Theoretical Threshold for MOOCs (#edumooc)

What is the theoretical minimum for a successful MOOC learning experience -- 100, 500, 1000, or 2000 registered participants?

Source:

OERu-EduMOOC mailing list
OERu-EduMOOC@lists.wikieducator.org
http://lists.wikieducator.org/mailman/listinfo/oeru-edumooc

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One answer: If 10 registered participants actively participated in a open online course, it might not be massive, but it still could be a meaningful and relevant learning experience under the right context.  Let's assume that only 4% of the registered learners finish the MOOC, we would need 250 registered learners (if my figures are correct).  But there are so many variables to this scenario that it raises more uncertainty than anything else.

In my view, MOOCs need sustainable discourse to survive - I agree that those on the peripheral "need something to read."  But I would consider the following questions in determining whether a MOOC will offer a meaningful and relevant learning experience:

1. How will registered participants who are actively participating in the MOOC present different perspectives around each topic, theme, or subtheme?
2. How many turns (i.e., back-and-forth discussions) around different topics, themes, or subthemes will registered participants who are actively participating in the MOOC produce?
3. How are topics, themes, and sub-themes being applied to different contexts or disciplines?

I feel that the operationalization of a MOOC will ultimately depend on the university or context of each learner.  It will depend on the types of assessments and the particular goals of the MOOC, the university, and/or the learner.  A MOOC becomes operationalized by the particular educational context that evolves around the MOOC experience, and that could vary from MOOC to MOOC, university to university, and learner to learner.  And as we get more universities giving credit to students who are taking a MOOC, I think threshold numbers will become less of an issue.  Currently, few universities are offering credit (to my knowledge), but the individuals and universities who are offering MOOCs have the following to sustain continued discourse.

So I would say that what drives a MOOC to be operational is for the most part dependent on how the individuals interact within a given educational context and not the number of registered participants.  If we need a threshold number that leads to the likelihood that lurkers will have something to read, then I would refer to it as leaving evidence that a MOOC existed or audit trail with no assumption that it has anything to do with learning.

Projects Slated for the Rest of 2011

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The great difficulty in education is to get experience out of ideas. -George Santayana

This next semester is a busy one.

Dissertation

The last few days I have been working feverishly on my dissertation proposal, trying to get it cleaned up and approved before I start my research.  I'm conducting a study on how EFL educators working in Mexico interact within a personal learning network and how that interaction influences a change in behavior and beliefs (i.e., teaching practice and reflection).  It's a hermeneutic, qualitative case study involving three teachers who will be using various ICTs in which to interact with other individuals, communities, and/or groups.  The Moodle course that we will be using can be found here and many of the activities are open to anyone interested in teaching English to students of other languages.

University Classes

Classes begin the second week of August and I'm scheduled to teach the following: (a) Applied linguistics, 7th semester, (b) academic writing, 7th semester, and (c) teaching practicum, 5th semester.  The applied linguistics and academic writing classes will have some online content made available to anyone who might be interested.  The idea I have for applied linguistics is to get my students to interact in online communities so they can address current issues related to teaching and learning English as a foreign language.  And the students taking the academic writing course will work largely in Wikieducator as they improve their writing skills and knowledge about formal writing discourse.  Finally, I will also be facilitating 5th semester students who will be teaching for the first time English in front of a group of peers.  They'll work in groups and students will be ask to plan, implement, and reflect on their English classes in terms of curriculum, assessment, and instruction.  All the students from the three classes are pre-service English language teachers studying a BA in ELT at the UAA.

I will be sharing more about these classes throughout the semester either in the form of a blog post or in my TESOL Talk program.

University research

Since February of this year, I have been involved with a research line with two other colleagues investigating the noticing hypothesis among EFL learners practicing their writing skills.  This next semester we are slated to begin the data analysis and will begin writing up our findings for peer-reviewed publications.  This semester we are scheduled to present talks at RECALE (in September),  MEXTESOL (October), and ANUPI (October).  More information will be provided as our research unfolds.

Edukwest writer

I am happy to announce that as of this month, I will be joining a group of writers for Edukwest: On the search for better education.  Edukwest (originated by Kirsten Winkler) covers a wide variety of topics and formats all dedicated to improving education.  I look forward to joining in on the discussion and if you have any interest in anything related to education, I recommend that you check out the website!

