Not really a criticism of MOOCs (massively open online courses) of course, but at the moment there are just too many MOOCS that I want to take part in – and nothing like enough time.
For starters, I’m dropping out of the OLDS-MOOC on Learning Design.
I started a few days late, and found navigating round the pages outlining what to do and where to do it a little confusing. There was potential to meet up with some old online friends and work on a virtual worlds project, but I rapidly fell behind in the activities and still have marking to catch up on… Offhand, the use of Cloudworks and Google Groups was interesting, and interesting to see how a MOOC could run on mostly free cloud services, but I definitely found it more challenging to navigate and follow that the relatively clean interface of Coursera/Udacity MOOCs. This may be an inevitable effect of it being a MOOC more focussed on student activity and collaboration than on following a lecturer.
I had originally signed up for the E-Learning and Digital Cultures MOOC, but withdrew before it started, recognising that it clashed with the (more relevant to me) OLDS-MOOC and I’d likely struggle to keep up.
I was also going to do one on Programming Languages, some revision there and another attempt to strengthen my understanding of basic principles and non-OO programming languages. Maybe one day I’ll have time to watch the videos…
Then there is the OER-MOOC being offered by SUNY on Blackboard’s Coursesites. I’ve looked at this page a few times, and still can’t work out when it is likely to start. As I’m already a producer and user of MOOCs, I’m not sure if I’m really the target audience for this one though.
While it is a class I teach, I think I’d still benefit from taking the (much more formal) EDx Computer Graphics class in March… though this one has run already, and a complete set of videos and materials already exist online. So whether or not I actually enroll, I’ll certainly be using the materials.
But I have to say that this class about the Ancient Greek Hero also sounds good…
To date the only MOOC I’ve managed to complete was a very introductory level one on a topic I already know well – I was really learning about MOOC delivery on Coursera rather than anything else. I was able to get a 100% pass on one hour a week – but anything more demanding I haven’t yet been able to fit into my life. While MOOCs are more structured and regimented than the plain old ‘OpenCourseWare‘ , where resources and guides were simply put out there on the internet for people to complete in their own time, I’m finding that the time limits imposed by MOOCs are actually preventing me from getting more than a few hours into them – simply because I cannot make the regular time commitment required.
