Jan.3 MOOCs and LMSs

As this project gets more to class part, this blog will become education than hardware/software oriented.  

There is a major trend toward MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). Many people from all over the world sign up for a free online course on an interesting, current topic or that uses a current tool.  A certificate is usually offerred the few who complet the course. Most students will end-up auditing the class. 

But like most classes, the teacher of a MOOC and how well the student know what to expect each week/unit (to plan), determines who completes the course. Easy to disappear from MOOC. 

But it is a way to help Life Long Learning without going back to school. The a MOOC has unique challenges. How to grade... robot grader or peer grading using a rubric.  Usual elearning challenges... engagement. Short videos help. But when the some questions and answered in a video, you feel like the prof is really there for the class.

So far Coursera is my favorite. The LMS is flexible enough to help prof respond to pattern needs. To help avoid drop-outs one class used only top x grades and other allowed a certain number late days to be used as needed. Peer grading was new and is a good as the rubric instructions. 

Venturelab wanted us to work in online team - super idea, but started telling us to just get to know each other and look for a team to join. I felt dumped in. No Onboarding.  The course improved as it went on.

Udacity course I am signed up for are finished, but due to robot graders are still offered for independent study. They have are sooo many small step (short video, quiz, repeat) Keeps me engaged, but also want a break too. Of course I did the 1 unit in 1-2 days. So might be different if have a week.

What I don't like is none of the LMSs used are available to "outsiders" to try.

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Next:
 Look at LMSs layouts vs Moodle default list layout 
 Look at / try Code Academy... another LMS or something slightly different. ----
Some related links on trends:
top-ed-tech-trends-2012-moocs
gamification in classroom
how-long-does-it-take-to-create-learning