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| It's FDAC! (and that's a painting by MCC's own Matt Irie in the background) |
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
It's Your Faculty Development Advisory Committee!
Thanks to Peter Lilly's student intern, we were able to get a snapshot of the Faculty Development Advisory Committee after the March meeting.
Now that you see how obviously friendly we are, let us know what we can do to help you get developed!
Friday, March 22, 2013
It's On The Syllabus
As you're on Spring Break, you might use some of your time off (not much--it's your break, after all) to think about your Intersession, Summer, or Fall semester syllabus. To help out, we've come up with some ideas for that very reason.
Keep it Green
If you're trying to cut down on paper waste, don't ask the Duplication Center to print out copies of your syllabus for each student. Instead, create a separate one page document for only the course schedule and due dates. Post both documents--your full syllabus and your schedule only--on the LMS. That way, students can print out only the shorter document if they feel they really need a hard copy of the schedule for the semester. (Idea donated by Paul Stahmann--thanks, Paul!)
Keep it Consistent
Does your syllabus have any policies that your rarely (or never) enforce because they're hassles? (e.g. withdrawing students for lack of attendance; writing Student Conduct Reports for cell phone use; accepting late work but then getting thirty late student papers on the last day of class that you have to grade in one afternoon?) Well, consider making it easier on yourself and re-examine those policies.
If you're never really going to withdraw a student who misses four classes, then don't include it in your syllabus; if you're not really going to fill out extra paperwork for that student who occasionally texts in class, then take out that language; and if you really, really don't want to be stuck grading thirty late papers the day before grades are due, then have a deadline for late work or a zero tolerance policy for late work (I'm doing this in my creative writing course this semester--it's a cinch to enforce and amazingly effective in getting students to turn in work).
But as Ellen Zimmerman, Counselor and Coordinator of First Year Experience, says each time she teaches our "Boundaries with Students" workshop for new faculty members, be consistent with whatever your policy is, and make sure you're comfortable enforcing it.
Keep it Clear
Of course everything in your syllabus is clear--all of our syllabus are clear! But sometimes you do something in a classroom that you feel is unnecessary to explain or include in the syllabus, like using technology (specifically, our LMS to enhance your class, or a class blog or wiki).
Students registering for face-to-face courses might be caught off guard with that, as new faculty member Timothy Linnehan (Instructor of Philosophy) found out. One of his returning adult students was thrown off by the technology he used, both in class and as supplements outside of class. Although technology is a necessity and an excellent pedagogical tool, if you have specific technological expectations for your students--or other expectations--it's good to communicate those as soon as possible, and the syllabus is the perfect vehicle!
Keep Them Accountable
Are you sick of students asking questions this late in the semester that they should already know the answers to? (because those answers are on the syllabus?!)
Well there are a few methods used by MCC faculty that could
at least save you peace of mind, if nothing else. You could pull up the syllabus at the start and end of each class so students get used to using it as a guide to the course.
Or you could give your students a syllabus quiz, either in class the first week or through the LMS as homework. But if you're not crazy about a quiz, you could give your students an interactive Poll Everywhere survey--it's a fun way to check their knowledge (and a way to get them to use their cell phones for good rather than for evil).
Some faculty members also include a "sign here" page of the syllabus that students must sign to confirm that they've read and understood the syllabus. And some faculty members (me) just get used to repeating the phrase "It's on the syllabus." (so that they're even saying it in response to "How are you today, Mrs. Power?")
For more ideas about using the new MCC syllabus template, sign up for one of our "The New MCC Syllabus" workshops in April--log into the Professional Development auto-registration for information.
Keep it Green
If you're trying to cut down on paper waste, don't ask the Duplication Center to print out copies of your syllabus for each student. Instead, create a separate one page document for only the course schedule and due dates. Post both documents--your full syllabus and your schedule only--on the LMS. That way, students can print out only the shorter document if they feel they really need a hard copy of the schedule for the semester. (Idea donated by Paul Stahmann--thanks, Paul!)
