oocs for the rest of us

OOCs for the rest of us

George RobertsOCSLD, Oxford Brookes University

ELESIG, March 2013

Back

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nd

Discourses around higher education are:

“… a field of competition for the legitimate exercise of symbolic

violence,

… an arena of conflict between rival principles of legitimacy, and

competition for political, economic and cultural power

(Bourdieu 1993, 121)

QUESTION: If SOPA/PIPA had been passed into U.S. law in 2002, would Wikipedia exist today? If either law had passed in 2012, would Wikipedia exist in 2022? Why or why not? Discuss.

If you cannot answer that question, you are

not literate nor are you in control of your life—

even if you think you are.

Literacy - including digital - is the practice of enunciation in a

community:

“speaking” in the broadest sense, projecting an identity

with, through and to others who concur

Question 1

• Might MOOCs help address the digital literacy deficit?

• How?

• Native – Immigrant (Prensky 2001)

• Visitor – Resident(White & Le Cornu 2011)

• Voyeur – Flaneur (boyd 2011)

• Liminal participant - Skilled orienteer(Waite et al 2013)

Christ Handing the Keys to St. Peter, Perugino, 1481

Open online academic practice offers a

radical challenge to the “polyarchic”

limits to the discussion of digital

literacy within institutions, which are

in conflict with themselves.

(Hall 2012)

MOOC experiences

Liminal participants & skilled orienteers: A case study of learner participation in a MOOC for new lecturers

(Waite et al 2013)

Over 200 signed up• 60 participated throughout the 6

weeks• We reached our constituency• 14 undertook the assessment and

received a certificate• Participants were from 24 different

countries including Australia, Canada, India, South Africa, as well as many European countries &US

Research continuing• How people learned• Differential participation• Design principles

Eval

uatio

n

MOOCs as threshold concept

• Opening a portal to understanding previously unknown knowledge

• Preceded by troublesome knowledge • Liminality: “A suspended state of partial

understanding or stuck place”

(Meyer & Land 2003, Perkins 2006)

Three main themes

1. Navigation2. Transformative reflective practice 3. Making sense of community

Navigation

New participants felt overwhelmed by technology, multiple channels & perceived need to multi-task.

Experienced MOOCers were judicious about planning their route and orienting their participation.

Transformative reflective practice

Ultimately learners experienced a transformative shift …

but it required reflection on practice, community support and self-organization

Making sense of community

New learners needed time to determine their audience and core community…

and to realize reciprocal relationships.

Question 2

• At your table, what has the MOOC experience been like?

• Liminal participation?• Skilled orienteering?

OOCs for the rest of us?Forget the massive

MOOCs as third space

• Rapidly hybridising novel expressions of higher education (Roberts, et al 2013)– cMOOCs, xMOOCs, pMOOCs, etcMOOCs– Intermediate forms, syntheses, compromises or

novel solutions, arise

• Proxy for the historical conversation about continuing, professional, open, online, distance and blended learning (Stewart 2012)

• A focus on the course and the platform ignores the experience of the MOOC learner

• MOOCs offer an unlimited number of possibilities for hybridization because, whatever else, they offer participants the opportunity to fashion their own learning according to their needs.

• Bonk (2013) identifies 22 types of MOOC with 20 Leadership Principles and 12 business models.

• The numbers are changing and boundaries are fuzzy.

• There is stratification going on at the innovative end of traditional educational institutions.

A bubble?

Andy Wharhol, 1986

• Monetize– Accreditation– Tuition– Publications– Recruitment– ???

• Or… sell picks and shovels to the Klondikers– MOOCs as platforms

Cowboy economics?

Forget

the massive

Reasons for developing OOCs

• Improving the global learner experience• Fulfilling the university’s

social/global/community educative mission• Enhancing reputation and increasing visibility• Showcase own expertise• Increasing reach– Better serve (retain) existing clients– Attract new clients– Earn more revenue

OOC Pedagoies

Open academic practice• Expert participation

• Distributed collaboration

• Academic multimedia

• Flipped teaching (the new black)

Question 3

• What would your reasons for be for developing open online courses?

Thank you

Dr George RobertsOCSLD, Oxford Brookes University

March 2013groberts@brookes.ac.uk

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