Well, that's about it.  The latter part of 2011 will certainly prove to be the busiest semester yet, but am happy to be involved in so many worthwhile projects.  If there is anything in particular that interests you and you would like to know more, feel free to contact me by clicking on the email icon below.

MOOCs and Credit-Seeking Students (#edumooc)

I do make most all of my content openly available, but to get credit at least at my university, they have to take the class. - Ray Schroeder

Credit-seeking students taking a MOOC fascinates me.  Being on the outside of the administrative aspects of a MOOC, it's hard to know how well university students respond to such a format and to the degree that a course syllabus is publicly shared with others.  I'll share a few questions I have.

1. Are universities willing to publish a syllabus online under a Creative Commons (CC) license? And if so, which CC license is most common: CC-BY, CC-BY-NC, etc.?


2. Are credit-seeking students open-authoring content (under CC or public domain) and if so, what type of preparation, if any, if needed?  For example, do they understand CC and how to respect the license?  Are they given a choice of licenses? Etc.


3. How do (tenured) teachers feel about open-authoring?  Are universities giving credit to non-refereed, online, and open publications?  Should universities give credit to open authoring?


4. My assumption is that those credit-seeking students taking #edumooc 2011 were instructed to blend in with the rest of the participants and interact in a way that meets the objectives of the course (whatever they are).  But it would be interesting to know who the students are and/or what their objectives are for the class as well.  In fact, I don't see anything wrong with explicitly stating expressive objectives for the course (i.e., throughlines, understandings, etc.) and still having each participant chart out their own learning sequence and goals for the course.

I know perhaps this is new for many universities, but if I were to design a MOOC, I would be pushing for open educational processes (OEPs), that is, openly publish every (or nearly every) administrative and academic function (say on a wiki) and just see what kind of response gets generated among other participants.  So far, there seems to be just as much talk about the MOOC itself as there is about the course content.

Expressive objectives for #edumooc 2011

The objectives I have for #edumooc 2011 include the following:

• connect with others that ultimately go beyond #edumooc 2011


• find the right mix of technologies that enable me to pull information to me (i.e., RSS feeds, GR, twitter hashtags, etc.) in such a way that enables me to interact with content that is most meaningful and relevant to me


• interact with other participants by posting to Twitter, blogs, and study groups.


• avoid any participation in Google Groups, forums, and other group-like technologies


• not to have any behavioral objectives set a priori, but to reflect on what I learned (or didn't) based on my prior experience; mold objectives as I progress through the experience

What objectives have you set for edumooc and what technologies help you set or achieve those objectives?  Do study groups influence the way in which you set and achieve your objectives?

One way to participate in #eduMOOC

The "prepared" learner... (#eduMOOC)

By “well prepared,” I mean someone who has had the necessary prerequisite learning experiences and who has succeeded in those experiences. A person who is well prepared is ready for the current learning experience in terms of prerequisite knowledge and skills.

This may be true in formal educational settings (to a degree), but I think it doesn't apply as much to MOOCs.  Depending on the content of the course, an open, online course provides all participants to share ideas in the manner they choose.  Learning can occur not only through question and answer, but simply through a process of sharing diverse opinions.  Sharing diverse opinions can occur regardless if one is a novice or expert as terms such as "novice" and "expert" can be misleading representations, even in formal circles. That's why ZPD falls short in adequately explaining how people learn in real life; that is, that we learn when we teach others regardless of the expert or novice labels.  When there is open interaction, invariably individuals are teaching and learning through an iterative and reciprocal process.  Teaching others can occur at many levels and this is what ultimately happens in a MOOC - Instruction occurs most often through the participants themselves.

Depending on the subject matter, it is quite possible to enter a MOOC unprepared and leave prepared (the act of becoming prepared is a learning process).  The point really is whether a person knows more after (and because of) having taken the MOOC or not?

The "prepared" learner... (#eduMOOC)

By “well prepared,” I mean someone who has had the necessary prerequisite learning experiences and who has succeeded in those experiences. A person who is well prepared is ready for the current learning experience in terms of prerequisite knowledge and skills.

This may be true in formal educational settings (to a degree), but I think it doesn't apply as much to MOOCs.  Depending on the content of the course, an open, online course provides all participants to share ideas in the manner they choose.  Learning can occur not only through question and answer, but simply through a process of sharing diverse opinions.  Sharing diverse opinions can occur regardless if one is a novice or expert as terms such as "novice" and "expert" can be misleading representations, even in formal circles. That's why ZPD falls short in adequately explaining how people learn in real life; that is, that we learn when we teach others regardless of the expert or novice labels.  When there is open interaction, invariably individuals are teaching and learning through an iterative and reciprocal process.  Teaching others can occur at many levels and this is what ultimately happens in a MOOC - Instruction occurs most often through the participants themselves.

