eduMOOC OERu Planning Group

Defining a MOOC

Definition

An online phenomenon gathering momentum over the past two years or so, a MOOC integrates the connectivity of social networking, the facilitation of an acknowledged expert in a field of study, and a collection of freely accessible online resources. Perhaps most importantly, however, a MOOC builds on the active engagement of several hundred to several thousand “students” who self-organize their participation according to learning goals, prior knowledge and skills, and common interests. Although it may share in some of the conventions of an ordinary course, such as a predefined timeline and weekly topics for consideration, a MOOC generally carries no fees, no prerequisites other than Internet access and interest, no predefined expectations for participation, and no formal accreditation. McAuley, Stewart, Siemens and Cormier. 2010. The MOOC Model for digital practice,

Characteristics of a MOOC:

1. Course
2. Based on OER
3. Connectivity of social networking
4. Facilitated
5. Large numbers of learners
6. Self organisation
7. No fees
8. No prerequisites
9. Usually no formal accreditation

Course examples

Examples of courses representing the MOOC approach are listed below for comparison and further analysis.

Code	Date	Course	Institution	Facilitators	For credit option	Estimated No. of Participants	Case study link
eL4C	Feb 2007	Learning4Content pilot workshop	Commonwealth of Learning	Mackintosh	No	148 (check)	Case study eL4C
INST 7150	Fall 2007	Introduction to Open Education	State Univeristy of Utah, USA	Wiley	Yes	55 (? for credit)	Case study INST 7150
EC&I 831	Fall 2007	Social Media and Open Education	University of Regina, Canada		Yes	363 (16 for credit)	EC&I 831
	Mar 2008	Composing free and open online education resources	University of Art and Design Helsinki	Leinonen, Poldoja	No	35
	2008	Facilitating online	Otago Polytechnic	Blackall, Hegarty	Yes	89 (9 for credit)	Case Study OPFO
CCKO8	Fall 2008	Connectivism and Connective Knowledge Online Course	Extended Education and Learning Technologies Centre, University of Manitoba	Siemens, Downes	Yes	+ 2300 (25 for credit - capped) Moodle: 178	Case study CCK
EC&I 831	Winter 2008	Social Media and Open Education	University of Regina, Canada		Yes	?  (21 for credit)	EC&I 831
CCK09	Fall 2009	Connectivism and Connective Knowledge Online Course	Extended Education and Learning Technologies Centre, University of Manitoba	Siemens, Downes	Yes	? Moodle: 122	Case study CCK
EC&I 831	Winter 2009	Social Media and Open Education	University of Regina, Canada		Yes		EC&I 831
EC&I 831	Fall 2009	Social Media and Open Education	University of Regina, Canada		Yes	347 (16 for credit)	EC&I 831
CritLit	June 2010	Critical Literacies	National Research Council of Canada’s Institute for Information Technology (Learning and Collaborative Group)	Kop	No	377
eL4C41	Jul 2010	Learning4Content (Wikieducator gives back).	OER Foundation	Mackintosh, Schlicht, Mathur, Sharma, Parker, Radney, Jones, Snieckus, Stewart	No	421	Case study eL4C
PLENK2010	Fall 2010	Personal Learning Environments Networks and Knowledge	National Research Council of Canada and TEKRI, Athabasca University	Siemens, Downes, Cormier	No	1610 Moodle: 206	Case study PLENK
OCL4ED	Mar 2011	Open Content Licensing for Educators	OER Foundation	Mackintosh, Hornibrook	No	334	Case study OCL4ED
CCK11	Spring 2011	Connectivism and Connective Knowledge Online Course	Extended Education and Learning Technologies Centre, University of Manitoba	Siemens, Downes	No		Case study CCK
LAK11	Spring 2011	Introduction to Learning and Knowledge Analytics	TEKRI, Athabasca University	Siemens, Dron, Cormier, Currie, Elias	No		LAK11
MobiMOOC	Spring 2011	Mobile learning		Traxler, de Waard, Metcalf, Black, Sanford, Duncan, Winters and Brown	No	553 (Google group)	Case study MobiMOOC
DS106	Summer 2011	Digital storytelling	University of Mary Washington	Groom	Yes	?	Case study DS106
eduMOOC	Summer 2011	Online learning today .. and tomorrow	University of of Illinois Springfield	Schroeder	No	+2500	Case study EduMOOC

Critical reflections

• How about adding a course to the table above that represents an actual discipline area from the science, mathematics, business or health domains? Everything listed above amounts to a professional practice meta-course. Making the assumption that MOOCs work beyond professional practice courses for educators would seem to be a basic need for any OERu application of MOOcs. David Porter

David, that's a valid point and raises the question of the suitability of the MOOC pedagogy for "disciplines" of study outside of the domain of educational practice. I'm not aware of any large open courses in the sciences or business so we need to remember this shortcoming in our study and analysis. Within the list of case studies we have examples of technical skills development, important for vocational education - but the pedagogy is distinctively different from the "Connectivism" hybrid of MOOC. Related to this question is the nature and level of the credential of the for-credit options running in parallel with the free course (which I have listed as a separate bullet below) --Wayne Mackintosh 23:36, 6 July 2011 (UTC)

• For the purposes of analysing the implementation potential of MOOC's for the OERu we must consider the nature and level of the credential. Of the courses listed above there are two post-graduate examples: INST 7150 offered by Utah State Univerisity (3 credit graduate course) and EC&I 831 at the University of Regina (which appears to be a 3 credit graduate course). To the best of my knowledge -- INST7150 was not offered in the open format in subsequent years -- so we need to establish why. However, the EC&I 831 courses have been offered in both formats in subsequent years. The CCK course was a required course (36.5 hours out of 216 hours) in the Certificate in Emerging Technologies for Learning which was offered by the Learning Technologies Centre at the University of Manitoba. Subsequently the Center was closed occasioned by the retirement of Peter Tittenberger and resignation of George Siemens at the Centre. The website for CCK11 does not reference a for-credit option. The courses offered by Otago Polytechic under the Graduate Certificate for Tertiary Teaching which carried a for-credit option are Level 7 (third year bachelor degree level) on the New Zealand Qualifications Framework. --Wayne Mackintosh 23:56, 6 July 2011 (UTC) .

Just as a note, CCK11 was offered as a for credit option, see the about page on the CCK11 website --Steph 19:47, 11 July 2011 (UTC)

Critical review case study teams

Please volunteer to assist with authoring a critical case study review by adding your name to the teams below. Teams of two or three people per case study would be ideal.