So how was this managed or assessed by the instructors? It seems like the discussions for the for credit students would need to be an more secure or predetermined spot?
This link has been bookmarked by 100 people and liked by 2 people. It was first bookmarked on 30 Aug 2010, by Skip Via.
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Instructors, for their part, curated rather than dictated the discussion
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"The Ideals and Reality of Participating in a MOOC."
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In February, Wendy K. Drexler, a postdoctoral associate at the University of Florida who studied with Mr. Siemens and Mr. Downes, will help lead a new would-be MOOC about technology and learning.
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Lisa SpiroExplores Massive Open Online Courses: "he Downes-Siemens course has become a landmark in the small but growing push toward "open teaching." Universities such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have offered free educational materials online for years, but the new breed of open teachers—at the University of Florida, Brigham Young University, and the University of Regina, among other places—is now giving away the learning experience, too."
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William "Bud" DeihlIntroduction / overview of the concept of a mooc and references to the work of StephenDowns and George Siemens. Considerations of openness vs. control and provides students' view.
online-course-design mooc mooc-onlline-course teachingonline cte-online-teaching
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mrearickMarc Perry describes CCK08 as an MOOC experiment in learning. Wendy Drexler described the course offered by George Siemens and Stephen Downes at the University of Manitoba as one of the most valuable experiences in her life. I would agree with this assessment, and I am sure that George and Stephen would also agree. The course for me was a game within a game within a game. The experience shifted emphasis from the teacher to the learner and from the classroom to the Internet. The Internet is an open network and the learner must be able to read, write, think, self-regulate, access, organize, evaluate... and develop a host of new literacies in order to play the learning game effectively.
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sherylteachesIn his work as a professor, Stephen Downes used to feel that he was helping those who least needed it. His students at places like the University of Alberta already had a leg up in life and could afford the tuition
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bcby cOnline, Bigger Classes May Be Better Classes
A Chronicle of Higher Education article providing an overview of the Massive Open Online
Course (MOOC) phenomenon. Perhaps most interestingly, based upon the URL and the HTML
title of this piece, the original t -
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Hannes KlöpperSo when a colleague suggested they co-teach an online class in learning theory at the University of Manitoba, in 2008, Mr. Downes welcomed the chance to expand that privileged club. The idea: Why not invite the rest of world to join the 25 students who we
education technology chronicle article crowdsourcing e-learning
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open teaching
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Massive Open Online Course
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glowing descriptions can make these happenings sound like digital Woodstocks for the educational-technology set.
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Much like the founders of Napster shredded the notion of an album, allowing users to remix songs however they pleased, Mr. Siemens is hacking the format of a class.
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Massive Open Online Course, or MOOC.
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Openness proponents contend that distance education often isolates students behind password-protected gates. By unlatching those barriers, professors like Mr. Couros are inventing a way of learning online that feels less like a digital copy of face-to-face classes and more like the open, social, connected Web of blogs, wikis, and Twitter. It can expose students to a far broader network than they would encounter discussing their lessons with a small group of graduate students.
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Add Sticky Note
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estelaripaarticulo periodístico que cuenta el origen de los cursos abiertos
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So when a colleague suggested they co-teach an online class in learning theory at the University of Manitoba, in 2008, Mr. Downes welcomed the chance to expand that privileged club. The idea: Why not invite the rest of world to join the 25 students who were taking the course for credit?
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The Downes-Siemens course has become a landmark in the small but growing push toward "open teaching." Universities such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have offered free educational materials online for years, but the new breed of open teachers—at the University of Florida, Brigham Young University, and the University of Regina, among other places—is now giving away the learning experience, too.
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Openness proponents contend that distance education often isolates students behind password-protected gates. By unlatching those barriers, professors like Mr. Couros are inventing a way of learning online that feels less like a digital copy of face-to-face classes and more like the open, social, connected Web of blogs, wikis, and Twitter. It can expose students to a far broader network than they would encounter discussing their lessons with a small group of graduate students.
