Learning and Development, Training, eLearning, Educational Technology, Human Services, and more…

This is an interesting Chronicle Wired article about a professor who leaves a Coursera MOOC over disagreements about how to best conduct the course.

Professor Leaves a MOOC in Mid-Course in Dispute Over Teaching

I’m not sure if this professor has experience teaching online, but based on my limited MOOC experience as a participant, I think it is important that instructors teaching MOOCs have experience teaching in the online environment. I think that one of the reasons the E-Learning and Digital Cultures (#EDC) MOOC has been such a positive experience is that all of the instructors have extensive experience teaching online.  These University of Edinburgh instructors teach in an online degree program and the MOOC they are teaching is a longer version of the EDC course within that program.  They also invited their MA students to participate in the MOOC which I think is brilliant.

MOOC instructors should clearly understand how MOOCs are different than traditional online courses.  I think this example as well as the recent cancellation of the Fundamentals of Online Education course also makes the case that MOOCs should be not be taught by an individual instructor.

Word Clouds by Tagxedo

Just discovered a new word cloud tool called Tagxdeo. I’ve been using Wordle for years to create Word Clouds but Tagxedo includes some wonderful creative options. Check it out!

Web 2 Peace Cloud

Web 2.0 Peace Cloud

I’ve very excited that we just purchased a subscription to Quality Matters (QM).  Quality Matter is a well-known leader in quality assurance for online education and offers a peer review process and rubric that is designed to certify the quality of online and blended courses. The QM rubric includes 8 standards:

  • Course Learning Objectives (Competencies)
  • Assessment and Measurement
  • Instructional Materials
  • Learner Interaction and Engagement
  • Course Technology
  • Learner Support
  • Accessibility

The Journal of Teaching and Learning with Technology (JoTLT) recently published an article about QM entitled, Using Quality Matters (QM) to Improve All Courses.

More MOOC News

One of the participants in the EDC MOOC shared a link to the upcoming “Learning Analytics and Knowledge” MOOC and after checking it out, I noticed all the open courses coming up on the Canvas Network. I know a lot of universities are moving to the Canvas LMS so I may  register for a CN course and see it for myself.  A couple of conflicting Coursera articles in the news this week:

American Council on Education Recommends 5 MOOCs for Credit (all Coursera)

MOOC Mess (MOOC suspended due to Tech Issues – Ironically the course is called “Fundamentals of Online Education: Planning and Application.”

In Diana Oblinger’s video welcome at the ELI meeting, she suggests that the term “eLearning” be replaced with an updated term which she calls “Connected Learning.” I do think we need a better term to describe online/distance learning but I’m not sure  if connected learning will catch on.

Below is link to Tuesday’s opening ELI General Session where Diana makes her pitch for “Connected Learning” as well as a great talk from Vincent Tinto from Syracuse University titled “Student Success Does Not Arise by Chance.”

Tuesday’s General Session Recording

Educause Learning Initiative’s (ELI) annual meeting is in Denver this week (Feb 4-6, 2013).  Below are some of the resources from the meeting.

Digital Poster Gallery (Tuesday)

ELI 2013: Online Educators’ Lessons Learned

Educause Event Planning Kit

2012 Horizon Report

edcMOOC Blog

I’ve decided to create a new blog dedicated specifically to the EDC MOOC.

http://kkeairns.wordpress.com/

I’ll reserve the @kkeairns blog for sharing posts about online learning and emerging technologies.

This is a video posted in Week 1 of the #edcmooc. Very impressive animation & visual & audio effects. Reminds me of people who are obsessed with the latest & greatest gadgets and technologies even when their old tech or gadget works perfectly fine.Did someone say Apple?

The author if this chapter entitled “The Post-Modality Era: How Online Learning is Becoming Learning” makes a great point. Today, some universities limit the number of online courses traditional students are allowed to take and use different tuition models and admissions standards based on the delivery method but this is changing.  In the future, Blended/Hybrid, Online, and F2F will be ubiquitous on college campuses and students can choose the mode that of learning that suits them best.

http://www.educause.edu/library/resources/chapter-16-postmodality-era-how-%E2%80%9Conline-learning%E2%80%9D-becoming-%E2%80%9Clearning%E2%80%9D