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| And yours might be even shorter than mine! |
Keep it Consistent
Does your syllabus have any policies that your rarely (or never) enforce because they're hassles? (e.g. withdrawing students for lack of attendance; writing Student Conduct Reports for cell phone use; accepting late work but then getting thirty late student papers on the last day of class that you have to grade in one afternoon?) Well, consider making it easier on yourself and re-examine those policies.
If you're never really going to withdraw a student who misses four classes, then don't include it in your syllabus; if you're not really going to fill out extra paperwork for that student who occasionally texts in class, then take out that language; and if you really, really don't want to be stuck grading thirty late papers the day before grades are due, then have a deadline for late work or a zero tolerance policy for late work (I'm doing this in my creative writing course this semester--it's a cinch to enforce and amazingly effective in getting students to turn in work).
But as Ellen Zimmerman, Counselor and Coordinator of First Year Experience, says each time she teaches our "Boundaries with Students" workshop for new faculty members, be consistent with whatever your policy is, and make sure you're comfortable enforcing it.
Keep it Clear
Of course everything in your syllabus is clear--all of our syllabus are clear! But sometimes you do something in a classroom that you feel is unnecessary to explain or include in the syllabus, like using technology (specifically, our LMS to enhance your class, or a class blog or wiki).
Students registering for face-to-face courses might be caught off guard with that, as new faculty member Timothy Linnehan (Instructor of Philosophy) found out. One of his returning adult students was thrown off by the technology he used, both in class and as supplements outside of class. Although technology is a necessity and an excellent pedagogical tool, if you have specific technological expectations for your students--or other expectations--it's good to communicate those as soon as possible, and the syllabus is the perfect vehicle!
Keep Them Accountable
Are you sick of students asking questions this late in the semester that they should already know the answers to? (because those answers are on the syllabus?!)
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| It's that time of year when you wish you owned this t-shirt |
Or you could give your students a syllabus quiz, either in class the first week or through the LMS as homework. But if you're not crazy about a quiz, you could give your students an interactive Poll Everywhere survey--it's a fun way to check their knowledge (and a way to get them to use their cell phones for good rather than for evil).
Some faculty members also include a "sign here" page of the syllabus that students must sign to confirm that they've read and understood the syllabus. And some faculty members (me) just get used to repeating the phrase "It's on the syllabus." (so that they're even saying it in response to "How are you today, Mrs. Power?")
For more ideas about using the new MCC syllabus template, sign up for one of our "The New MCC Syllabus" workshops in April--log into the Professional Development auto-registration for information.
What part of crafting a syllabus have you honed over the years?
Add your ideas in the "Comments" section below!
Monday, March 18, 2013
We Want YOU to Welcome Students!
If you had a captive audience of hundreds of brand new
freshmen students, what would you say? Would you offer some advice to
avoid pitfalls? Share something exciting from your classroom or your
work on campus? Or would you give a few words of inspiration?
Well, guess what? You'll have that captive audience at New Student Convocation on Thursday, August 15!
We're looking for faculty members interested in giving their own or a collaborative short welcome segment (2 - 5 minutes) at the Convocation ceremony. Each of the four short segments will exemplify our fantastic faculty here at the College by focusing on one of the four tenants of Excellence in Teaching: Subject Matter, Pedagogy, Assessment, and Professionalism.
So if you're a willing and able faculty member, we want you! Please contact Laura Power (that's me!) with the following:
*You thought we couldn't possibly come up with another acronym here at MCC, didn't you? Well, we did. And it's E.T.
Well, guess what? You'll have that captive audience at New Student Convocation on Thursday, August 15!
We're looking for faculty members interested in giving their own or a collaborative short welcome segment (2 - 5 minutes) at the Convocation ceremony. Each of the four short segments will exemplify our fantastic faculty here at the College by focusing on one of the four tenants of Excellence in Teaching: Subject Matter, Pedagogy, Assessment, and Professionalism.
