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How to Succeed in a Massive Online Open Course (MOOC)
Inthe past couple of years, massive online open courses (MOOCs) have become atrend among many members of the educational online community. This isparticularly true of faculty who are interested in open educational resources.
Thecourse Connectivism and Connective Knowledge (CCK), by Stephen Downes, hasbeen offered at least three times since 2008, and additional MOOCs have beenoffered that cater to a variety of learning topics including digitalstorytelling, mobile learning (mLearning), learning analytics, the future ofeducation, and instructional ideas for online success, just to name a few.
Thestructure and design of each MOOC varies. For example, the primary means ofcommunication in a MOOC may be:
- Alearning management system such as Moodle or Blackboard
- Onlinegroups such as Yahoo or Google groups
- Anaggregation of various distributed platforms, such as blogs and Twitter, orusing gRSShopper (pronounced grasshopper)
AMOOC may provide specific content to learn; however, it is more common forMOOCs to provide learning objectives, or topics, and a list of resources toguide learners to those objectives rather than providing didactic content forlearners to consume. MOOCs provide opportunities to engage in learning whileconnecting with others.
Learnerswho are new to MOOCs, and who are not familiar with self-directed learning,often struggle to find their place within a MOOC. The majority of MOOCs requirethat the learner be self-directed and proactive in the learning process. In thisarticle, we offer a few recommendations that will help learners make the mostof a MOOC experience. In addition to engaging in the course material, theyprovide learners with an opportunity to develop or expand their personallearning networks (PLN). Learner success is enhanced by learner actions before,during, and after the MOOC.
Before a MOOCstarts
Whensomeone is thinking about participating in a MOOC, the first question theyshould ask themselves is this: “Is this the right MOOC for me?” Similar tocredit-bearing courses, MOOCs may have prerequisites, the content may be toobasic, or it may not be of interest to the individual.
Review the website
Beforea learner decides to join a MOOC, it is a good idea to review the MOOC’swebsite. Usually, the course website contains the prerequisites, participationguidelines, information on the course structure, each week’s topic, and courseresources. Review these prior to starting the course in order to get a betteridea of how the MOOC is structured and to figure out how much time to spend. Ifa learner doesn’t meet the prerequisites, that shouldn’t discourage them; thereare usually subject matter experts participating who help foster conversations.At a very minimum, learners can read the conversations, learn from them, andjoin in the conversation when they feel ready.
Consider time
Inaddition to prerequisites, it is important to consider the time requirements.If someone doesn’t have the time, perhaps attending every week of the MOOC isn’twhat that learner should focus on. In MOOCs, like in other experiences in life,what someone learns is based on how much effort they put into it. Individualswill have a richer experience if they can contribute throughout the course andif they interact with other participants; however, if even if someone is toobusy, then they can still have a worthwhile MOOC experience by selecting thespecific weeks where the topics are of most interest to them. Those who try todo everything, and who don’t have enough time, are apt to only engage with thecontent and fellow participants in a peripheral way. If you wish to have adeeper learning experience, then choose the weeks of greatest interest to youand set aside the time to investigate and contribute.
Format and technologyconcerns
Finally,one thing that characterizes MOOCs is the variability of the format. Some MOOCshave a structure like a traditional course, with specific readings each week,with specific learning outcomes and specific, official tools for communication.This variability is what makes MOOCs both interesting and potentiallyproblematic. Before the MOOC starts, the interested person should take sometime to become familiar with the technology they will use. This will allow theparticipant to focus his or her MOOC time on the content and on interactingwith other participants, rather than fiddling with the delivery technologies thecourse uses.
During a MOOC
Oncea participant has registered for the MOOC, it’s time to learn. On Week 1, what todo first?
Introduction (it’smore than just common courtesy)
Thefirst task should be self-introduction. Even if the learner has not yet decidedhow much he or she wishes to participate in the MOOC, and even if the plan isonly to lurk (that is, read the various conversations but not activelycontribute to them), introducing oneself is still important.
Thishelps the other MOOC participants know who is participating and helps theorganizers better judge the amount of participation and the demographic of theparticipants. This way the organizers can potentially tailor content for thevarious groups that are part of the MOOC. A personal introduction is, in asense, an initiation into the MOOC’s community of inquiry. An introductionmight include the participant’s name, occupation, areas of expertise, and thereason for interest in the particular MOOC. Some MOOCs even encourage participantsto include a picture or add themselves to a crowd-source map of participants. Makingthe introduction, and reading other participants’ introductions, is the firststep towards building or augmenting a PLN.
