Social Learning - MOOC - OER

A large number of Indian students are accessing Ivy League content through Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) that provides free access to best-in-class education taught by faculty at top universities. MOOC, delivered via internet, has lowered the entry barriers encouraging students to access quality education from top universities like Stanford, Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for free.

Millions of students have signed up for massive open online courses, and hundreds of universities are offering some form of Web-based curriculum. Most students aren’t paying much for these classes, if they’re paying anything at all. So where is all that knowledge—and all the cash—coming from? This handy infographic from the Chronicle of Higher Education takes a look at the major players in the MOOC world. Universities are not the only major players in this world – from non profits to venture capitalists, lots of groups are getting involved! In fact, this new (and quite detailed) chart shows how MOOCs are getting money and more.

The British Museum, British Council, British Library and 21 UK universities have now joined what they hope is a higher education revolution – giving the public access to the world's top institutions and their best academics.

They have entered into partnership with FutureLearn, a company owned by Open University that will be launched in September as the UK's "first free, open, online platform" for higher-level short courses. It aims to be the home-grown rival to similar platforms emanating from the US such as Coursera, Udacity and the not-for-profit edX.

Such platforms offer "Moocs" – massive, open, online courses: a free or low-cost alternative to traditional higher education that, say the evangelists, will roll out elite education across the world.

Online teacher PD course : Using open educational resources to create K-12 curriculum

Have you ever looked at an article on Wikipedia and thought, “this could really use some work”? With the free online course “Writing Wikipedia Articles: The Basics and Beyond,” offered through the School of Open, you have the opportunity to take the next step.

In the course, you will learn about both the technical and social underpinnings of this worldwide, volunteer-built resource, and how you can most effectively contribute to its vision to freely share knowledge. The six-week course will start its second round on 14 May (for those in the Americas) or 15 May (Asia/Australia).* Sign up here.

Everyone in the learning world, it seems, is talking about the phenomenon that is the massive open online course (MOOC).

These are being offered by a growing number of organisations – notably, but not exclusively, higher education institutions. To qualify as a MOOC – a term first coined in 2008 to describe a course offered by the University of Manitoba - a course must have a very large number of students and offer open access.

Their supporters claim that MOOCs are ideal for the socially-networked world. Indeed, they’re usually ‘discovered’ via online networks. For example, there’s a website offering ‘200 MOOCs from the Great Universities’ (depending, of course, on your definition of a ‘great university’). Those wanting free access to higher education courses from the UK could look at Futurelearn, a company launched last December by the Open University and comprising a consortium of UK universities.

Explore connections among the major players.

AS edX , Coursera, and Udacitycontinue to build and launch massive open online courses (MOOCs)—and other would-be contenders approach the field—evidence and opinions are accumulating about how best to use such courses, the experience of learning this way, and possible applications of the evolving technology. Herewith, a survey of some recent perspectives, and some news updates on the users of an earlyHarvardX course and Coursera’s expansion into professional education.

Independent news source & thought center for the online education community.

While some institutions of higher learning have grown skeptical of the MOOC phenomenon spreading through its ranks (and the startups responsible), you have to give Coursera credit for keeping its foot on the gas. In less than six months, the MOOC startup has taken meaningful steps towards monetization and toward becoming a legitimate MOOC university, adding career services, verified certificates for a fee, courses for credit, along with teh addition of 29 new institutions (to bring its total to 62).

Part 1. The obligatory history lesson:

It happened to the record industry first. While popular music had long been available on radio, it could be argued that a true music industry as we know it today didn’t arise until the 50‘s and 60‘s when distributable media and players became widely available. To summarize – you bought your music on record, then on 8-track, then on cassette, and then on CD once again. Sounds very much like a ‘cartel’, or “association of suppliers with the purpose of maintaining prices at a high level and restricting competition”. Record companies (not artists generally) held the content and the means of distributing it to us the passive consumer.

But that’s where technology turned. CD drives in computers plus early sharing software like Napster meant that instead of getting good at mashing the pause button on your stereo so recording to cassette stopped before the adds kicked in, you could rip a whole CD to MP3 in minutes and upload it for anyone who was also connected to the net. You could also bypass the record stores entirely by downloading songs, for free. It meant you didn’t have to buy your music a fourth time in some other format – you now controlled the file. No it wasn’t legal, but it was what the people wanted.

