Engaging+about+the+MOOC

=Engaging About the MOOC= toc

This is a page (and associated discussion) for anyone who wants to talk about MOOCs in general, using eduMOOC as an example. Feel free to join in - this page can be edited by anyone who has an account (you just need to request one to get one) - and the discussions are open. Please begin the discussion by introducing yourself to this "smaller" group.

Topics that might be of interest to this group are:
 * MOOC design - what are the necessary characteristics to foster supportive communities?
 * MOOCs and connectivism - is it really a learning theory?
 * MOOCs as temporary communities of practice - what characteristics do MOOCs share with CoPs? Can we call it a community of practice?
 * How to learn with MOOCs - what do MOOC authors/facilitators/designers need to do to support new MOOC learners? What resources are out there?
 * MOOCs outside of education - does this medium work for us because we are educators? Would it work for non-educators?
 * MOOCs and research - what research can we do on MOOCs? What are the ethical issues?

And oh so many more - feel free to add questions / topics and to start discussions.

Introductions
John Graves (JG), PhD Student, AUT University, Auckland, New Zealand.

Discussion
There is a diagram or "MAP" of one idea of the MOOC "process" on the collaborations page. (JG)

It answers some of the questions above as follows:
 * What is necessary? **People** connecting over a shared interest. **Tools** for making those connections (for eduMOOC we have these resources)
 * How to learn? The author/facilitator/designer vs learner distinction goes away to a certain extent, as all the learners can potentially be authors/facilitators/designers.
 * Massive Open On-line Learning //outside// education is far, far ahead of use //in// education. Look, for example, at StackOverflow or, for more general topics, wikiHow.
 * The measure here is //use// (not always equivalent to learning) which can be guaged by the Alexa site ranking of an on-line resource.
 * StackOverflow is #122 (as of 30 June 2011)
 * wikiHow is #546 (as of 30 June 2011)
 * For comparison, Khan Academy is #6,619 while Wikipedia is #7 (as of 30 June 2011)

The key question, given Wikipedia's success in the collaborative creation of a reference work, is what prevents us from collaboratively creating //instructional materials?// One reference here: Clay Shirky: Cognitive Surplus (TED Talk) book

Wikipedia found success through open source wiki technology and "the Google effect" (see the chapter on Wikipedia in Open Sources 2.0 (book) for details).

Where is the open source wiki technology which works well for instructional materials? What is the difference between a reference work and a lesson?

Perhaps one answer is: a reference work is an endpoint while a lesson is a pathway.

So an enabling technology could be to have a wiki which supports pathways -- written as text scripts. The result is wikiHow (linked above) or perhaps Instructables. While very successful, something is still missing.

That "something" is the other //learner's// half of the teaching/learning relationship. It is not enough to merely present content. Learners need to engage, play, practice, discuss, etc.