So if you're a willing and able faculty member, we want you! Please contact Laura Power (that's me!) with the following:
- Your E.T.* tenant (will you talk about an exciting classroom project or technique, your work with students outside of the classroom, research in your field, or the transformations you're making in your classroom or department? whatever it is, we'll take it!)
- Your format (Ignite-style presentation [it's a built in five minutes!], speech, or something else altogether?)
- Your time preference (if you want 5 minutes, you've got it, but you're welcome to write and perform a 2-minute ditty about assessment [music department and Robert McCord, I'm looking at you…])
- Your buddy (this one's optional, but if you'd like to do a presentation with a colleague, go for it! [although that doesn't mean you get twice as much time. sorry.])
*You thought we couldn't possibly come up with another acronym here at MCC, didn't you? Well, we did. And it's E.T.
What Can Students Do...
Contributed by Flecia Thomas, Dean of Student Success
The Department of Career Services is planning a series of thirty minute seminars entitled “What Can I Do with a Major In…?” on Thursday, April 18th from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. and we would love your help!
We hope to showcase a variety of
faculty who are working in their chosen majors. During each thirty minute session
we would like to have at least two faculty panel members address the following
as agenda:
The Department of Career Services is planning a series of thirty minute seminars entitled “What Can I Do with a Major In…?” on Thursday, April 18th from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. and we would love your help!
We would like to invite at least one faculty member
per department to be featured as one of two panelists for these seminars.
Each seminar would have two faculty speakers who will share their insights for
twenty minutes and answer questions for the remaining ten minutes. This will give our
students the opportunity to gain insight into careers associated with the
majors they are considering.
- How did you select your major and are you working in a career related to your major?
- How much education did you receive in order to attain your current position?
- What insights can you provide into the job outlook for your major?
- What information could you provide on other possible careers that one could pursue with your major?
If you are interested in being a
featured faculty panelist, please check your e-mail for a message from Laura Power regarding the sign-up process (which is very easy!).
Thank you for your time and have
a terrific day!
Monday, February 25, 2013
Graduate Credit Opportunities This Spring and Summer
If you're looking for some graduate level coursework--face-to-face or online--check out some terrific offerings detailed below.
March & April Face-To-Face:
This spring MCC will be hosting a Performance Learning Systems & Rockford College graduate credit course, Designing Motivation for All Learners. Faculty enrolled in this course will "explore the various dimensions of motivation, beliefs in ability, and self-efficacy as they analyze learner orientations and learning preferences"--review the full syllabus , and then register for this great faculty development opportunity!
March Online:
If you're unable to make the two weekend commitment for the PLS class, why not try the webcast course Differentiating for Diverse Learners sponsored by Advantage Discipline and Spring Arbor University? The webcast format is meant for easy viewing at times that are convenient for you!
Summer Face-To-Face:
And if you're more of a face-to-face student but are waiting for something to come up when you'll have more free time, Advantage Discipline and University of St. Francis are partnering for Relationships + Resources = Results: Education's Essential Equation this summer. The five day course will be held at the campus of University of St. Francis in Joliet, IL--yes, it's a trek down to Joliet, but 3 graduate credit hours are quite an incentive (and you can always use your $300 Professional Development travel money for a hotel...)
You can also check out rolling online courses offered through Connecting Link or Illinois Online Network from University of Illinois--and hopefully there's something for you!
March & April Face-To-Face:
This spring MCC will be hosting a Performance Learning Systems & Rockford College graduate credit course, Designing Motivation for All Learners. Faculty enrolled in this course will "explore the various dimensions of motivation, beliefs in ability, and self-efficacy as they analyze learner orientations and learning preferences"--review the full syllabus , and then register for this great faculty development opportunity!
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| A graduate credit course opportunity right here at MCC this Spring 2013 |
March Online:
If you're unable to make the two weekend commitment for the PLS class, why not try the webcast course Differentiating for Diverse Learners sponsored by Advantage Discipline and Spring Arbor University? The webcast format is meant for easy viewing at times that are convenient for you!
