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What are MOOCs?  Massive Open Online Courses MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) are online courses that are designed and delivered by university teachers and researchers from all over the world. Explanation of the acronym: • M stands for Massive – The courses have a very large number of participants, which can count tens of thousands of students in just one course. • O stands for Open – The courses are open in the sense that there are no admission requirements and also in the sense that the courses are free. • O number two stands for Online – The courses are offered online as distance learning and the students participate from their own computer with Internet access. • C stands for Courses – The courses have a start and an end date, assignments with deadlines and a final exam. There are, however, also courses which are self-paced, and which participants complete at their own pace. Format challenges The MOOC course format presents a number of challenges to the teacher- and support team regarding design and delivery. Among other things there is an aspect of openness that needs to be taken into consideration, given that anyone can participate in the course, regardless of academic backgrounds and level. In addition there is also the massive number of participants that needs to be guided through the course in a way so that they achieve a satisfactory learning out come. On FutureLearn you learn from videos, audio, articles, discussions, essay writing, quizzes and more. Interaction with the other participants and experts from the course is a very important element in the learningprocess of the participants. The interaction is to make it interesting to participate and motivates the participants to explore the topic in depth. Communication and interaction Communication with tenthousands of participants needs to be systematised carefully to be efficienct. Communication and interaction are essential for the participants to get a good learning experience and a satifactory outcome. Communication between the teacher and the participants takes place via weekly e-mails encouraging participants to contribute online and recapping conclusions from the previous week’s online discussions.
In short Social media can be used as a supplement to the MOOC platform. You can get inspiration from the following examples: • MOOC participants often form study groups on Facebook, Google+ etc. • A “Twitter stream” can be linked to a MOOC. This way the students and the teacher can tweet about the subject and share their resources. • The teaching team can place part of the learning activities outside the chosen MOOC platform and ask the participants to blog, contribute to a joint wiki, or find and share relevant resources. Well-known MOOC platforms: • Futurelearn • Coursera • Edx • Udacity • Iversity
Contact Inger-Marie F. Christensen 6550 7501
[email protected] SDU Universitetspædagogik Campusvej 55, 5230 Odense M Entrance H by the SDU Swimming Pool Directory
September 2015