Depending on the subject matter, it is quite possible to enter a MOOC unprepared and leave prepared (the act of becoming prepared is a learning process).  The point really is whether a person knows more after (and because of) having taken the MOOC or not?

eduMOOC

The official start of eduMOOC is June 27.  Please carefully read this page for important information about MOOCs in general.  Thanks to all who have made suggestions and have contributed to the effort!  A special long-distance thanks to Wayne Mackintosh, director of the OER Foundation for help, encouragement and support of eduMOOC!

Many new resources will be added as we approach the beginning of the MOOC on Monday!  There will be a new space to post your network connections (email, blogs, twitter, etc. addresses).  We are working on details of streaming our weekly live panels to serve many hundreds of simultaneous viewers via both flash fixed and mobile configured streams.  The Twitter back channel (hashtag #eduMOOC) will certainly be especially active during those Thursday (US Central Time/Day) panel discussions.

So, how do you plan to participate: primarily in forums (e.g., Google Groups, Moodle, etc.) or via Twitter and blogs?

Bridging the Gap between ELT Theory and Practice

My response to Bridging the Gap between ELT Theory and Practice...

I draw a parallel between closing the gap between theory and practice with closing the gap between what teachers know and what they actually do.  But beyond that, do teachers understand theory when it applies to an actual classroom experience?  That is, how do teachers interpret (or reframe) a theory - which is a generalization - to a particular educational situation?  And what does that process look like?

I think most would agree that applying a theory (or creating a theory) is contextually-laden with numerous confounding variables which teachers can't always control.  Certainly, planning is an essential part of learning, but it's the reflection-in-action and the resulting outcomes that matter as well.  I'm not sure if success in the classroom can be planned for, but it can be one (of many) factors that can promote a more educative learning experience for each student (and teacher).

You say, ELT theories do help in beefing up our predictability in the field of teaching...

I would argue that theories are most useful when grounded in actual classroom experiences.  That is, how can I explain what just happened in my classroom from a theoretical perspective (assuming that it's always possible).  This is in contrast to a theoretical inclination (prediction) of how students are likely to behave a priori.  For me, this is the difference between applied linguistics and linguistics applied respectively.

How do you view theory and practice in ELT?

Using Twitter in the Classroom

In response to Using Twitter in the Classroom...

I've never used Twitter in my classes because many of my students still do not have Internet access on their mobiles. But since I teach and tweet, I do have a couple of suggestions.

1. Twitter inside the classroom: Conduct a "normal" class but have students tweeting at the same time. Setup a projector and computer (with access to the Internet) and project the backchannel on the wall using a decided-upon hashtag. Incorporate the backchannel into the class itself. This technique can also provide instant feedback when determining whether students are getting what you are talking about in class or not.

2. Twitter outside of class: Conduct a backchannel (again using hashtags) that students contribute to outside of class. Incorporate the backchannel in the f2f class as needed. This can also help to see if students are getting it and can contribute to collaborative learning (or colearning) since students can ask questions or complete assignments using Twitter both individually and in groups.

How have you used Twitter in the classroom?

Action research in education

This presentation covers basic approach on educational action research and basic technique on this research.
Detail Description:

Topics:

1. What is educational action research?

2. Approach on educational action research.

3. The importance of educational action research.

4. How to do an action research in education and report the result.

Cultivating Personal Learning Networks through Participatory Action Research in ELT

Tomorrow, I'm presenting a talk on PLNs and action research at UPTC 2011 and wanted to include a link here for those who were interested. Feel free to leave comments and suggestions below!

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Cultivating Personal Learning Networks through Participatory Action Research in ELT on Prezi

Cultivating Personal Learning Networks through Participatory Action Research in ELT

Tomorrow, I'm presenting a talk on PLNs and action research at UPTC 2011 and wanted to include a link here for those who were interested. Feel free to leave comments and suggestions below!

.prezi-player { width: 550px; } .prezi-player-links { text-align: center; }

Cultivating Personal Learning Networks through Participatory Action Research in ELT on Prezi