Summer Face-To-Face:
And if you're more of a face-to-face student but are waiting for something to come up when you'll have more free time, Advantage Discipline and University of St. Francis are partnering for Relationships + Resources = Results: Education's Essential Equation this summer. The five day course will be held at the campus of University of St. Francis in Joliet, IL--yes, it's a trek down to Joliet, but 3 graduate credit hours are quite an incentive (and you can always use your $300 Professional Development travel money for a hotel...)
You can also check out rolling online courses offered through Connecting Link or Illinois Online Network from University of Illinois--and hopefully there's something for you!
Friday, February 22, 2013
Instructure Canvas: Taking the Plunge
Contributed by Gabriel Decio, Instructor of English
Some of us have may come to Canvas partly enthused about the prospect of a new system and partly apprehensive about such a prospect. I have been using Canvas as my LMS in my two online, one blended, and three face-to-face courses since January. I like Canvas, and, while at first I missed Angel, I soon learned to appreciate Canvas’ more straightforward uploads and linear structure.
Canvas works differently from Angel. There is no tree structure with folders within folders, Russian-doll style. It’s more like ducks in a row, except that you get to organize your items into modules and then, within the modules, you organize them into subgroups using text headers. Everything is listed in a linear manner.
You may upload or create pages and quizzes, and once you publish them, students can view them. The image below shows a screen shot of one of my courses where you can see what appears on a student’s single screen.
One of the hot questions this year is going to be, “how do I upload my courses onto Canvas?” There are two ways to populate a course shell:
Creating a course from scratch sounds like too much work, but it took me the same amount of time as reorganizing the files that I had uploaded from an Angel cartridge in a different course shell. This is what I did: I downloaded all the material in my master Angel course onto folders on my hard drive so that my course looked exactly like it did on Angel. This also gave me the chance to give the folders names of my choice. My next step was to reinterpret the tree/folder structure as a linear structure and to upload all the material in a way that made sense to me.
Uploading and developing material on Canvas was a breeze. You may create pages using a WYSIWYG editor that allows you to imbed photos and video. You create quizzes and surveys. And you may upload complex html files, Word files, or PDF files. After you create a page or quiz, you add that item to the module where you want it to appear. It is a two-step process: first create, then add it to a module.
One of my favorite features of Canvas is its speedgrader. Click on it, and you are on your way to an effective grading session. The speedgrader allows you to write comments and make visual editing marks in your students’ documents with ease, never leaving the screen of the assignment (view the image below for a screen shot of the speedgrader). Once you're done, you enter a grade and may also add comments linked to that assignment that will be sent to the student’s inbox. When you're ready to grade the next student’s assignment, click on the arrow next to the student’s name.
Six weeks into the semester, Canvas has become such a integral part of my teaching that I navigate through it, read and send messages, create pages and quizzes, and grade assignments without ever pausing to think about it. I still have a lot to learn, but now I am excited about what else I may be able to do with Canvas.
Want to get started? Use the Professional Development auto-registration system to register for one of the Canvas workshops (for clock hour credit!) in February and March.
Some of us have may come to Canvas partly enthused about the prospect of a new system and partly apprehensive about such a prospect. I have been using Canvas as my LMS in my two online, one blended, and three face-to-face courses since January. I like Canvas, and, while at first I missed Angel, I soon learned to appreciate Canvas’ more straightforward uploads and linear structure.
Canvas works differently from Angel. There is no tree structure with folders within folders, Russian-doll style. It’s more like ducks in a row, except that you get to organize your items into modules and then, within the modules, you organize them into subgroups using text headers. Everything is listed in a linear manner.
You may upload or create pages and quizzes, and once you publish them, students can view them. The image below shows a screen shot of one of my courses where you can see what appears on a student’s single screen.
 |
| The Linear Module Format |
One of the hot questions this year is going to be, “how do I upload my courses onto Canvas?” There are two ways to populate a course shell:
- You may upload an Angel cartridge of an existing course, or
- You may create your course materials on Canvas from scratch.