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Some open professors are finding, though, that exposure brings its own challenges. Like disruptive jerks who inject themselves into your class. Or a loss of privacy that some students find jarring.
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Openness vs. Control
But the difficult questions remain.
Start with privacy. How do professors protect students who feel uncomfortable—or unsafe—communicating in a classroom on the open Web? How do they deal with learning content that isn't licensed for open use? What about informal students who want course credit?
And, most basically, if professors offer the masses a chance to pull up a virtual seat in class, how do they make sure the crowd behaves?
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Not that everything was revolutionary. As a for-credit student, Ms. Drexler jumped through some of the usual hoops: papers, final project, weekly readings (though those were posted openly on a wiki). What was different was the radically decentralized, "kids in control" environment.
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Instead of restricting posts to a closed discussion forum in a system like Blackboard, the class left students free to debate anywhere. Some used Moodle, an open-source course-management system. Others preferred blogs, Twitter, or Ning. In the virtual world Second Life, students built two Spanish-language sites. Some even got together face-to-face to discuss the material.
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"This is a very different way to learn," Ms. Drexler says. "I as a learner had to take responsibility. I had to take control of that learning process way more than I've had to do in any traditional type of course, whether it's face-to-face or online."
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Instructors, for their part, curated rather than dictated the discussion. Each day they e-mailed a newsletter highlighting key points. While 2,300 people got the newsletter, a far smaller group, perhaps 150, actively participated in the course. Only those taking the course for credit had their work evaluated, although in smaller open courses at least one faculty member has volunteered to grade work by nonpaying students.
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On privacy, some open teachers are already adjusting their courses to address student needs. Mr. Couros, at Regina, has begun more explicitly emphasizing a "safe space" for enrolled students, who are typically hesitant at first and crave a private forum for certain questions. He sets up protected areas for them with tools like Google Groups and Moodle. He even allowed one for-credit student worried about privacy to participate in the course under a fake name.
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Mr. Downes, who writes a well-known education technology blog called OLDaily, permits students to create private groups if they like. But that isn't the default position. He also argues that closed classes provide a lot of latitude for misbehavior, such as prejudice or acting inappropriately toward women.
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Beyond privacy, distance educators also question how well the open-teaching model, which has been limited mostly to educational-technology courses, would apply to more-traditional subjects that may require more guidance for students.
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But the biggest obstacle might be technology. At the end of the day, the popularity of open classes will depend on whether learning-management software companies like Blackboard make it easy to publish open versions of online courses, says David Wiley, an associate professor of instructional psychology and technology at Brigham Young and an open-teaching pioneer.
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Trudi Van WykWendy K. Drexler, a postdoctoral associate at the U. of Florida who says huge open classes have provided her with valuable learning experiences, is planning to help teach one on technology and learning.
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Vance StevensThe Downes-Siemens course has become a landmark in the small but growing push toward "open teaching." Universities such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have offered free educational materials online for years, but the new breed of open teache
massivelyopenonlinecourse MOOC georgesiemens stephendownes cck08 downes connectivism connectivismandconnectedknowledge knowledge knowledge-able marcparry opencourseware oer siemens evomlit pp107
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Greg ThompsonOnline, Bigger Classes May Be Better Classes
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Clint Lalondey unlatching those barriers, professors like Mr. Couros are inventing a way of learning online that feels less like a digital copy of face-to-face classes and more like the open, social, connected Web of blogs, wikis, and Twitter. It can expose students t
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Gene23 ShashinCCK08: Article overviewing and critiquing the Downes Siemens MOOC
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From the article: "Openness proponents contend that distance education often isolates students behind password-protected gates. By unlatching those barriers, professors like Mr. Couros are inventing a way of learning online that feels less like a digital
online downes education open_courses Educational_Technology Research_Report_9-03-10
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Tony SearlOpenness proponents contend that distance education often isolates students behind password-protected gates. By unlatching those barriers, professors like Mr. Couros are inventing a way of learning online that feels less like a digital copy of face-to-face classes and more like the open, social, connected Web of blogs, wikis, and Twitter. It can expose students to a far broader network than they would encounter discussing their lessons with a small group of graduate students.
