Reflecting on what I learned from designing a MOOC
For my last assignment for H880, Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL) at the Open University, I designed a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC)of three weeks. I want to share with you my experience with designing a MOOC.
So to give you a little bit of background, I was asked to design a MOOC to predict the future of learning with one of the TEL models — I chose Open Education.
The future of Open Educational Resources (OER), Open Pedagogy/Renewable Assessment in supporting the academic development and employability of Politics and International Relations (PIR) graduates have been the subject of my MOOC.
I do not believe that the Higher Education Institutions should be purely motivated to produce well-qualified employees for the future job market, but I argue that the graduates from the PIR departments should be prepared and fully equipped with the skills of future for life after University, so that they are employable, equipped to pursue personal interest and confident enough to face the future challenges caused with automation and digitisation.
Therefore, I hypothesise that the use of OER and free online educational tools and administration of Open Pedagogy/Renewable Assessment methods in the PIR Departments may both enhance the academic development of the students and can help them build the skills of future, which will ultimately contribute to graduates’ employability and preparedness for the digital economy.
My prediction is that if my hypothesises is proven correct; there will be a proliferation of the adoption of the principles of Open Education in the PIR departments, not just in the Global North but also in the Global South.
Now that my assignment is under review, I can only say that upon receiving feedback, I like to publish my MOOC either on OpenLearn or FutureLearn.
Let me share with you what I learned from the process of designing a MOOC.
I learned to:
- critically reflect on every step of the MOOC
- decide who the audience is
- be clear about the MOOC’s goal
- connect every step of the MOOC with the learning outcomes (LO)
- assess if the LOs outcomes are with the study activities, assessment method, content and sources used
- determine if the MOOC’s pedagogy support the LOs
- check and test accessiblibility of theMOOC
- ascertain how equitable, inclusive and culturally responsive MOOC is
I also learned that you take the above steps so that your MOOC (i) reaches the right kind of audience, (ii) provides the most relevant, inclusive, equitable and culturally responsive learning experience, (iii) meets its learning outcomes (iv) succeeds in retaining its learners to the end of the MOOC and (v) meets the overall goal of the MOOC.
I will keep you posted about the progress of my MOOC design.
