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"We are about to see the emergence of a MOOC data/analytics ecosystem. Part of the value proposition to partners who sign up to deliver courses on a given MOOC platform is the access to high quality data on what happens with those courses.
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This piece is not about interoperability standards and protocols, but about how trusted partnerships may emerge to assist ethical data sharing within and between MOOCs, in order to turbocharge educational innovation — one of the primary reasons that institutions are dipping their toes in the MOOC space."
Via Peter B. Sloep, Peter Mellow
Fascinating thought experiment about sharing learner data between Courses, by different schools across different MOOC platforms. In the spirit of Learning Analytics, it could improve teaching and learning through various kinds of partnerships. Simon explains this quite well.
Whom I miss from the equation is the learner. In the triple of MOOC provider, content providing school Partner and Course (see picture), I miss the L of learner (some would argue, also the T of teacher, but I assume giving teachers their due is the responsibility of the Partner institution). The L of learners matters, lest schools end up to be data providers for the MOOC platforms, who no doubt will do what Facebook, Twitter and Google do with those data: sell them for a profit (after all, the course is free, so that is the deal you knowingly make as a learner). The picture is less bleak if schools (Partners) host their own MOOC platforms rather than use the commercial ones. But even then explicit attention right from the beginning for the learner's privacy is needed, not because the law tells us so, but because we need to take learners seriously. See also my blog posts on Online Learner Identities where I discuss the problem and some possible solutions. Find the last one here: http://tiny.cc/c15nrw ; (@pbsloep)