Participation
Toget the most out of a MOOC, a person needs to participate. The more someoneparticipates, the more that person is likely to make meaningful connectionswith other participants, which in turn helps deepen the learning experience.
Thereis a benefit in reading the materials for all weeks and participating as muchas possible each week. Remember, it’s not justabout the materials, but rather it’s about the materials and the learning community— and everyparticipant is part of that learning community. By participating each week, learnerscan gain both a better understanding and an expanded understanding through thecontributions of their peers.
Howdoes one participate in a MOOC? The first step is to read what the facilitatorshave posted as resources for the week. This material acts as an initiation intothe week’s topic, and quite often it functions to seed discussion. Afterreading the material, a participant can choose to investigate the topic furtherby finding their own readings (Google Scholar is a good way to search forreadings), or they can post their reflections on the resources.
Whencreating a post about the readings, participants should try to link the coursecontent to their life experiences, as these reflections are valuable to themand to others who read the posts. It is important to take some time to readother participant’s reflections, as they are likely to share insights and helpdeepen understanding of the topic. If a participant finds a particularly usefuladditional resource, they should share it with the larger community. Whenparticipants find that a post was particularly meaningful to them, they often takea moment or two to reply to it, and perhaps share their own insight. Thisdialogue encourages participation and helps to foster deeper meaning throughconnections and conversations.
Formal andinformal facilitation
MOOCsare facilitated, they are not taught. MOOC facilitators are individualspassionate about the topic they are facilitating, and they have come to sharetheir passion with the participants. Facilitators also, quite frequently, areparticipants in the MOOC as well, so they are, in essence, the peers of the othersin the course. This means that MOOCs don’t have the unequal power relationshipsone might find in traditional lecture-listed classroom models. There is nosingle person that checks to see that people are participating or to encouragefurther participation. Each participant shares the responsibility for keepingthe community alive and active. The facilitators are not likely to answereveryone’s questions, as they rely heavily on the community to support theconversations. In the end it’s through peer learning and peer-to-peerconnections that learning occurs in MOOCs, so it’s critical for eachparticipant to reach out and connect with someone.
Questions
Ifa participant has questions, they should feel free to ask them! Like mosteducational ventures, there are bound to be questions. Asking questions meansnot only closing open gaps in knowledge, it also gives everyone an opportunityto discover other potential gaps—things that they didn’t know that they don’tknow—and thus gives them an opportunity to fill those gaps as well. In the samevein, if a participant knows the answer to a question that someone else hasposted (or has an opinion about the answer), they should feel free to post areply. It is through these conversations that meaningful learning occurs.
Dealing with mass
MOOCsare massive; after all, that is whatthe “M” in MOOC stands for. They are massive in terms of the number ofparticipants, and are generally massive in the number of conversations thatoccur. To avoid the feeling of information overload, or the feeling of beingoverwhelmed, participants must give themselves permission to not readeverything. As Clay Shirky said, “it’snot information overload, it’s filter failure.” In a regular course, the instructor filters information to avoidthis overload. In a MOOC, this is each participant’s job. Because it is often notpossible to read everything, individuals must filter for topics that they wantto read, and then read and respond to only those. If a blog post anddiscussions are interesting but it’s not possible to read the details rightaway, participants can bookmark them or add them to a tool like Instapaper,Pocket, or Evernote. This way, when there is a spare moment—for example, on thetrain going home—a learner can return to those readings. The nice thing aboutMOOCs is that even though the MOOC itself is time-bound, the content is not. Everyonecan always go back to MOOC content (and participant blogs and discussions) longafter the MOOC is over—it’s not necessary to process all the informationimmediately.
