Platforms, technology, tools and social media that will be used in communication and learning in MOOCs

What platforms, technology, tools and social media will be used in communication and learning in MOOCs?

Andrew says in his post: “cMOOC teaching methods also demonstrate that the LMS (Blackboard/Moodle) is no longer the essential tool for delivering eLeaning. Yes you need a delivery platform but on a cMOOC you must also as a student make use of social tools such as Google Docs, Twitter, Youtube, blogs, Storify, Facebook and other means to connect with and discuss the content, student generated content and each other.” Yes, that’s where most post-graduate students and HE educators are practising, the PLE/N approach instead of the LMS.

When I first attended the CCK08, I realized the use of LMS/VMS for forum discussion, but then once the students were “overwhelmed” with the information and discussion threads, or that they found they have learnt enough about forum postings and commenting,  they would resort to other sources of social media platforms of their choice – FB, Twitter, Google doc., blog postings to establish their voices and to share views or ideas. LMS/VMS will likely be viewed as the springboard for further initial connections and discussions.

LMS/VMS would however be an important tool for use by teachers and professors, as they could use the “learners logging in and commenting” as evidence of interaction, and could assess learners’ capability in facilitating or responding to forum postings.

For autonomous educators and learners who are learning via the broader networks, with webs and internet, it seems that blogging would likely serve their needs better in “broadcasting” and reflection of their learning or teaching.

Forum and network platforms such as Moodle, FB, wiki would then be “gateways” for open sharing and discussion of ideas.

Twitter would be ideal of information links and dissemination of news and sharing of links to blog posts or event updates, and real time postings of presentation or conference.

How far would institutions be ready for the decentralized approach (i.e. Connectivist learning) be adopted in online education and MOOC?

I think it is too early to come up with an unique solution based on such decentralized, personalized learning that is feasible for the institutions to adopt as yet, due to the many factors such as economics (as the current MOOCs are free), accreditation, management and control of course and teaching, and most importantly, how these approaches would impact on the mainstream courses and the students involved, with a centralized learning approach.

There are however, signs that an aggregated learning approach with a LMS (Moodle), interaction tools (Twitters) and personal blogs in the MOOC would be adopted in the OERu.

“The adoption of MOOCs in formal education institutions is challenging, though it opens up new opportunities to experience the co-creation of networks within communities and new and participatory forms of communication and collaboration for both learners and educators.”

Kop, R., Fournier, H., Mak, S.F. J. (2011). A Pedagogy of Abundance or a Pedagogy to Support Human Beings? Participant Support on Massive Open Online Courses. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning. Vol 12, No. 7 (2011).

It seems that the many urges for more open and personalized learning  from the x MOOC participants would lead to a hybrid approach towards learning in MOOC – where the c and x MOOCs would likely be adopted in the refined MOOCs.  There are already early signs that these approaches are considered and adopted in the recent developments in Udacity and Coursera (Study Room).

Advertisement