept brings together the components of technology to help build and practice a learning-centered culture.

I recognize that it is only week 1 of the course and the jury is still out.  I also confess that the method is a bit... well, messy.  There is a lot of disconnected content scattered in a wide variety of places.  But I also wonder if this isn't the real world experience that we need to help prepare future generations to deal with.  I'll keep you posted as the course progresses.  Let me know your thoughts in the comments.