Creating a course from scratch sounds like too much work, but it took me the same amount of time as reorganizing the files that I had uploaded from an Angel cartridge in a different course shell. This is what I did: I downloaded all the material in my master Angel course onto folders on my hard drive so that my course looked exactly like it did on Angel. This also gave me the chance to give the folders names of my choice. My next step was to reinterpret the tree/folder structure as a linear structure and to upload all the material in a way that made sense to me.
Uploading and developing material on Canvas was a breeze. You may create pages using a WYSIWYG editor that allows you to imbed photos and video. You create quizzes and surveys. And you may upload complex html files, Word files, or PDF files. After you create a page or quiz, you add that item to the module where you want it to appear. It is a two-step process: first create, then add it to a module.
One of my favorite features of Canvas is its speedgrader. Click on it, and you are on your way to an effective grading session. The speedgrader allows you to write comments and make visual editing marks in your students’ documents with ease, never leaving the screen of the assignment (view the image below for a screen shot of the speedgrader). Once you're done, you enter a grade and may also add comments linked to that assignment that will be sent to the student’s inbox. When you're ready to grade the next student’s assignment, click on the arrow next to the student’s name.
 |
| The speedgrader in action |
Six weeks into the semester, Canvas has become such a integral part of my teaching that I navigate through it, read and send messages, create pages and quizzes, and grade assignments without ever pausing to think about it. I still have a lot to learn, but now I am excited about what else I may be able to do with Canvas.
Want to get started? Use the Professional Development auto-registration system to register for one of the Canvas workshops (for clock hour credit!) in February and March.
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Ignite Your Passion and Your Presentations!
When was the last time you were asked to do a short presentation to a group of people (students, colleagues, conference attendees...) and you didn't want to show them the same old thing--the same old PowerPoint, the same old podium speech?
Well, why not use an Ignite Talk? It's a five minute presentation format that's generating some buzz at conferences (I saw my first Ignite talk at last Fall's Chicago Writer's Conference), and it's an excellent way to demonstrate your excitement about a focused topic using tightly rehearsed points and twenty hand-picked images.
The basics:
If you need help with images, ask OMPR--they have a terrific library of images from MCC events. You can also use the Internet to snag appropriate images, take your own pictures, or use the Media Center (A210) to scan in your old photos.
Interested in seeing a few more Ignite talks before giving your own? Check out the Ignite website or attend the group Ignite talk at MCC on March 12 that will be honoring Women's History Month by highlighting some of our terrific women at MCC.
And let us know when you give your own Ignite presentation so we can come cheer you on!
Well, why not use an Ignite Talk? It's a five minute presentation format that's generating some buzz at conferences (I saw my first Ignite talk at last Fall's Chicago Writer's Conference), and it's an excellent way to demonstrate your excitement about a focused topic using tightly rehearsed points and twenty hand-picked images.
The basics:
- It's a five minute presentation
- Your topic is specific & focused
- As you talk, your slideshow automatically scrolls through slides/images (20 total slides scroll every 15 seconds for 5 total minutes)
- Your quick, well rehearsed presentation ignites enthusiasm in your audience members!
- Identify a specific and focused topic (Ex.: Why I Love Teaching at MCC)
- Organize your presentation into three or four main points (Ex.: My students, my colleagues, and the community college mission)
- Brainstorm one or two short narratives for each of your points (Narratives are easier for you to remember, which helps because you won't have any notes!)
- Choose images to show off your points, your stories, and your enthusiasm (Ex.: pictures of my students in class and on Alternative Spring Break, pictures of my colleagues at MCC, a goofy picture of my high school cheerleading squad...)
- Rehearse! (and then rehearse some more--you want to make sure what you're saying coincides with the slides that are moving behind you)
If you need help with images, ask OMPR--they have a terrific library of images from MCC events. You can also use the Internet to snag appropriate images, take your own pictures, or use the Media Center (A210) to scan in your old photos.
