Multilitteratus Incognitus

Finally!  I've made it to the end of the book!  It only took me nine months to do so (a couple of chapters each month?) but it's finally done!  This will be my final review of chapters in  Macro-Level Learning through Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs): Strategies and Predictions for the Future .  I was going to write two separate blog posts about this, one for each chapter, but I've sort of run out of steam, and I have a sense that I will be writing the same (or similar things) for the last two chapters. Today under the microscope are chapter 11, which is titled  MOOCs: Evolution and Revolution, and Chapter 12 which is titled  The Evolution of Online Learning and Related Tools and Techniques toward MOOCs . It should be noted that there is actually a chapter 13 and 14, but I had received those to review before I got this book, and I've written briefly about them, sometime last year - so no rehash in this post. The abstract for chapter 11 is as foll...

Chugging along (hey I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!) with my review of  Macro-Level Learning through Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs): Strategies and Predictions for the Future , which started some time last year.  Today under the microscope is chapter 10, which is titled  Redefining the Classroom: Integration of Open and Classroom Learning in Higher Education.   The abstract is as follows: The printing technology revolutionized the dissemination of knowledge at a pace never conceived of earlier. In recent times, radio and television brought education within the reach of masses. More recently, the multimedia technology, and Internet have revolutionized the delivery of education. Top universities of the world have collaborated to develop massive open online courses (MOOCs) that are made available to public either free of charge or at a nominal cost. Mainly supported by start-ups such as Coursera, Udacity, and EdX, MOOCs are mostly created ...

This morning, while commuting, I was able to read through another chapter in the book titled  Macro-Level Learning through Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs): Strategies and Predictions for the Future , which I started back in August of 2015 (or somewhere there about).  This time I am reviewing chapter 9, which is titled  Deceptive Promises: The Meaning of MOOCs-Hype for Higher Education.   The abstract is as follows: Since 2011, massive open online courses (MOOCs) fired the imagination of the general public as well as the academics, university administrators and investors alike. This chapter is an analysis of the main promises and expectations associated with MOOCs in higher education. This analysis is largely informed by a literature review of new extensive research reports, press releases, media articles, scholarly blogs and academic papers. Considering costs and benefits, ethical aspects and the impact on the landscape of higher education, the autho...

With the semester (almost) over it's the return of the crankypants reviewer  (hmmm... maybe I should get that as a badge and use it for all of my article reviews ;-) ).  Anyway, my goal this month is to finish reading the edited collection titled  Macro-Level Learning through Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs): Strategies and Predictions for the Future , which I started back in August of 2015 (or somewhere there about).  This time I am reviewing chapter 8, which is titled  What is Best for the Learner?: Are MOOCs the Answer?   The abstract is as follows: Massive Open Online Courses or MOOCs are increasing in use by universities, corporations and other organizations. The quality of instruction and learning is an ongoing topic of debate as to whether MOOCs are effective for learning. What is best for the learner is determined by multiple factors. This chapter looks at what is best for the learner and whether MOOCs are the answer. The authors...

Even though this semester is relatively calm, compared to last semester, I still find myself not writing as much as I think I would like.  I've set aside, temporarily, the book I was meant to have finished reviewing last October, on MOOCs, until the semester ends and I can focus on them a little more. One reason for the refocus of energies is EDDE 804. We are focusing on leadership in education, and I am finding myself spending a lot more time pondering the topic.  I was going to be "ruthlessly pragmatic" and just focus on the assessments, but the cohort members provide for some really interesting discussion and points to ponder.  Another thought that crossed my mind was this: am I over MOOCs?  There was a time when I used to check out coursera, edx, futurelearn, and the other not-so-usual suspects for new courses, however these days going to those sites seems more like a chore than anything else.  I've downloaded a whole bunch of videos from previous courses...

The more I read chapter in  Macro-Level Learning through Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs): Strategies and Predictions for the Future , the more I am starting to feel like Anton Ego from the animated movie Ratatouille ;-)  It's not that I am aiming to write harsh reviews of the stuff I read, but I kind of feel like the anticipation I have for reading some published things about MOOCs just aren't met with the appropriate level of satisfaction from reading what I am reading. This time I am reviewing chapter 7, which is titled  Beyond the Phenomenon: Assessment in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) .  The abstract is as follows: MOOC course offerings and enrollments continue to show an upward spiral with an increasing focus on completion rates. The completion rates of below 10 percent in MOOCs pose a serious challenge in designing effective pedagogical techniques and evolving assessment criterion for such a large population of learners. With more institutions ...

Huzzah!  Half-way through  Macro-Level Learning through Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs): Strategies and Predictions for the Future !  This time I am reviewing chapter 6, which is titled  Learning Theories: ePedagogical Strategies for Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in Higher Education .  The abstract is as follows: This chapter reviews various learning theories about e-pedagogical strategies for the effective use of massive open online courses (MOOCs) in higher education. E-pedagogical strategies refer to the various teaching methods or approaches used by educators when encouraging students to engage with online learning. An up-to-date broad knowledge of learning theories is required by educators to inform and inspire their teaching approaches. Before developing lesson plans, educators should have a clear idea of the learning outcomes which they hope the learners will achieve by engaging with the lessons, be they delivered on or off line. By knowing t...

First week of the new semester!  Last semester, with everything going on I decided to put off reviewing a book I told people I'd review, but for this semester I think I'll just forget ahead and get this done.  So, back for another review of a chapter in the book titled  Macro-Level Learning through Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs): Strategies and Predictions for the Future  (an IGI global title).  This time I am reviewing chapter 5, which is titled Internationalising social world education using Massive Open Online Courses .   The abstract is as follows: Internationalising the curriculum is a priority of universities worldwide and increasingly a focus of social work education. Social workers espouse principles of global justice and community development yet social work in Australia remains locally focused. A review of international and local trends in the literature on ePedagogy and social work education within the context of internationalising th...