GEORGETOWN’S FIRST MASSIVE OPEN online courses (MOOCs), using the edX platform, reflect the university’s strengths and its educational mission to engage with and help solve the problems that people face around the globe.

Two courses, Introduction to Bioethics and Globalization’s Winners and Losers: Challenges for Developed and Developing Countries, will be offered this fall.

Georgetown President John J. DeGioia announced in December the university’s partnership with edX, a prestigious new online learning initiative founded by Harvard and MIT.

The not-for-profit enterprise launched in May 2012 and promotes learning for a global audience and interactive study via the web.

What is the future of MOOCs and how will they blend into the higher education landscape — specifically, into the community college landscape?

The "deMOOCratization" of higher education content, making courses readily available to millions of individuals who can sign up for courses online, developed and taught by faculty from the most elite institutions – Harvard University, the University of Michigan and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, just to name a few -- is now a reality. And no "entry" requirements needed. It is not difficult to understand the appeal. Now anyone can participate in education proffered by a name-brand university.

Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2013/05/13/essay-community-colleges-and-moocs#ixzz2TIjEySTo ;
Inside Higher Ed

The MOOC Quality Project will ask 12 experts in 12 weeks for their best thinking on MOOCs and quality.

MOOCs represent the latest stage in the evolution of open educational resources. First was open access to course content, and then access to free online courses. Accredited institutions are now accepting MOOCs as well as free courses and experiential learning as partial credit toward a degree. The next disruptor will likely mark a tipping point: an entirely free online curriculum leading to a degree from an accredited institution.

We’ve been discussing blended learning on Edudemic for several months but I had been struggling to find a video that helps explain what it actually is and why you should care.

Then I happened upon one of the startups I’ve been watching. Education Elements has a terrific page along with a video to describe exactly what blended learning is, what it hopes to achieve, and what it looks like.

I’ve embedded the video and some helpful snippets of information below. Be sure to check out the page for more information!

The Higher Education Academy (HEA) (www.heacademy.ac.uk) and the Joint information Systems Committee (JISC) (www.jisc.ac.uk) are working in partnership to develop the HEFCE-funded Open Educational Resources (OER) programme, supporting UK higher education institutions in sharing their teaching and learning resources freely online across the world.

Building on the work of a pilot which took place between April 2009 and March 2010, a second phase of projects and activities runs until August 2011.

This phase extends the range of materials openly available, documents benefits offered by OER to those involved in the learning process, and promotes collections of OER materials. Such resources might include full courses, course materials, complete modules, videos, assessments, tests, simulations, worked examples or software.

From Bram Stoker’s Dracula to Edward Cullen in the Twilight series, vampire characters have long had the ability to capture the public’s imagination.

Now, those with more than just a passing interest in literature’s blood-suckers have the opportunity to take a free massive open online course in Vampire Fictions from Edge Hill University.

Those successfully completing the Mooc will be eligible for credit from the university, which will count towards the value of a degree if they decide to enroll at the institution.

It is thought to be the first UK university to offer such credit for Mooc students, although universities in other countries, such as Germany’s Leuphana University of Lüneburg, have done so previously.

The use of the MOOC or Massive Open Online Course by leading tertiary institutions worldwide has exploded in the past two years with The New York Times proclaiming 2012 ‘The Year of the MOOC’. A MOOC is essentially online courses that allow anyone around the world with internet access to register and obtain a certificate should they follow all the courses and pass one or more tests. The MOOC also acts as a platform or network which allows interaction between students taking the same course. With many hailing the emergence of MOOCs as higher education’s ‘Napster Moment’ and with CEO of for-profit MOOC, Coursera, launched only 11 months ago and currently servicing 2.8 million users (making it faster growing than Facebook) the question we must ask is whether this a positive educational development.

The philosophy department at San Jose State University is pushing back against the university's pioneering projects to test new online learning ventures. A department-approved letter not only challenges hype around online learning but personally calls out a Harvard University professor who teaches a massive open online class for his alleged culpability in what the department calls perilous online learning efforts. The department's letter to Harvard's Michael Sandel follows a suggestion from San Jose State's administration that the department look at using Sandel's popular edX MOOC on justice.

Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/05/03/san-jose-state-university-faculty-pushes-back-against-edx#ixzz2SFSGJO81 ;
Inside Higher Ed