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IMC AG: 10 Fragen zu MOOC 1. Herr Professor Scheer, gemeinsam mit Universitäten, hochrangigen Dozenten und der IMC AG als Technologiepartner starten Sie zurzeit die Initiative OpenCourseWorld als erste deutsche, hochschulübergreifende MOOC-Plattform. Was sind die Gründe dafür?Das Konzept der MOOCs wird unsere Bildungslandschaft massiv verändern. Moodle 2.0 Course Conversion Beginner's Guide eBook: $26.99 Formats: $22.94 save 15%! Print + free eBook + free PacktLib access to the book: $71.98 Print cover: $44.99 $44.99 save 37%! Free Shipping! UK, US, Europe and selected countries in Asia.
Assessing MOOCs at HigherEdTech conference LAS VEGAS -- You probably won't be surprised to learn that amid all the high-profile speakers (such as the former Harvard University President Lawrence H. Summers and ex-New York City schools chief Joel Klein) and the many topics discussed (the rise of "big data," the transformation of the textbook industry) at last week's HigherEdTech Summit here, MOOCs reigned. As was true throughout the last year, when massive open online courses roared onto the scene and dominated talk about technology (and many other things) in higher education, quite a bit of the daylong discussion at the summit (part of the mammoth and glitzy International Consumer Electronics Show) revolved around how game-changing MOOCs have been and will be. But so, too, was there a good bit of nuance, and some thoughtfulness about what won't (and shouldn't) change. But Ng perceived progress on that front. To reinforce Thille’s argument, Ng offered an example from his own 100,000-student MOOC on machine learning last spring.
As California Goes? California has taken centre stage in the discussions around online learning and MOOCs in recent weeks, prompted by passage of tax increases (see more and more) to cover rising deficits in the state's higher education system. An organization called 20 Million Minds (20MM) organized a conference to discuss proposals. E-Literate provided very good coverage of the event, which was called Re:Boot California Higher education - a post listing statements made before the conference, some opening thoughts from Michael Feldstein, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg's introduction, and bottleneck courses. At WCET, Phil Hill describes the state's increasing rolein the governance of the system. What will the future hold in the rethought California system? Tanya Roscorla summarizes three major points:
MOOCs are really a platform We can officially declare massive open online courses (MOOCs) as the higher education buzzword for 2012. Between Coursera, edX and smaller open course offerings, nearly $100 million in funding has been directed toward MOOCs in that past 8 months. Newspapers from NYTimes to Globe and Mail to publications such as the Chronicle of Higher Education, TV programs such as NPR, radio programs such as CBC, and a few hundred thousand blog posts have contributed to the hype. In higher education, there is joyful abundance of opinions on the topic, ranging from breathless proclamations of their disruptive potential to general dismissal of any value. I’ve captured numerous articles here on diigo. Largely lost in the conversation around MOOCs is the different ideology that drives what are currently two broad MOOC offerings: the connectivist MOOCs (cMOOCs?)
MOOC's for Credit come to California Take note, folks. It’s here: “MOOCs” for credit. California Governor Jerry Brown, San Jose State University President Mo Qayoumi, and Udacity co-founder and CEO Sebastian Thrun held a press conference this morning to announce a pilot program that marks a first for the state: San Jose State will award college credits for special versions of select Udacity classes. The pilot program will be available to a group of 300 students from San Jose State, community colleges and high schools, but it’s really aimed at the latter two groups — in the hopes of boosting students’ “college readiness” and with the recognition that the wait lists for California’s community colleges make it incredibly challenging for these students to get into introductory classes. (In the fall of this school year, The LA Times reported that some 470,000 California students were on waiting lists for community college classes.) The Year of the “MOOC”?
5 Potential Ways MOOCs Will Evolve In order to understand where MOOCs are heading (at least taking a stab at guessing their future), it’s important to know what the stated goals are. In case you’re still new to MOOCs, here’s a helpful rundown of the guiding principles behind MOOCs : Aggregation. The Dunbar Number, From the Guru of Social Networks A little more than 10 years ago, the evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar began a study of the Christmas-card-sending habits of the English. This was in the days before online social networks made friends and “likes” as countable as miles on an odometer, and Dunbar wanted a proxy for meaningful social connection. He was curious to see not only how many people a person knew, but also how many people he or she cared about.
"MOOCs" for Credit Come to California Take note, folks. It’s here: “MOOCs” for credit. California Governor Jerry Brown, San Jose State University President Mo Qayoumi, and Udacity co-founder and CEO Sebastian Thrun held a press conference this morning to announce a pilot program that marks a first for the state: San Jose State will award college credits for special versions of select Udacity classes. The pilot program will be available to a group of 300 students from San Jose State, community colleges and high schools, but it’s really aimed at the latter two groups — in the hopes of boosting students’ “college readiness” and with the recognition that the wait lists for California’s community colleges make it incredibly challenging for these students to get into introductory classes. (In the fall of this school year, The LA Times reported that some 470,000 California students were on waiting lists for community college classes.) The Year of the “MOOC”?
Why MOOCs are like Farmville Another day, another report from one of the thought leaders on higher education. This time it is from Moody’s, which proclaims the death of the traditional model of higher education. While the concerns raised by Moody’s are real – diminished resources due to state budget cuts, declining family incomes, and less willingness by students to take on debt – we should hesitate before leaping to the conclusion that these challenges necessitate a radical change, through massive adoption of online learning technologies such as MOOCs. Count me among the skeptical – I’m not yet convinced that MOOCs are going to lead students to jettison a traditional higher education experience anytime soon. Over the past few weeks, for every piece of commentary extolling the virtue of MOOCs, I have found another that calls into question whether this particular type of online learning is sustainable over the long term.
Measuring the Success of Online Education One of the dirty secrets about MOOCs — massive open online courses — is that they are not very effective, at least if you measure effectiveness in terms of completion rates. If as few as 20 percent of students finishing an online course is considered a wild success and 10 percent and lower is standard, then it would appear that MOOCs are still more of a hobby than a viable alternative to traditional classroom education. Backers reason that the law of large numbers argues in favor of the online courses that have rapidly come to be seen as the vehicle for the Internet’s next big disruption — colleges. Inequality in American Education Will Not Be Solved Online - Ian Bogost With funding tight, the state of California has turned to Udacity to provide MOOCs for students enrolled in remedial courses. But what is lost when public education is privatized? Unlit road at night (MRBECK/Flickr) One night recently, it was raining hard as I drove to pick my son up from an evening class at the Atlanta Ballet. Like many cities, Atlanta's roads are in terrible condition after years of neglect.