pre-conference workshop on MOOC research

• what would an ICLS MOOC look like, MOOC 2.0?
• how are MOOCs different from traditional distance ed and traditional higher ed?
• what do we know that we are not leveraging in MOOCs?

runs degree of freedom blog - one year attempt to earn equivalent of liberal arts BA

Book coming out this fall.

Biggest weaknesses - assessments and evaluation. Assessments too easy.

SFU

Non-traditional, older learners. Experienced, self-aware learners, intrinsically motivated.

Issues:

• Motivation
• Interaction
• Tailoring
• Feedback

• In developing countries, communities come together and organize themselves as communities – there's a tradition of doing this in distance education, mailing out material and people coming together in “satellites” to discuss
• MOOC is not defined by size, openness etc, but rather in culture of experimentation
• John Andersen - declarative vs procedural knowledge. MOOCs are about declarative knowledge. Studies from expertise have lot's of declarative knowledge, but also need a lot of procedural knowledge. Different memory subsections related to these approaches. Implications of focusing on platforms that skew strongly towards declarative knowledge.
• Harvard - like running a Weight Watcher clinic, but only letting skinny people in (Jonathan Haber)

• Even though MOOCs are not completely open, at least anyone can visit them and see what they are about (and critique them). I keep hearing about supposedly great courses from traditional distance learning providers, like Open University UK, but I know little about them, because I cannot take them (without paying etc). Perhaps starting a program to let researchers “audit”, view syllabi, etc., to get a better sense of what's out there.
• How would the learning science community react if someone showed up and said: “We have this great idea, which will use new technology (mikes and powerpoint), make education much more affordable and generally available: Large lectures!”…
• How do the purposes of the universities developing MOOCs affect the pedagogy – if Harvard is mainly doing it to gain prestige, natural that they would focus on their great lecturers and video (Alyssa Wise)

Marcelo Worsley, Daniel Hickey, Ryan Baker