Etiquette
Beforewe finish this section, we’d like to discuss MOOC etiquette. To help reduceinformation overload, before sharing resources or posting a question, participantsshould learn to search to see if someone has already posted about it. Ifsomeone has, the best approach is to reply within that thread rather thancreate a new one. For example, if there is an introductions thread, participantsshould post their introductions within that thread. In addition, when replyingto a message, it’s not necessary to quote the entire message within the reply. Thebest practice is to edit the quoted text to only include the portions that arerelevant to the reply. Finally, spelling does matter. Proofreading posts and checkingthem for spelling mistakes and typos makes it easier for others to read. Thisis especially important when MOOC participants come from a variety ofcountries, as many may not speak English well and may rely on some automatedtranslation tools (like Google Translate) for language assistance.
Post-MOOC: stayconnected!
Evenwhen the MOOC is over, the learning doesn’t have to stop! Remember theintroductions at the beginning of the course? The people who introducedthemselves probably shared with the group their blog, Twitter, and LinkedInaddresses. Chances are that they are still thinking about the topics andmaterials discussed in the MOOC. They may even be posting their reflections onthe completion of the MOOC. Others may have already connected with theseindividuals on Twitter, LinkedIn, and their blogs while the MOOC was insession, so keeping up with what they write, and commenting back on thoseposts, isn’t going to be much of an issue. It is good to connect while everyone’scontributions to the MOOC are still familiar. By connecting to people who werefellow MOOC participants, learners are augmenting their PLNs. Thus, any newdevelopments and news on the topic of the MOOC will be available to everyone intheir network through the magic that is RSS. Since participants commonly blogfor some time about the MOOC discussion topics, and chances are high that otherparticipants are following their blogs, they are also contributing to the knowledgecreation of a large group as well!
Finally,now that the MOOC is over, participants likely have a little more free time forcollaboration. They can reach out to some fellow MOOC participants who havesimilar ideas to theirs. An ad-hoc working group would be simple to organize toexplore topics of mutual interest. These topics may be research-based orpractice-based. The point is that there are probably professionals out there whoare thinking of things to work on based on their MOOC experiences, but it wouldbe easier to accomplish with a small group of like-minded individuals thanworking on solving the problem on their own. Through extended practice andcollaboration come greater opportunities.
Conclusion
MOOCsprovide a new methodology and modality for teaching and learning. This newnessdoes pose some problems for learners, but also provides for exciting newpossibilities. Some of the learning skills acquired by learners throughface-to-face coursework and traditional online programs are transferable toMOOC learning; however, the distributed nature of the MOOC and the massive numberof participants doesn’t allow for the traditional method of disambiguation:going to the teacher for an explanation. MOOCs require learners to be moreproactive in their education and in building their PLNs. Everyone can be successfulin a MOOC if they take certain steps and devise strategies before, during, andafter a MOOC. If you are interested in trying out a MOOC, and you’re interestedin mobile learning, the good news is that the opportunities will only increasefrom one month to the next.
(Editor’s Note: You can subscribe at mooc.ca to Stephen Downes’ daily MOOC Newsletter to watch for new MOOCannouncements. Stephen also provides a list of open online course sources.)
References
Ballmer, S. (n.d.) Developers! Developers! Developers!Developers!
Retrieved January 9, 2012 from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8To-6VIJZRE
Garrison, D. R., T. Anderson, and W.Archer. (2000) “Critical Inquiry in a
Text-based Environment: ComputerConferencing in
Higher Education.” The Internet and Higher Education,2(2-3), 87-105.
Freire, P. (2000) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Continuum Press.
Vygotsky, L.S. (1978) Mind in Society. Harvard UniversityPress.
Krashen, S.D. (1987) Principles and Practice in Second Language
Acquisitions. Prentice-Hall. (Affective Filter Hypothesis)
Siemens, G. (2005) “Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age.”
InternationalJournal of Instructional Technology and Distance
Learning. 2(1). https://www.itdl.org/Journal/Jan_05/article01.htm
Shirky, C. (2008) It’s Not Information Overload, it’s Filter Failure. (Video).
Web2.0 Expo NY. Retrieved on January 9, 2012 from:
https://blip.tv/web2expo/web-2-0-expo-ny-clay-shirky-shirky-com-it-s-not-information-overload-it-s-filter-failure-1283699
Links to MOOCs& Software mentioned
MobiMOOC:https://mobimooc.wikispaces.com/
gRSShopper:https://grsshopper.downes.ca/
DS106:https://www.ds106.us
LAK12:https://lak12.mooc.ca/
GoogleScholar: https://scholar.google.com
