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Is the MOOC Truly Dead, Just Taking a Breather, or Still Gaining Momentum?
What if the most important lessons to be learned from MOOCs will still thrive long after the MOOC is a distant memory? This Storify chronicles my #et4online session and feedback from Twitter.
ET42015 - International Symposium for Emerging Technologies | Online Learning Consortium, IncPresenter(s) Matt Crosslin (University of Texas at Arlington & University of North Texas, USA) Additional Authors Harriet Watkins (University of Arkansas System eVersity, USA) Session Information Major Emphasis of Presentation: Applied Use (technology or pedagogy) Major Emphasis of Presentation: Emerging Technology (tools or processes) Abstract What if the most important lessons to be learned from MOOCs will still thrive long after the MOOC is a distant memory?- The session started off with me explaining why Harriet was not able to join me (dissertation deadline), while also mentioning a study that I did examining the syllabus from several MOOCs.
joining the dead mooc society at #et4online- @grandeped is urging @harrietew to get working on her dissertation nooooooow (insert sound effect) #et4online
- MOOCs have syllabi? ;-) #et4online
- Good point Apostolos - as I found out the hard way :) Many of my colleagues and co-attendees attempted to get others to join us. But it was the last session of the last day of the conference, so we had a small, intimate group:
Join @grandeped for his talk on MOOCs #et4online (streamed) @LINKResearchLab pic.twitter.com/7MUZZogXIB
Current session… Is the MOOC Truly Dead, Just Taking a Breather, or Still Gaining Momentum? #et466393 #et4online
Is the MOOC dead session with @grandeped at #et4online ... Come on down! Lonestar 1!- I mentioned that there are many weird things being said about MOOCs, including a person that told me "cMOOCs may not really count as MOOCs, since they are not massive or open."
- Apparently, there is discussion about a cMOOC not counting as a MOOC because it isn’t massive or open. Who said it? #et466393 #et4online
- ROFL @ cMOOCs not counting as "MOOCs" #et4online
@micaelaseals I believe it was Crocodile Dundee... #et4online #et4snark #mooc pic.twitter.com/9btGdET2a4- Score!! 2 points! :o) —> RT @taevans: @micaelaseals I believe it was Crocodile Dundee... #et4online #et4snark #mooc pic.twitter.com/T0nWMoDg2z
- I may be biased, but I vote Tom's meme the best of #et4online.
- Like most presenters, I think I did a horrible job, but was surprised to find out I may have a new calling in life:
- @grandeped should do EdTech standup comedy. Without visuals of him on stage it's quite entertaining #et4online
- I agree that @grandeped is quite the standup comedian. He is a very engaging and entertaining presenter! #et4online https://twitter.com/koutropoulos/status/591645476824330240 …
- I also decided to extend EdTech buzzword bingo into my session and take it to the next level: EdTech Buzzword Taboo! I passed out a Taboo buzzer (yep - the board game) and told people to buzz me if I used any buzzwords or weird jargon. Well, squeak me is more accurate - the Taboo buzzer is now a squeaker. If I got "buzzed", I had to re-phrase without using jargon or buzzwords.
- EdTech buzzword bingo - let's make it a thing at OLC Innovate #et4online
- Then I started looking at some of the interesting narratives in press about the MOOC, including this article:
- Article: MOOC is Dead - Long Live the MOOC http://www.wired.com/2014/08/moocs-are-dead-long-live-the-mooc … #et4online66393 #et4online
- Are "predictions" about MOOCs just knee-jerk reactions (either way)? :-) #et4online
- Organizations with financial investments impacted by MOOCs are weighing in on the success or failure. #et4online66393 #et4online
- PSA: When reading articles, always consider the source. Does author have stake in impact garnered by position? #et4online66393 #et4online
- Next I moved to discussing MOOCs that are innovating and showing how the MOOC is probably still gaining momentum. The first example was #rhizo15, which is where I started passing the microphone to people in the audience. Made me feel like Jerry Springer putting people on the spot like that :)
- So odd that I can pick out the voice of a colleague who I have never met f2f... @rjhogue #et4online
- eduMOOC was brought up in relation to rhizo15, leading to some interesting commentary about MOOC issues.
