History and Context of Distributed and Open Learning
The readings this week were a bit trickier for me to get a grasp of. I have heard of open and distributed learning before, but there were a whole bunch of new terms that I had never heard of before. One of note was the concept of MOOC’s (massively open online courses). This was a bit harder to wrap my head around, about what would consist of an open online course. I am not sure if the course we are in is considered an open online course? I don’t think that it is “massive”, so it would not fall under a MOOC category, but is it open, even though you have to enroll in it and pay for it? Someone help me out!
Then, I researched it and found this website, a huge list of a bunch of online courses you can take, for free! These range from language courses to engineering courses. I am curious though, if you get any sort of certification for completing them? Would taking some of these courses help you in your career or job? So interesting! Major’s (2015) article states that participation in these MOOC courses are usually free, until a participant wishes to use them for a credit, in which there are fees attached (p. 78). I have certainly never heard of these types of courses, but I am definitely wanting to look into them, especially if I can get credit for them!
In the other reading, it was interesting to learn about the history of open educational resources and social media. I have learned a lot about OER in the past year, and I had no idea the concept was around 20 years old. It is great to see how far these resources have come, from initially focussing on learning objects, open source education and OpenCourseWare (Jordan & Weller, 2017), to what we have now is really amazing. We use OER’s every day, like Wikipedia, TED, Vimeo, and I’ve also used Unsplash in the past for my WordPress blog!
Within the past year and a half, during the pandemic, students across the globe have had to adjust their typical learning practices to be fully online. I have learned so much in the past year about my ability to use a laptop! I know some people who went to UVic pre-COVID, and didn’t even own a laptop. These readings reflect the importance that online learning has on us today. If it weren’t for all the resources we have available today, I don’t know how students would have been successful in a pandemic 20 years ago. We are really lucky! Overall, I learned a lot with these two readings this week.
References:
edX (2021). About MOOCs. Retrieved from https://www.mooc.org/
Jordan, K. & Weller, M. (2017). Openness and Education: A beginners’ guide. Global OER Graduate Network.
Major, C. H. (2015). Teaching Online – A Guide to Theory, Research, and Practice. Pp. 76-108. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=3318874
University of Pittsburgh (2021). OER – Open Educational Resources: Big List of Resources. Retrieved from https://pitt.libguides.com/openeducation/biglist
Hannah Rochford August 9, 2021
Hi Emily,
This was such a great read! I appreciate you being honest with the fact that the readings were harder to grasp this week. I too had a lot of questions especially if this course and the website I was looking into, Skillshare was considered open or not. There are seriously so many resources and platforms out there on the internet that we have yet to take advantage of.
I never really thought about the concept of being in University in a pandemic without technology. It is amazing how we were able to continue on without having to put our school on pause. You are right, we are pretty lucky!
Thanks,
Hannah
Kayla Krug August 10, 2021
Hi Emily,
Thank you for being so honest in your blog post, I can completely relate. I had never heard the term MOOCs before, until our reading this past week. From my understanding (I could be wrong) but I think this course would not be in that MOOCs category, because we have to pay for it and it technically it is not offered to anyone in the world (as you have to be enrolled at UVIC). I would love to learn more about this topic, because I too find it very cool that we can learn about almost any topic for free, and possibly get credit!!
This past year truly has shown us how important online learning is, and how it can be a great replacement for in-person courses when needed. It has been a huge learning curve for everyone, but I feel as though I have learned so much about the online world.
Thanks for your post,
Kayla
kianaarch August 11, 2021
Hi Emily,
Thanks for sharing that resource, I will have to check it out! I also can’t believe it is 20 years old and I haven’t heard of it either. My understanding of MOOCs are that- no you don’t get any certifications. What I took from the readings is that you basically sit in on courses with no benefits other than strictly learning the content. It’s still a big grey area for me though as well- like could I put on my resume that I attended certain courses?
I agree with you- it’s hard to picture what students would do 20 years ago in a Pandemic. We were truly lucky to have to option to safely work from home.
Thanks for your thoughts,
Kiana
rianneyuen August 12, 2021
Hi Emily,
I also agree with Kiana that MOOC learning does not receive any certifications. Thought the person may learn just as much, it is not accounted for. Maybe one day this will change. Someone people may learn just as much or more than a person in distributed learning. The only difference is distributed learning cost money. Not everyone can afford high costing tuition, but still want to learn. Hopefully certain free online learning will give certifications in the future for those who need it.
Thanks for sharing Emily!
Ryan Banow August 15, 2021
Hi Emily,
Great post with some great musings. Is this course a MOOC? No. Is this course open? Well, sort of. Anyone could visit our course site, complete the readings (the ones that don’t require the library login), write blog posts, and reply to our posts. If someone did that, they could learn a lot without paying anything, but they’d receive no official credit or certification.
MOOCs typically do offer some sort of certification. In most cases, that requires the learner to pay some sort of fee (e.g., $50). A key to recognize here is that certification and a credit are different. The certification is only valuable if your employer or potential employer deems it as such. This all falls into the larger discussions around badges and micro-credentials. Can you become a certified teacher uses MOOC courses? No. Can you prove to a potential employer that you know how to code because you completed a MOOC? Maybe. It really depends on the employer.
When MOOCs first came out there was the idea that say, for example, UVic could offer a course for credit that used the resources of a MOOC offered online. Students would be officially enrolled in the UVic course and receive credit from Uvic for completing the MOOC (offered by someone else). That model hasn’t really taken shape. That is one of the criticisms of using the term “open” in MOOC because there are terms and conditions that often prevent the use I just described.
That being said, the MOOC I offered in 2015, which we called a “Truly Open Online Course” actually did have students in an Education course in New York complete our course as part of their for-credit course. So it happens, but it is infrequent.
Hopefully that helps, although I may have muddied the water even more!
Ryan
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