Interested in seeing a few more Ignite talks before giving your own? Check out the Ignite website or attend the group Ignite talk at MCC on March 12 that will be honoring Women's History Month by highlighting some of our terrific women at MCC.
And let us know when you give your own Ignite presentation so we can come cheer you on!
Friday, February 15, 2013
Canvas Training This Spring--Get Registered!
If you're planning to use our new learning management system (LMS) Canvas this summer--or anytime in the future--why not register for one of the Canvas workshops happening this February and March?
Register by going to the Professional Development auto-registration system.
Hope to see you in A210!
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| Register, Attend, and Get Clock Hour Credit! |
Register by going to the Professional Development auto-registration system.
Hope to see you in A210!
Sunday, February 10, 2013
A New Look for the MCC Library!
Contributed by Cynthia Letteri, Instructor of Information Literacy and Research
The MCC Library web pages have a new look! In an effort to streamline and reduce links on the homepage, the library now sports a cleaner, meaner access page. The inspiration for this new look is not only the College’s current branding efforts, but also the library’s adoption of a new hosted platform for creating research guides.
On the library’s homepage you will notice the simplified tab features with drop-down menus. The Research Guidance tab will lead to the new Research Guides created for various disciplines, subjects, and courses. The Research Guides are an excellent starting point for independent research and will be featured in our Information Literacy instruction, as well as in our one-on-one interactions in the library.
As before, off-campus access to our subscription databases requires a myMCC username and password. For questions or help with this, please contact the library.
See what you can discover on your own through the library website, but always feel free to contact a reference librarian for your instruction, research, and information needs. We're here to help!
The MCC Library web pages have a new look! In an effort to streamline and reduce links on the homepage, the library now sports a cleaner, meaner access page. The inspiration for this new look is not only the College’s current branding efforts, but also the library’s adoption of a new hosted platform for creating research guides.
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| The MCC Library's Cleaner, Meaner Access Page! |
On the library’s homepage you will notice the simplified tab features with drop-down menus. The Research Guidance tab will lead to the new Research Guides created for various disciplines, subjects, and courses. The Research Guides are an excellent starting point for independent research and will be featured in our Information Literacy instruction, as well as in our one-on-one interactions in the library.
As before, off-campus access to our subscription databases requires a myMCC username and password. For questions or help with this, please contact the library.
See what you can discover on your own through the library website, but always feel free to contact a reference librarian for your instruction, research, and information needs. We're here to help!
Wednesday, February 06, 2013
MOOCs at MCC: A Panel Discussion
On January 29th we had our first "Fifth Tuesday" of the Spring 2013 semester. We were able to sit down for a bit to talk about Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and what they mean to us at MCC.
We were joined by Director of Online Learning and Educational Technology, Ray Lawson; Dean of Library, Kate Harger; and Instructor of English, Anne Humphrey. We barely scratched the surface of the benefits, the concerns, and the implications of MOOCs (you can see the presentation outline at the bottom of this post), and faculty members brought up some excellent questions.
But the questions didn't stop when the panel discussion ended. Instructor of Art and Art Department Chair, Sarah Ruthven, asked Anne and I some follow-up questions via e-mail, and Anne gave her terrific answers (thankfully Anne answered Sarah's e-mail first; I would have just written, "Der...um...Anne?").
Check out Sarah's Q's:
A short answer is that we are discussing MOOCs because everyone else is discussing them. People are excited about the concept because the current model of higher education is considered to be unsustainable, so any optional methods seem to be worth investigating. People are funding the efforts outside of the classical model, via grants, or via loss-leader type approaches at big and very well-funded universities, or via individual philanthropy – it’s totally outside our current compensation model.
I was glad to hear someone mention CAPC processes yesterday. Yes, I would say a MOOC should go through that process, if it is offered under the auspices of MCC.
MOOCs seem to have popped up overnight because in fact they have only been around a few years. Due to backing from the most prestigious universities in the world and some leading funders and philanthropists, growth has been very, very rapid. Suddenly, the MOOC is the hot topic, and many schools are trying to get into the game.
iTunesU, YouTube, materials in MERLOT and hundreds of other lesson repositories (including Khan Academy), materials for hundreds of thousands of individual teacher and faculty websites, etc. are not MOOCs.
