After dipping in various MOOC offerings, I ended up choosing the EdX Vocal Recording Technology course delivered by Berkeley University in a bid to pick up a few singing pointers whilst conducting my digital ethnography. Having participating in a few MOOCs from a learner pespective, it will be interesting to be a ‘fly on the wall’ and observe participant behaviour. On first look, there seems to be various discussion opportunites within the MOOC, but we will see how important these opportunuties become as the MOOC develops. Will the format take the shape of a cMOOC or xMOOC or a combination of the two and will the ‘information and resources be the core of the learning process and will communications be the key to a productive learning enviroment’ (Weller, 2007).
Alongside the potential importance of peer communication within MOOCs, does the role of the tutor change to accomodate this approach – ‘facilitate dialogue and support students in their understanding of resources’ ? (Weller, 2007). Or, will the MOOC ‘reduce education to the packaging and delivery of information, in which the process of teaching is reduced to the transmission of information’ ?(Gur & Wiley, 2007).
Ben, thanks for the exemplary ‘springboard’ posting for this MOOC Ethnography block of EDC. I continue to learn a lot from your blog, tweets and post as an example of how to ‘perform’ in this environment. From my previous exposure to MOOCs, I feel the greatest benefit is the peer-to-peer learning vs. teacher-centered classroom. I’ve ‘dipped’ into about two dozen MOOCs, but I have yet to complete one. I aspire to complete the Coursera ‘Scandinavian Film & TV Culture’ concurrent with our EDC course. I’ll be reading your blog about EdX Vocal Recording Technology because I am also interested in audio-visual production and technologies. Cheers, PJ
Hey PJ, thanks for the lovely comments, Im also getting alot from the peer discussion aspect of the course which gives me sense of the readings and other literature. Good luck with the MOOC, Ive seen a couple of Scandinavian flicks and remember a shocking end scene to the horror movie ‘Let the right one it’, very understated 😉
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3Li5dLDfmY