Comments on: #mooctober – end the madness

By: Natalie Lafferty

Natalie Lafferty — Sun, 14 Oct 2018 01:33:35 +0000

Something to aspire to, but not sure I'll be able to go a full month without mentioning MOOCs.

By: Rolin Moe

Rolin Moe — Wed, 01 Oct 2014 20:19:25 +0000

Rolin Moe liked this article on twitter.com.

By: Open Education: OpenEd2012 (1/2) | kavubob's miscellanea

Open Education: OpenEd2012 (1/2) | kavubob's miscellanea — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 22:22:22 +0000

[…] sessions I was in MOOCs where often on the fringes of the conversation rather than centre stage. #MOOCtober aside I think the absence is in part that the conference attendees were engaged in their own […]

By: Keep On Reclaimin’ Open Learning - CogDogBlog

Keep On Reclaimin’ Open Learning - CogDogBlog — Thu, 03 Oct 2013 09:34:45 +0000

[…] reclaiming via a distributed network model of learning, a.k.a. the original cMOOC (REDACTED for #mooctober), the others being phonar, the open photography course at Coventry University and FemTechNet or […]

By: Alan Levine (@cogdog)

Alan Levine (@cogdog) — Mon, 30 Sep 2013 20:44:31 +0000

Easy peasy.

What are we ignoring? I already forgot.

By: Don Parker

Don Parker — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 01:38:55 +0000

The rants of the quasi religious copyleft crowd can be annoying, but it would be unfair to paint all FOSS with the GNU brush. While GNU may have lead the way, a lot of newer, more "business friendly" licensing models have emerged (Apache and BSD to name a few). Regardless, do you honestly feel any of the FOSS claims are more overweening that what we see from from Microsoft or Apple. Different sure, but none the less arrogant. They have indeed perfected the fine are of engineered obsolescence and are laughing in the faces of their adoring public. The measure of success (or not) of FOSS is not whether or not it failed to destroy commercial software. But it's impact has been unarguably gargantuan. MOOCs do not need to destroy HE to have an equally gargantuan impact. It is more than just a tool. It is a value system, and philosophy and approach that will impact on HE. At least the part of HE that continues to be around by rising to the challenge and changing.

By: Cameron Nichol

Cameron Nichol — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Cameron Nichol mentioned this article on edtech-pro.com.

By: Cameron Nichol

Cameron Nichol — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Cameron Nichol mentioned this article on edtech-pro.com.

By: dkernohan

dkernohan — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 22:23:46 +0000

In reply to don parker. Yeah - good point. I kind of feel like (much like with open source) that it is the overweening hype that puts me off. These courses can be good things- they get people learning and connecting and what is not to love about that? But they are unlikely to destroy traditional HE as open source is to destroy commercial software. It's just a new tool is all. Maybe the best tool in some situations. We shall see.

By: don parker

don parker — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 18:03:08 +0000

I see a lot of parallels to the emergence of open source software projects. During the 80’s there was very little traction in “the real world” of business or academia. Indeed, the longevity and quality were severely contested by business leaders and “professional” software vendors.

Now – not so much.

Most business and “professional” companies in those early days failed to grasp was the power of the model, and they could not fathom how a free product could be a sustainable one. For example, from a quality perspective, they did not appreciate that any change is probably viewed by hundreds of eyes before being accepted, not to mention having to survive a strict testing regime before being promoted to a release. The controls on ones ability to make changes (and the revoking of those rights) is harsh, fast, and unequivocal. No “professional” institution would come close to having such stringent processes and controls as most open source projects (except possibly for this company.).

So I think we should not be so quick to write off MOOC as a fad, or as being over-hyped, or lacking in quality. This is academia’s “open source revolution”. It could very well be that the relevance of the traditional credential is going to be severely challenged in the near future. I’m pretty sure the winds of change or inevitable. Traditional institutions will bend or break. But they will not likely be able to survive for long in a dismissive state of status quo.