Personal Blogs

I have taken several MOOCs as a student as well as being a moderator on one.  The most recent has been the MOOC on EMI.  I quite enjoyed this but there were also some aspects that I feel less keen on.

The course was relatively small and it was possible to engage with other students and many of these were engaged and had different and interesting perspectives. We were able to make use of "collective intelligence".

It was just moderated by the two lead educators.  They were very responsive and I was surprised that they were able to reply to so many comments.  I assume that they must have been given time to do this.  There are other courses where the moderators are much less visible.

I do not really like the "mark as complete" button at the end of each activity.  This seems to imply the learning has finished but in fact, it is often important to go back to the activity (eg to respond to comments on what I had posted).

I also find the quiz items either trivial or the answers could be unreliable - I suppose this is inevitable with "objective testing" and this is the only way to cope with the size of the course.

An OU MOOC on English for Academic Purposes will be offered next month:

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/learning-english-academic-purposes-first-steps?utm_source=newsletter_broadcast&utm_medium=futurelearn_organic_email&utm_campaign=fl_june_2017&utm_term=05_06_2017_first_name_there_s_a_course_for_you_starting_today

There are also due to be some SPOC (Short Private Online Courses) to follow for more specific academic needs.

It still seems to be going well and many students have been supportive of each other.  There are, however, some postings that seem unnecessarily negative about presentations that people have posted.

One thing that has been striking is how often terms of address have been problematic.  Some people have been using titles (Mr X etc) and Madam/Sir.  These seem to be misinterpreted at times.  There is a perhaps a need for clearer expectations about the level of equality that is expected.

Students still seem engaged on the course and there is plenty of useful discussion occurring.  I am trying to encourage and support by making my presence felt.  There was one unusual reply to a message I posted - "yah".  I find it hard to interpret.

I will be working as a facilitator on the Future Learn MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) on presentation skills.  If anyone reading this wants to join, they can do so at:

http://www.futurelearn.com/courses/talk-the-talk

It is free to register for it. 

I hope to post some thoughts on how it goes as the course progresses.