MOOC Credentials You Can Earn and A Learner Review Site

Open Culture is such a fabulous source for free diversion and learning—films, interviews, reads. And courses.

In addition to the 650 free courses listed there, on Friday they shared a list of 200 more courses known as as MOOCS, with information about types of credentials offered as part of the learning experience: http://www.openculture.com/free_certificate_courses:

Free Courses Credential Key


CC = Certificate of Completion


SA  = Statement of Accomplishment


CM = Certificate of Mastery


C-VA = Certificate, with Varied Levels of Accomplishment


NI – No Information About Certificate Available


NC = No Certificate

Also helpful was the list of course that have start dates, and those that don’t. So the list can be viewed 

by month, with ongoing enrollments to the “evergreen” courses appearing at the bottom. While these completion credentials are not college credits, such credentials may offer a bridge for those evaluating courses for the assignment of college credit.

After looking at the Open Culture list, I went off in search of MOOC review sites and found http://coursetalk.org. Platform, number of reviews, ratings, and individual remarks about the course experience are included. In testing the site, I took a title on statistics from the Open Culture list and popped it into the search window of coursetalk—here are the results for this course to date: http://coursetalk.org/intro-to-statistics-st101-udacity. I also looked at one on business operations from the business category of courstalk; this one had 73 very-satisfied reviewers: http://coursetalk.org/an-introduction-to-operations-management-penn

In looking at ratings in the review site, we see the value of the courses for learners in the workplace as well as learners who might have a more academic reason for enrolling in the courses.

Responding to Another Article About MOOCS

My Friend and Colleague Bob Cartelli sent this item about MOOCS over this morning from the Harvard Business Review: "Eight Brilliant Minds on the Future of Online Education"

 We are just discussing commenting on blogs in one of the online courses I teach this term. Though I tend to stay on the low-profile side, today I stepped into the comment area of that particular blog. I keep looking for some key questions to surface in the discussion about who will accept successful MOOC completion as course credit, what will be the cost of higher level assessment activities, and how students will be oriented and supported for MOOC success.

Probably what I might have established was how long I've been in online education and that some of these questions are certainly not new, they just haven't been addressed with MOOCS yet.
And if I'm uninformed, I hope to hear differently :).

 Cross-Posted Comment:

People attend higher ed for the sake of learning, to acquire social networks, and to gain employment skills. Self-directed learners have had mechanisms available to them under Credit for Prior Learning Assessments that translate the learning to credits at a given institution: Standardized tests like CLEP, challenge exams, and portfolio documentation.

 With MOOC as a viable addition, it remains to be seen which institutions will take a successful MOOC completion in transfer. Yes, I could gain the knowledge from MOOC and use that with one of the other PLA mechanisms, but the outright acceptance for credit is a different question. So beyond the learning, transfer, transcripts and credentialing are important issues. Additionally, some learning outcomes need more sophisticated assessment measures--who will provide that service at an institution and at what cost? Yes, we have TA's and yes, we have graders, and MOOC may well need those too.

 I understand that some higher models are currently in play and under study. I hope they will also look at who is successful, and how students are oriented and supported with such a model.

 PS. I have participated in two MOOCs and was mildly successful in one one them :).

MobiMOOC Week 2: Am I a Wonderful Participant?

This fall is the first time I’ve not been teaching online, face-to-face, or working in the training field since I can remember. I’ve been describing this fall as “a sabbatical” with the intention to read and continue learning about the recent developments in cognitive science and learning, and technology for learning. It has been a luxury to have time to read and think, though I would admit, I’m not doing much writing online, and ascribe this to the amount of online facilitation and communications from which I was taking a break. When I saw the MobiMOOC opportunity at https://mobimooc.wikispaces.com/General+information+on+the+course, I thought “Great, this is a great opportunity to learn more about mobility AND better understand how MOOCs work. This said, I was already a one-time MOOC drop-out.

Initially, I had admirable intentions: I sought out Dave’s Cormier’s advice on successful MOOC participation: “Orient, Declare, Network, Cluster, and Focus.” (View my post on his earlier slideshare on this topic.) And before the course even started, I posted a note communication my anticipation to meet and learn with and from colleagues.

WEEK 2
By the end of week one, I thought, “I’d better get in there. As I read through more of the intros, I was energized by the good will, the experience, and the global assembly of peers in the course. Ignatia’s general discussion prompt for Week 2 was inviting—asking us what tools we used. I liked the word tools—it allowed the spectrum, devices, browsers, services, applications—which is also a lot of landscape.

TOOLS FOR MLEARNING
Devices: I use a laptop, a smartphone, a tablet.
Apps, Sites, and Services: These include Evernote, Dropbox, Skype, all things Google, Kindle Reader, Goodreader. Twitter, Conjuverb, The Wasteland (Ipad), Jazz Timeline (Ipad). I love resources at Smarthistory and Open Culture, YouTube, Linked In Groups, Searches w/ Google and Wikipedia are used for a quick sense of background on a given topic. And I learn from experts and peers through live webinars in Google Hangout, Blackboard Connect, WiziQ, or Adobe Connect.

Today I participated in Bijay’s webinar on single source design for web-learning. If you missed it, the recording is available here: http://www.wiziq.com/online-class/954534-raptivity-single-source-multi-device-learning.

At this point in Week 2, I won’t say I’m such a wonderful participant as the badge promises, but I really do feel connected and engaged and am happy I attended the webinar today by Bijoy Banerjee on universal platform design for multiple devices. We joined from various locations such as Australia, England, India, and the U.S. Not only did he reinforce the categories involved in mLearning, he explained how html5 allows for universal design across devices. He used screen share to provide examples and demonstrate their learning activities for both K-12 and post-secondary students.