Back from Elearning Consortium of Colorado: MOOC Panel and PLE Session

This year marks the 24th conference for Elearning Consortium of Colorado (formerly TELECOOP). It is a small conference in Colorado, kept small on purpose (usually about 200 attendees, max). The great enjoyment is that this is a real peer-teaching and learning conference. Reconnecting with friends and colleagues is truly a highlight.

With Some Great Help from Friends--A MOOC Panel 
MOOC is big buzz this year, so a group of us put together a panel to share experiences and report on publications and issues to date.

MOOC Panel: Survivors, Thrivers, and Skeptics
 

Elccmooc panel from Alice Bedard-Voorhees

The room was full of faculty and one of our high points seemed to be our sharing that when we met our learning needs in MOOCs, some of us just left the MOOC. No guilt, no lost tuition, unless a person had paid a certification fee to be awarded upon successful completion. Someone shared she was refreshed by that opportunity, and immediately signed up for a MOOC after the session to expand her knowledge of statistics.

Presenting on Personal Learning Environments 

A personal learning topic is how to support the need for continuous learning and our own knowledge about how we learn(metacogntion). I'd already created an assignment and rubric for a class, so the conference was an opportunity to push the topic further by presenting on it. 

 Defining Your Personal Learning Environment

 

PLE from Alice Bedard-Voorhees

Three follow-up questions from this session: Have I seen PLE's created related to the subjects of marketing, computer sciences, natural sciences? An additional takeaway: Peter Jeschofnig mentioned how we have overlooked museums as a rich source of learning--note to self: add that to PLE list of potential sources.

There's more to write about. It's challenging to return from such a rich experience and immediately articulate all a person has gained in a short time-frame.