A MOOC is a course, so it has modules, assignments/tests, an overall flow and goals, and interaction. The vast amount of free material online can and should be used to supplement courses, but it isn’t organized as a course, but rather as lessons/handouts, and other artifacts that could be adapted or inserted into a course (observe and licensing or copyright issues noted, though). But a MOOC is a whole course. Now, you can use pieces from a MOOC as individual supplements too, leading to some confusion and overlap in these concepts
Related concepts/methods:
We were joined by Director of Online Learning and Educational Technology, Ray Lawson; Dean of Library, Kate Harger; and Instructor of English, Anne Humphrey. We barely scratched the surface of the benefits, the concerns, and the implications of MOOCs (you can see the presentation outline at the bottom of this post), and faculty members brought up some excellent questions.
But the questions didn't stop when the panel discussion ended. Instructor of Art and Art Department Chair, Sarah Ruthven, asked Anne and I some follow-up questions via e-mail, and Anne gave her terrific answers (thankfully Anne answered Sarah's e-mail first; I would have just written, "Der...um...Anne?").
Check out Sarah's Q's:
- What is driving this? Do MOOCs address a population we are missing? Do they provide a service we can’t already provide through a number of other outlets? Do they address completion? Is there data or examples to suggest that MOOCs help something we are working on at MCC?
- If an academic content MOOC is created by MCC faculty members, would it be put through the same process of any other delivery mode including CD&R and Assessment?
- This seems to just have popped up overnight. I woke up in fall semester and there they were, like magic--where did they come from?
- If I require it and grade it, is it still supplemental?
- How is this different from a YouTube Channel or iTunes University?
- If it is a marketing tool how do we get an audience for it?
A short answer is that we are discussing MOOCs because everyone else is discussing them. People are excited about the concept because the current model of higher education is considered to be unsustainable, so any optional methods seem to be worth investigating. People are funding the efforts outside of the classical model, via grants, or via loss-leader type approaches at big and very well-funded universities, or via individual philanthropy – it’s totally outside our current compensation model.
I was glad to hear someone mention CAPC processes yesterday. Yes, I would say a MOOC should go through that process, if it is offered under the auspices of MCC.
MOOCs seem to have popped up overnight because in fact they have only been around a few years. Due to backing from the most prestigious universities in the world and some leading funders and philanthropists, growth has been very, very rapid. Suddenly, the MOOC is the hot topic, and many schools are trying to get into the game.
iTunesU, YouTube, materials in MERLOT and hundreds of other lesson repositories (including Khan Academy), materials for hundreds of thousands of individual teacher and faculty websites, etc. are not MOOCs.
A MOOC is a course, so it has modules, assignments/tests, an overall flow and goals, and interaction. The vast amount of free material online can and should be used to supplement courses, but it isn’t organized as a course, but rather as lessons/handouts, and other artifacts that could be adapted or inserted into a course (observe and licensing or copyright issues noted, though). But a MOOC is a whole course. Now, you can use pieces from a MOOC as individual supplements too, leading to some confusion and overlap in these concepts
Related concepts/methods:
- Online courses and pedagogy (pretty well developed but not necessarily well employed) (some techniques blended in to traditional classes)
- Free online content (use in any course to supplement OR for all the content)
- Development of your own content and hosting publicly for other teachers to use (one of my videos is at 47,233 views this morning)
- Digital publisher content (usually given in connection with purchase or adoption of the textbook or etextbook)
- Open online courses (not accredited, some for a fee, offered through several existing platforms)
- Flipped classroom (for use in a traditional classroom course or blended course, but using online materials)
- Massive open online course (MOOC) (may grant some certificate on completion, credit being discussed in some cases, primary assessment is peer-to-peer or computer graded, generally free but some may include fees, open enrollment, traditional-ish online course structure)
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