- @rjhogue I would say that the lack of learning obj was not the only issue with eduMOOC. #et4online
- in #rhizo14 we didnt have learnObjectives but there was some theme each week from which to jump off. #et4online
- edumooc seemed to be the same thing cloned for six weeks . didnt see a diff between week 1 and week 6 #et4online
- I also had a member of the Slide Police in my audience tweeting my every move, so that also kept me on my toes! Great job Micaela - this would be a much shorter Storify without you!
- Haha… @grandeped just self-corrected, because he didn’t want to receive a citation… my #slidepolice street cred is now legit! #et4online
- I then began discussing DALMOOC, including the visual syllabus, the dual layer approach, and the new tools we used like ProSolo.
Custom learning paths are often just some # of predefined paths. Not really choose your own adventure #et4online pic.twitter.com/95yMK34SmW- @whitneykilgore oh man...the memories of those adventures! A throwback to my childhood! #et4online
- #DALMOOC was a good experiment for me. Eventually I stopped submitting my blogs to the edx assignments and went my own path #et4online
- ProSolo on #dalmooc was interesting, albeit a bit confusing #et4online
- Hmmm... #dalmooc was different things to different people. Interesting! #et4online
- This was interesting to us also, in that it probably proved the dual-layer approach worked. Some people saw it as mostly xMOOC, others saw it as mostly cMOOC. The only problem was that learners didn't see the big picture of that feedback - they didn't get to see other people describing a different experience and that led them to think their experience was the course norm.
- hehehe, "people don't use email any more" - making me feel "old" :p #et4online
- So...when instructors post on twitter activity goes through the roof in a MOOC #et4online
- another "no d'uh!" - you can please everyone :) (I have a story from my ESL days with that lesson!) #et4online
- #dalmooc lessons: quality of content becoming bigger issue, different experiences, need unification, Twitter use #et4online66393 #et4online
- Want to track the conversation further? Check out @grandeped’s blog here: http://www.edugeekjournal.com #et4online66393 #et4online
- So, after the session ended, I realized I forgot one really important thing:
Finally sitting down after whirlwind day. Thanks to everyone that came to my #et4online session. I had a great time! Forgot to ask one thing- So is the MOOC dead, taking a breather, or gaining momentum? Wouldn't be that big of deal if it wasn't, oh - the session title! #et4online
- I think tom's response to those Tweets best sums up my view:
- @grandeped its still being defined...and transformed #et4online #whatsaMOOC #whatsnotaMOOC #HereaMOOCthereaMOOC everywhere a @MOOCMOOC
- Of course, there was one other interesting aspect about my presentation - the intro:
- Never mind the man in the corner looking for Twister movie screenshots for his presentation #et4online.
- Which wouldn't have been that noteworthy if an actual thunderstorm hadn't rolled in to town complete with tornado warnings!
Do you think it was intentional that @grandeped used the movie Twister to explain MOOCs? #et4online #et4twister pic.twitter.com/Zzz8H3Ebm3
@whitneykilgore @grandeped A little foreshadowing for this evening? #et4online. Is there a movie about peace and calmness for tomorrow
non-coastal folks untraumatized by weather. @gsiemens & @kreshleman still arguing research. i'm running around shouting WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!- For those that are curious, here was the intro:
- People in our field often have odd reactions to new ideas. Some quickly label them "disruptions" and try to keep up with them while keeping them at a safe distance, like the tornado chasers in Twitter:
- And like those chasers, they soon find themselves in a ditch trying to run away from the disruption, eventually jumping into some safe haven and screaming their heads off.
- But when the "disruption" never happens, they peek their head out... only to have other people hit them with even crazier claims of chaos and destruction ("this will kill the university"). Kind of like the car droping in from out of no where:
- This leads people like George Siemens and Stephen Downes to just go "#SMH":
- Of course, a few slick corporations come in and offer a solution to survive these "disruptions" (some that they "created" in the first place..... hmmmmm...):
- While Jim Groom just sits there and says "duuuude... you should have just owned your own domain and avoided the suck zone":
- Thank you to everyone that attended on the last day (at lunch time, no less), and to all of the people above for Tweeting. And also to Whitney for corralling people into the front right side table in the room. At first it was intimidating, but soon became beneficial as I passed the mic around to get others to share.
