There can be no doubt that this has been the summer of MOOCs: Massive Open Online Courses have seized the attention of faculty, journalists, and, more infamously, administrators.
Naturally, the sclerotic, tweedy, Ivory Tower will take no notice of MOOCs until all courses that can move online will have done so, right?
Wrong! Next week, starting on Monday, Hybrid Pedagogy is launching a MOOC MOOC, that is, a massively open online course that aims to study the pedagogical and institutional implication of the emergence of these classes.
Along with hundreds of others so far, I’ve signed up for the course. Why not join in the fun? The MOOC MOOC will run for six days, packed with daily videos, prompts for reflection and writing, and provocations that should advance conversations about these new courses.
Here’s an announcement about the MOOC MOOC:
On August 12, 2012, Hybrid Pedagogy, a digital journal of teaching and technology, will host a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) designed to look carefully at this new pedagogical approach. The course is made possible by partnerships with the Writing and Communication Program at Georgia Tech and the English and Digital Humanities program at Marylhurst.
With the recent news about the MIT and Harvard-driven EdX massive online courses, and as more and more universities rush to adopt a technologically savvy approach to administering learning on a broad scale, MOOCs (Massive Online Open Courses) have taken center stage. These innovative but problematic courses boast attendees in the thousands, tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, and have met with both enthusiasm and vitriol from the academic community. Many scholars and pedagogues are criticizing each and every aspect of the MOOC, from its “massive” scale to its “free-for-all” openness.
Are MOOCs worthwhile? Do they offer learners, teachers, schools and universities unique opportunities; or are they simply a marketing ploy? What might they teach us about pedagogy, the state of education, and how online learning can or should be adopted?
Hybrid Pedagogy will bring these questions and others into dialogue in its own MOOC: a MOOC about MOOCs, aptly titled “MOOC MOOC.” Unlike other MOOCs which can last 20- or 30-plus weeks and include several thousand participants, this course will last only six days, and will aim to include no more than 500 people. The audience for MOOC MOOC includes people making MOOCs, taking MOOCs, writing about MOOCs, and otherwise interested in the form.
To learn more, read Jesse Stommel’s recent article< about MOOCs, visit moocmooc.com, and follow @MOOCMOOC on Twitter.
Join Hybrid Pedagogy (and me) for an interesting week of discussions about these new forms!
Image is the avatar for the @MOOCMOOC Twitter account.
