I am planning to attend the First Steps into Learning and Teaching in Higher Education massive open online course (mooc) that begins today and runs through June 22. Focused on “new lecturers, people entering higher education teaching from other sectors and postgraduate students who teach,” I am hoping to spend some time over the next few weeks on this to help my own online teaching, something I learned quite informally in the early days of online teaching and learning.
Participating in this as a mooc, one that is both structured (it is funded and offers formal university education) while also keeping the best elements of a mooc (open education, constructionist perspectives through leveled expertise, a schedule allowing for us to take what we need and share where we see a need, a workable timeline and realistic level of commitment, and the opportunity to meet new colleagues and learn in community), is what I am hoping to experience.
I am glad that the organizers of this mooc have a central “home” location on the website and via Moodle with an easy to follow schedule, so will begin to check them out later today.
While I have participated in several moocs over the years, I am looking forward to this one as the topic is specific, useful for my professional practice, limited in scope and time, and includes some people (Jenny Mackness and Sylvia Currie) whose work I have long since found valuable and solid and cutting edge and trustworthy. I hope to get and share some ideas and hopefully expand my own network of colleagues.
Good to know you will be joining us Jeffrey – and I look forward to hearing what you think of it all as we progress through the course. As George has said, we regard this MOOC as a pilot – so we will be ‘listening’ carefully to what people say.
Jenny
@Jenny, thanks for the welcome and for putting yourself out there while developing this. Who knows what interesting directions this learning may lead! This is one of the reasons I resist setting firm learning objectives, as they often close out the “Wow!” in learning.
Jeffrey
I stumbled across this over my twitter feed this morning and is the first time I’ve heard of a mooc! So I am going to take part and hope for a few ‘wow’ moments too.
Great, @Cathywint! MOOCS are interesting creations, and while they can be a little overwhelming, they offer wonderful learning opportunities. Glad you stumbled across them. Perhaps I will see you there?!
Jeffrey
overwhelming is a bit of an understatment!!! I made it for the last hour of the first syncronised session, and have had a quick flick though one of the moodle discussions, but the blogs are so interesting that I’ve been spending most of my time checking those out! I haven’t actually read any of the ‘course’ material at all yet! yikes!
@Cathywint
Don’t worry! One of the benefits of a mooc is there is no clear or “true” one right way to engage in them. Some people read, some write, some talk, some don’t — do what works for you and meets your needs.
Of course, having some presence where you share it back with the community will ultimately strengthen and grow it, in turn helping others who are also struggling to navigate it. BTW, there is not a single roadmap of where or how to start . . . in this way it is like Twitter . . . just dive in mid-stream!
Jeffrey