E-learn Weblog of Willem van Valkenburg

The last month and half I have been traveling a lot and busy with our new plans. That means that I'm a little behind on blogging. This blog post is a summary of interesting articles in the last month or so (in random order):

• Design responses to MOOC completion rates
  Interesting article of the design of the mooc. Is the MOOC designed for retention or selection.
  
  
• Results of U Penn MOOC
  The research tracked several characteristics of the student population.
  
  
• Journal MOOCs Forum
  Online journal about MOOCs
  
  
• Open edX Roadmap now public
  The code for Open edX has been open source for six months now but we now also the roadmap is open.
  
  
• Completion data for MOOCs
  Interesting find: there is a significant negative correlation, ie the more people who enrol then the lower the percentage who complete.
  
  
• It's Not a MOOC, It's a Movement
  in the current era, the Internet has changed our world faster and more extensively than anything we’ve ever seen before. But the biggest drivers to change have come from outside rather than inside higher education. And not necessarily in a good way.
  
  
• Data Mining Exposes Embarrassing Problems for Massive Open Online Courses
  Not only does student participation decline dramatically throughout the new generation of Web-based courses, but the involvement of teachers in online discussions makes it worse.
  
  
• An edX SPOC as the Online Backbone of a Flipped College Course
  This is Part 1 in a series chronicling the process and findings from Brian White's blended learning experiment.
  
  
• A review of online learning in 2013
  Another year of the MOOC
  
  
• the post-MOOC-hype landscape: what’s REALLY next?
  Challenge the empty narratives that your administrators or your faculty have been sold. Find ways to talk about why what you’re doing matters. Change the narrative from unicorns back to what education is about: learning.
  
  
• The greatest MOOC conference in the history of MOOCs
  According to attendees it was the best conference they have attended.
  
  
• MOOC Platforms : a primer - biggies, newbies & freebooters
  As the MOOCosphere expanded, more and more platforms sprung into action.
  
  
• The (Off-Campus) Future of MIT
  MIT names EdX key component of their educational strategy