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Slide Notes

This talk aims to get us all thinking about how our VLE is used and how MOOCs might point the way to new practice.

At the University of Southampton we've run around 10 MOOCs and they've been very successful.

Our aim is that MOOCs become a trojan horse by which we can develop and enhance the delivery of courses at Southampton.

We're using the expertise that we're gaining to re-evaluate and enhance the delivery of courses, looking at each module and making sure they're as engaging and rich as the MOOCs we're developing.
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How MOOCs will save your VLE

Published on Nov 19, 2015

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PRESENTATION OUTLINE

The Power of Social Learning

This talk aims to get us all thinking about how our VLE is used and how MOOCs might point the way to new practice.

At the University of Southampton we've run around 10 MOOCs and they've been very successful.

Our aim is that MOOCs become a trojan horse by which we can develop and enhance the delivery of courses at Southampton.

We're using the expertise that we're gaining to re-evaluate and enhance the delivery of courses, looking at each module and making sure they're as engaging and rich as the MOOCs we're developing.
Photo by patchattack

MOOCs

  • Massive
  • Open
  • Online
A quick reminder about the aims.

So MOOCs are Massive Open Online Courses, we started our first one around two years ago and during this time we've had close to one million people register on one of our courses.

There's been a huge amount of discussion in the education sector about the value of them, in terms of the pedagogy and the investment of time and energy, and whether they herald a new dawn in online learning.

They're definitely here to stay and institutions need to think about why they're developing them.
Photo by Ed Yourdon

MOOCs are Social
learning events

Why are MOOCs so different? because they are social learning events?

One of the most ways MOOCs engage students is that they are social events. Learner get together around courses, exchange ideas, experiences and pass new knowledge.

We have to ask ourselves, do our VLE platforms do this?

In this age of easily accessible social platforms, do our learners need a walled-garden?

Do we really use our VLE to create courses and unite learners or are we simply dumping our files in one place - we want courses not resource dumps.

Photo by Gueоrgui

What do MOOCs do?

  • Connect Learners
  • Construct learning
  • Create, Curate & Connect Content
  • Ask questions
  • Facilitate and support
T's really interesting to see what MOOCs do.

Many of these good things are useful to us when designing courses no matter where they are hosted. You could create a course on your VLE or even online using Wordpress or other blogging software.

The essential thing is to make sure there's a structure, some key aims, exciting learning outcomes and the opportunity to bring learners together to answer some big questions.

The pedagogy is sound, let's make sure our online courses reflect this.

Photo by mseckington

Find out more

Here are some links to people talking about MOOCs and thinking about their use.

Class Central is a great MOOC aggregator and will give you lots of links and reviews of great courses.

My colleague Fiona Harvey wrote her dissertation about MOOCs, she's agnostic about them, which makes her an even more valuable source of information.

I'm on twitter @dotsandspaces if you'd like to stay in touch or ask questions.

If you would like to find out more, I've blogged about the talk in more detail - please visit: https://goo.gl/pLfaZo
Photo by mcritz