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antonella espositoThe Chronicle of Higher Education, August 29, 2010
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Bill DrewRT @chronicle: Why not invite the rest of the world to join students in an online class? http://bit.ly/cJCxwy
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Andrew BarrasFascinating idea. Opening up access to online course for no credit.
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In his work as a professor, Stephen Downes used to feel that he was helping those who least needed it.
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So when a colleague suggested they co-teach an online class in learning theory at the University of Manitoba, in 2008, Mr. Downes welcomed the chance to expand that privileged club. The idea: Why not invite the rest of world to join the 25 students who were taking the course for credit?
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Over 2,300 people showed up.
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They didn't get credit, but they didn't get a bill, either. In an experiment that could point to a more open future for e-learning, Mr. Downes and George Siemens attracted about 1,200 noncredit participants last year.
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"We have to get away from this whole idea that universities own learning," says Alec V. Couros, who teaches his own open class as an associate professor of education at Regina, in Saskatchewan. "They own education in some sense. But they don't own learning."
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Openness proponents contend that distance education often isolates students behind password-protected gates. By unlatching those barriers, professors like Mr. Couros are inventing a way of learning online that feels less like a digital copy of face-to-face classes and more like the open, social, connected Web of blogs, wikis, and Twitter. It can expose students to a far broader network than they would encounter discussing their lessons with a small group of graduate students.
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The classes have even spawned a new name: Massive Open Online Course, or MOOC.
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But the difficult questions remain.
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How do professors protect students who feel uncomfortable—or unsafe—communicating in a classroom on the open Web? How do they deal with learning content that isn't licensed for open use? What about informal students who want course credit?
-
And, most basically, if professors offer the masses a chance to pull up a virtual seat in class, how do they make sure the crowd behaves?
-
Instead of restricting posts to a closed discussion forum in a system like Blackboard, the class left students free to debate anywhere. Some used Moodle, an open-source course-management system. Others preferred blogs, Twitter, or Ning. In the virtual world Second Life, students built two Spanish-language sites. Some even got together face-to-face to discuss the material.
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"This is a very different way to learn," Ms. Drexler says. "I as a learner had to take responsibility. I had to take control of that learning process way more than I've had to do in any traditional type of course, whether it's face-to-face or online."
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Like many institutions, the University of California at Irvine publishes free online learning materials, such as lecture slides and syllabi. But Gary W. Matkin, dean of continuing education, says he can see inviting outsiders to participate in an online course only if they did so in a separate space.
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Partly, he says, it's about student privacy. But it's also about setting a learning context for paying students, meaning what they see and how their education is structured. If instructors don't control that context, he says, "they're in some sense abdicating their responsibilities to their own students."
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Open teaching is up against academe's history of private classrooms and intellectual-property ownership, says Lori Wallace, dean of extended education. For it to spread more broadly in distance education, she says, would involve "some very significant changes to the culture."
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The Downes-Siemens course has become a landmark in the small but growing push toward "open teaching.
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new breed of open teachers—at the University of Florida, Brigham Young University, and the University of Regina, among other places
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deb kitchenermight be interesting idea about open education.....
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30 Aug 10
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markbullenPeople who have grown up with digital media are often assumed to be universally savvy with information and communication technologies. Such assumptions are rarely grounded in empirical evidence, however. This article draws on unique data with information
imported Diigo_-_markbullen's_Bookmarks opened delicious openeducation
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amy monaghanIn his work as a professor, Stephen Downes used to feel that he was helping those who least needed it. His students at places like the University of Alberta already had a leg up in life and could afford the tuition.\n\nSo when a colleague suggested they co-teach an online class in learning theory at the University of Manitoba, in 2008, Mr. Downes welcomed the chance to expand that privileged club. The idea: Why not invite the rest of world to join the 25 students who were taking the course for credit?\n\nOver 2,300 people showed up.
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