One of the activities for week 6 was to enrol on a MOOC to allow us to critically evaluate the educational activities it provides. For this task, I chose A MOOC developed by the University of Edinburgh and delivered on the MOOC platform Coursera titled ‘The Making of the US President: A Short History in Five Elections‘.
How did I search for this MOOC?
Well, firstly, I had to know that MOOCs are a thing. It just so happens, because of the line of work I’m in, I have known about MOOCs since around 2011. In addition, as stated above, this was a key task for the course and we were even directed to some examples. For this exercise, the most important criteria in searching for a MOOC was the start date (an on-demand MOOC was also a possibility). However, I am assuming most enrol because they are interested in the subject, and will wait for the start date if required.
What happened when I enrolled on the course?
I received an email from the platform welcoming me to the course. The introductory message was nice and short and included the following:
Follow us on twitter @MakingPresMOOC #MakingPresMOOC.
As a frequent Twitter user I liked this. It also served to remind me how Twitter has become an ideal companion to MOOCs. However, while not a prerequisite of the course, it does exclude participants domiciled in countries where Twitter is banned.
I then received a second ‘welcome to the course’ email. This included a prompt to watch a short video – a familiar approach for a MOOC user. However, I was expecting (and hoping) for an introductory video talking about what was going to be covered on the course. Instead, the video was a short lecture which threw us straight in to the subject area. Personally, I am a fan of ‘week 0’ type activities for online courses. Give me a list of things to do, which I can tick off, and which can help make me feel that I am prepared for the course, in advance of any actual teaching. This approach therefore left me feeling a little under-prepared.
A note about the user interface
I noticed that Coursera is now providing an ‘interactive’ transcript. This is something Lynda.com has been delivering for years. I once asked a Lynda.com representative at the Learning Technologies Fair if this was openly sourced. Alas no.
I also noticed the ‘thumbs up / thumbs down’ option for each video. It seems a little incongruous here. How am I, a student on the course, going to benefit from this feature? Is there a place where I can find all videos I’ve ‘liked’? Will the videos be ranked in some way? Or is this (as I suspect) simply a way for the MOOC delivery team to review course content?
A note about the video content
Each video lecture is lecturer talking to camera, with no cutaways. This felt like a missed opportunity. Why not use other assets to enhance the points you are trying to make? It is taking the lecture format and transposing it onto the screen, rather than recontextualising the material.
Course format
I notice the second item in the course is ‘Learning Objectives’ which reminded me of Donald Clark’s rant about the dangers of including these.
Bugbear
Several years ago I used to bank with Barclays. If I ever had to use telephone banking I would eventually be put through to a representative who would assist with transferring money / amending a standing order etc. However, the rep would *always* then try and sell a particular product to me before allowing me to finish the call. It was infuriating. I was reminded of this when at the end of each video lecture for this MOOC, I was prompted to pursue the certification route. There are very good reasons to follow the certification route (not least the greater likelihood you will complete the course). But to sell this at the end of every video felt, well, rather vulgar.
Summary
This particular MOOC didn’t feel like it was trying to do anything different to any other MOOC I have enrolled in previously. It consisted of the following:
- A series of video mini-lectures.
- A discussion board where participants can post questions / observations.
- A short video with a Q&A format where a ‘producer’ asks the lecturer some key questions raised on the discussion boards
- Multiple choice type quizzes are used to assess whether the participant ‘passes’ the course.
If we are to consider Gregory Bateson’s Hierarchy of Learning (as mentioned in the Gardner Campbell Keynote – Ecologies of Yearning – Open Ed 12) when assessing this MOOC, I would argue that it sits somewhere between learning I (change in specificity of response by correction of errors of choice within a set of alternatives) and learning II (learning-to-learn, context recognition). It certainly doesn’t take us to learning III (meta-contextual perspective, imagining and shifting contexts of understanding) – “where we become most human and where we can exercise agency within an ecology of ideas”.
I particularly enjoyed the point raised by Campbell when talking about a quiz he asks students to take prior to each class. The purpose is not to show they can recall information (although useful) but they need to have a habit of being (like read assigned material twice, read unassigned material). MOOCs are usually around 5-7 weeks in duration. The Making of the US President: A Short History in Five Elections is only three weeks in duration. I would argue that it isn’t possible to help foster a habit of being in this time.
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