E-learn Weblog of Willem van Valkenburg

Athough a lot of people were enjoying their summer holiday, the news around MOOCs didn't stop. Here a list of interesting articles:

• MOOC Killer Apps: The Autograder vs. The Syndication Engine
  One of the best ways to distinguish between them is by thinking about their "killer app," the special tool that distinguishes them from previous generations of technologies.
  
  
• Moocs: if we're not careful so-called 'open' courses will close minds
  Massive open online courses, or Moocs, will probably turn out to be little more than an edu-tainment 'bubble', says Peter Scott.
  
  
• On the Automated Scoring of Essays and the Lessons Learned Along the Way
  A piece of software coldly judging the quality of our carefully constructed phrases and metaphors based on unknown criteria is more than most writers can bear. But is this what automated essay scoring (AES) is? If not, what is it? In this article, I aim to explore what AES is, the state of field, some of the lessons I have learned along the way, and where I think it is going.
  
  
• Business Model for Education Venture Calls for ‘Empowering Adjuncts’
  Courses will run for 12 weeks but can start at any point during the year. In a way, it’s the anti-MOOC, with the focus on small classes of 25 to 30, rather than one instructor teaching thousands, and an expectation of more student-faculty engagement.
  
  
• MOOCs are Toast or at Least Should Be
  Is it time yet to declare massive open online courses or MOOCs an academic failure?
  
  
• The New MOOC Strategy: Rise of the Higher Ed Empires
  It sheds light on the plans by universities like Harvard to develop MOOCs and market them to less prestigious institutions.
  
  
• In Shadow Of MOOCs, Open Education Makes Progress
  Advocates say higher education would be better served by resources that are truly open -- not just free.
  
  
• How MOOCs Will Revolutionize Corporate Learning And Development
  But as MOOCs storm the academic world, the public discussion of their impact is ignoring what could become their most valuable application. Far from being limited to higher education reform, the new learning style’s most important legacy could be its impact on the world of corporate training – which is a $150 billion industry.
  
  
• MOOCs: The Asian perspective
  A World Bank blog noted that "public discussions around MOOCs have tended to represent viewpoints and interests of elite institutions in rich, industrialized countries (notably the United States)" and calls for perspectives on MOOCs from developing countries. The e-DIRAP project have solicited some perspectives from Asia.
  
  
• MOOCs: A Disruptive Innovation or Not?
  Although MOOCs are considered the “new technology” from Silicon Valley, online learning has a long history and extensive use both to replace and supplement traditional classroom instruction.
  
  
• The emergence of x and c MOOCs and pedagogy
  Based on my observation and research, I think there are vast differences in terms of needs and experiences in MOOCs (especially the c and x MOOCs) for various types and cohorts of learners – high school students, college and university undergraduate students, graduate students, graduates and working learners, scholars, researchers, professors etc.
  
  
• Bill Gates on His Foundation's Health and Education Campaigns
  If you look at who’s used MOOCs so far, it’s an elite phenomenon. The completion rates are very low, and the effect on employability is very low.
  
  
• Feminist Anti-MOOC
  "Feminism and Technology" is trying to take a few MOOC elements, but then to change them in ways consistent with feminist pedagogy to create a distributed open collaborative course or DOCC (pronounced "dock").
  
  
• What’s the Difference Between OCWs and MOOCs? Managing Expectations.
  What’s the difference between OCWs and MOOCs? At the end of the day, it may be nothing more than managing expectations.
  
  
• Coursera hires VC Lila Ibrahim (from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers) as President
  To accelerate our next phase of growth, we are delighted to add Lila Ibrahim to our team as Coursera’s first President. She will join our co-founders and co-CEOs to form the Executive Office. During this period of time, she will remain an operating partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB).
  
  
• Lessons Learned from Vanderbilt’s First MOOCs
  As faculty, staff, and students worked over the last year to launch Vanderbilt’s first three MOOCs, we grappled with the following question: How do you create effective learning environments online for thousands and thousands of students? We haven’t fully answered that question, but we have learned much about the design and implementation of MOOCs.
  
  
• What Do Massive Open Online Courses Mean for the Future of Higher Education?
  MOOC Special Issue of Campus Technology.
  
  
• MOOCs and The Change of Higher Education
  MOOCs look neat, are plausible and… too many get it wrong! MOOCs captured the imagination of venture capitalists, academics and university administrators and this is a rare thing for higher education. Enthusiasm and a bit of passion in this field is always a welcome change. The problem is that – despite exuberant enthusiasm surrounding them - MOOCs remain marked by many unanswered questions and still fail to clarify how they will deal with many crucial pedagogical and managerial aspects. Again, we do not talk about online education here, but MOOCs!
  
  
• Blended MOOCs: The Best of Both Worlds?
  Combining in-class instruction with high-quality MOOCs may resolve some of the hurdles facing stand-alone MOOCs, but questions about cost and the impact on faculty remain unanswered.
  
  
• MOOC, SPOC, DOCC, Massive Online Face2Face Open . . . (Uh Oh!): Age of the Acronym
  On Facebook, my pal John recently joked that we're not living in the Digital Age.  We're living in the Age of the Acronym.
  
  
• Don't Fear the MOOC: Re-Invent the Learning Ecosystem
  There is a tsunami rising in higher education. In fact, it is finally starting to crest. The chatter around the need to improve education in the U.S. has been going on for decades, but it looks like something is finally going to happen. Why? Because the business model of higher education is truly under attack.
  
  
• Is Online Education Widening the Digital Divide?
  Universities across the country are experimenting with MOOCs as a way to make higher education more affordable and accessible to all  students. The premise of MOOCs has, to some, come to mean the democratization of quality higher education, a way of equalizing the playing field for students of every demographic.