Back for another review of a chapter in the book titled  Macro-Level Learning through Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs): Strategies and Predictions for the Future  (an IGI global title).  This time I am reviewing (a little) chapter 4 and jumping off from there.  The chapter title is " PMOOCs and the Art Studio: A Catalyst for Innovation and Change in eLearning Development and Studio Pedagogies ", and based on the title this chapter had me intrigued.  I am not very familiar with Studio-Based education, so was looking forward to learning a little more about that as well.  This might be a good chapter for fellow Athabascan (or Athabascian?) from Cohort 6. Anyway the abstract for this chapter is as follows: The challenges of MOOCs are currently a significant issue for universities. New contexts of openness, massiveness and collaboration on the Web are challenging traditional forms of university education delivery. These challenges are catalysts for c...

Back for another review of a chapter in the book titled  Macro-Level Learning through Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs): Strategies and Predictions for the Future  (an IGI global title).  This time I am reviewing (a little) chapter 3 and jumping off from there.  The chapter title is " Professional Learning through MOOCs?: A Trans-Disciplinary Framework for Building Knowledge, Inquiry, and Expertise ", and based on the title it really had me hooked! This is a chapter that I was really looking forward to reading because it seemed like a good chapter to tackle workplace learning, professional development, talent development, and where MOOCs fit into this arena.  If you remember last year, some people had professed 2015 (or was it 2014?) to be the year that MOOCs made it into the enterprise (LOL). Anyway, the abstract for this chapter is as follows: This chapter will locate debates around MOOCs within a discussion on the purposes of higher education for prof...

Continuing on with the review of articles in the book titled  Macro-Level Learning through Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs): Strategies and Predictions for the Future  today I have a chapter dealing with quality of MOOCs Chapter 2  is titled  Quality Assurance for Massive Open Access Online Courses: Building on the Old to Create Something New . The abstract tells us: Institutional quality assurance frameworks enable systematic reporting of traditional higher education courses against agreed standards. However, their ability to adequately evaluate quality of a MOOC has not been explored in depth. This chapter, Quality Assurance for Massive Open access Online Courses – building on the old to create something new, explores the added learning and teaching dimensions that MOOCs offer and the limitations of existing frameworks. Many components of a MOOC are similar to traditional courses and, thus, aspects of quality assurance frameworks directly apply, ho...

With the semester over, and the brain working on momentum, I've decided to capitalize on the spare brain-power, and time, to finally read a book that I agreed to write a review for back in the summer (yeah, I know - a tad bit late...). The book is a collection of articles titled  Macro-Level Learning through Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs): Strategies and Predictions for the Future (an IGI global title).  I'll come back to the topic of the book as a whole after I am done with this process.  I think that going through chapter-by-chapters, picking and reacting to some things that piqued (and poked at) my interests is a little more interesting that trying to condense 15 chapters into one book review. This is sort of what I did with the #rhizoANT review. Chapter 1 is titled  Mining a MOOC: What Our MOOC Taught Us about Professional Learning, Teaching, and Assessment .  The abstract gives us a sense of the article: In July 2014, a massive open online...

Remember this prof? This week has felt a bit like a slumber week in my research methods course.  I don't know if it's Old Man Winter and the snow he's dumping on us that's making me a little sleepier than usual, or if discussions on research ethics don't particularly float my boat.  I sure do understand the importance of ethics in research, but when it comes to internet research ethics ( despite guidance ) there seems to be an ethically gray area where depending on your Weltanschauung you might see something a bit on the lighter side of gray, or on the darker side of gray. Both this week (week 4) and next week (week 5) we are tackling issues of ethics and planning.  There is an interesting discussion brewing, so I hope that wakes me up a bit more.  It's too early for the onset of senioritis in this course (23 days into the semester, 61 left to go). That said, this afternoon, as I was wrapping up my readings for Week 5 (I prefer to be a week ahead in readi...

OK, s, I (re)discovered that there are some crowd-sourced badges. I knew this in the first week of the course, but somewhere along the lines I forgot about them (probably because I wasn't planning on applying for those badges anyway ;-)  ) In any case, if you are participating in OLDSMOOC, do have a look at the badge application page , and help out a fellow oldsmoocer!  I'm doing my part right now! The first person 's materials I examined are Tiffany Crosby's. Tiffany has a project in mind to create a "business psychology course that combines facets of psychology, sociology, business ethics, fraud and ford endive, and decision-making." I think this sounds interesting, and it reminds me a bit of my Business Ethics course that I took while I was an MBA student (this was a really nice course!). As part of the deliverables for the badge she is seeking, she submitted the results of her card sort activity , and the course map for her course. From what I saw i...

For those in the know, you know that what used to be WebCT (Vista and Campus Edition as far as I know) has been scheduled for product end-of-life sometime in 2013. Because of this our campus, along with many other schools that have WebCT installations, have been looking for other platforms to migrate to. Having spent the last few months testing systems I've come up with a candidate that I'd like to see my campus adopt. I feel like a required disclaimer should be here before I proceed: the views expressed in this blog post are my own and not of my institution, I am only one member of a much larger team that did testing so my views also don't reflect the views of my team and don't constitute any official product endorsement on the part of my employer. OK, now that that's out of the way, here are my views on systems that I have tested. I gave some systems more hands-on time than others since I was informally assigned to those, but I did make an effort to try all of...