if I give people the right to share, use, and even build upon my work” (Cameron, 2013). Although I would expect that with a license placed on my work, people would abide by the rules. By putting a license on my work, does it really guarantee people will abide by the license? According to Steven Downes “When I put a license, I’m saying this is what I want, I hope you respect it” (2013) If someone does not respect my license, would I spend the time, energy and money making sure that my license is “respected.”
MOOCs are the original MOOCs, taught by Alec Couros, George Siemens, Stephen Downes, Dave
Cormier. The goal is not so much content and skills acquisition, but conversation, socially constructed knowledge, and exposure to the milieu of learning on the open web using distributed means. The pedagogy of network-based MOOCs is based in connectivist or connectivist-style methods. Resources are provided, but exploration is more important than any particular content. Traditional assessment is difficult.
Task-based
MOOCs emphasize skills in the sense that they ask the learner to complete certain types of work. In Jim Groom’s ds106 at UMW, the learning is distributed and the formats variable. There are many options for completing each assignment, but a certain number and variety of assignments need to be done to perform the skills. Similarly, our POT Certificate Class focuses on different topics for each week, and skills are demonstrated through sections on design, audio, video etc. in an effort to expose learners to many different formats and styles in online teaching. Community is crucial, particularly for examples and
assistance, but it is a secondary goal. Pedagogy of task-based MOOCs tend to be a mix of instructivism and constructivism. Traditional assessment is difficult here too.
Content-based
MOOCs are the ones with huge enrollments, commercial prospects, big universityprofessors, automated testing, and exposure in the popular press. Community is difficult but may be highly significant to the participants, or one can go it alone. Content acquisition is more important in these classes than either
networking or task completion, and they tend to use instructivist pedagogy. Traditional assessment, both formative and summative, may be emphasized. Mass participation seems to imply mass processing. (Lane, 2012).
After reading and developing a better understanding of MOOCs and the different types of MOOCS, I felt I needed to look into the history of MOOCs. This lead to a Blog post by Jeff Dunn titled “A Quick Quide to the History of MOOCs.” According Jeff Dunn, the first Massive Open Online Course was first offered in 2008 and by 2013 there are over 100 courses being offered. Additionally, in a blog post titled 5 Potential Ways MOOCs Will Evolve Dunn points out four guiding principles behind MOOCs:
- Aggregation. The whole point of a connectivist MOOC is to provide a starting point for a massive amount of content to be produced in different places online, which is later aggregated as a newsletter or a web page accessible to participants on a regular basis. This is in contrast to traditional courses, where the content is prepared ahead of time.
- The second principle is remixing, that is, associating materials created within the course with each other and with materials elsewhere.
- Re-purposing of aggregated and remixed materials to suit the goals of each participant.
- Feeding forward, sharing of re-purposed ideas and content with other participants and the rest of the world (Dunn, 2012).
content being offered to the world as Open Educational Resources, the difference will be in how educators use the content “to support the learning “ (Tracey, 2012). Additionally, Tracey predicts that a hybrid MOOC will emerge:
"Sooner or later, the powers that be will remember that an instructivist approach suits novices, while an increasingly constructivist and connectivist approach suits learners as they develop their expertise. Hence, the MOOC of the future may resemble an xMOOC in its early stages, and morph into a cMOOC in its later stages" (Tracey, 2012).
What predictions can you make for the Future of MOOCS?
Downes, S. (2013, May 25). Oer's, moocs and the future. Retrieved from
http://www.slideshare.net/Downes/2013-05-25-couros-course2013
Dunn, J. (2012, October 04). 5 potential ways moocs will evolve. edudemic, Retrieved from http://edudemic.com/2012/10/moocs-past-present-future/
Dunn, J. (2012, December 24). A quick guide to the history of moocs. edudemic, Retrieved from
http://edudemic.com/2012/12/a-quick-guide-to-the-history-of-moocs/
Lane, L. (2012, August 15). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://lisahistory.net/wordpress/2012/08/three-kinds-of-moocs/
Tracey, R. (2012, November 26). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://ryan2point0.wordpress.com/2012/11/26/the-future-of-moocs/