I did it all for the MOOCie

March 23, 2013 Education, Instructional Design No comments

The title of this post bets on two things: 1. that you know what a MOOC is and 2. that you are familiar with Limp Bizkit’s outstanding (yeah, that’s sarcasm) 1999 song “Nookie.”

If you don’t know Nookie, you can check it out on YouTube.

If you don’t know what a MOOC is, well, that take a bit more explaining. MOOC stands for Massive Open Online Course. It is just what it sounds like: an online course that is free (open) and huge. I enrolled in a Gamification course through Coursera and there were over 76,000 people enrolled. That’s not a typo. There were over Seventy-Six Thousand people enrolled in this course. It was insane.

Some schools are betting on MOOCs as the next big thing and it seems that almost every school is getting into the MOOC “business.” While I can certainly see them as a marketing tool, I don’t see a lot of quality learning going on. Now, in the interest of full disclosure I did not fulfill the requirements to “complete” the course. I didn’t feel like submitting my work for “peer review” or answering a bunch of questionably relevant quizzes. From an instructional design standpoint, the course was not exactly a shining pinnacle either. What I did was watch the videos, read the course materials, view the links, etc. I followed my learning path based on what the instructor (who didn’t instruct the course, so I guess he was more the course designer) suggested.

I was also enrolled in Coursera’s course on Best Instructional Design Practices for Online Learning. You might have heard about this one as well. It was so poorly planned that they cancelled it within a matter of days. Yes, the course that was supposed to show others the best ways to set up and deliver online courses had so little forethought that none of the assignments worked and they had to kill it.

I’ve been enrolled in some other MOOCs and, honestly, I’ve not completed them. I have the interest, I have the desire, but the courses just aren’t for me. While the huge hype about MOOCs certainly seems to be dying down, they are still big news: California is looking at a bill that would offer credit for MOOCs.

Chronicle Article
Education News

So, after doing some research, investigation and, yes, playing, I’m not a fan of MOOCs. But don’t get me started with badges. Okay, do get me started! Look for my next post to be on badges.

Blackboard! Now with Moodle and Sakai!

March 26, 2012 Education, Instructional Design, Instructional Technology, Social Media No comments

So a friend of mine on Facebook who happens to be an educator posted a link to a press release from Blackboard (Bb) saying that they has acquired, among others, Moodlerooms and not to worry because it’s all part of Bb’s strategy.

So first Bb essentially tries to patent online learning and all the technologies and strategies behind it and when that doesn’t work they start buying up (again) companies involved. They can’t buy moodle and sakai since they’re open source projects, but they can buy up the paid services that allow these projects to operate with a bit more success.

I still remember when Bb bought WebCT. When I first started out in online education in ’98/99 we used WebCT so I’ve always had a soft spot for them. Then Bb bought them and “integrated” the best of WebCT into the Bb product. Having used this Bb product I have to say I don’t see a whole lot of WebCT there. I guess the ANGEL people were just louder after that product was acquired because the press release says that they’re going to continue supporting it indefinitely.

In a previous position we used Desire2Learn and had the opportunity to speak with the some of the “higher ups” there who said that, yes, Bb had tried to buy them and that, no, they would never let that happen.

Now don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against Blackboard, Bb Learn or any other product they have. They work just fine and they are easy to use. In fact, I wonder if that’s part of the problem.

Blackboard is like the McDonald’s of Learning Management Systems. It doesn’t really taste like anything, but it’s everywhere and most people don’t really know the difference. Bb is a perfectly acceptable LMS, but it’s kind of generic. It’s plain. It’s vanilla. It does the basic things, but it doesn’t encourage anyone using it to really stretch or try anything new. (Now I’m strictly talking about the user experience here, I’m not going to go into any backend- or administration-type stuff). It’s oldstyle online education. It’s very linear in it’s layout and thinking. Which works wonderfully for some courses and, indeed, some institutions.But sometimes you just want to get a little non-linear, right? That’s when you, essentially, have to hack Blackboard. You have to go against the way the LMS is set up and practically reverse engineer the damn thing.

Back to Bb acquiring moodlerooms, they seem to be back on their quest to corner the education market. Does anything good ever come of this strategy? Remember “Ma Bell”? Microsoft? Are we going to be splitting up Blackboard next?

iAuthored the iTextbook all by my iLonesone or iWatched too much iCarly for my own iGood…

January 30, 2012 Education, Instructional Technology, Media No comments

I was awaiting Apple’s announcement with bated breath. It was an Apple announcement about education. We’re talking two of my favorite things here. Plus, it was going to be the first major announcement after the death of Steve Jobs. This was not going to be some piddly little we’re making textbooks easier announcement – this was going to be groundbreaking, this was going to be revolutionary. It had to be.

Enter the announcement. Enter my disappointment. WTF? (Yes, I mean “Why The Face?”).

The good: Textbook prices are going to be more reasonable… sometimes, for some people. Umm… I think that’s it.

The bad: Anybody can grab iAuthor and create his or her own iText. Did I miss the piece here about fact verification, proofreading, etc? I think most textbooks are way too expensive for the most part, but publishers to have a vital role. The publisher:

  • recruits an author who is an expert in the subject to write the text
  • has multiple people proofread the text
  • has a team to design the text and make it visually appealing
  • fact checks what the author has written
  • many, many more things

So let’s say I’m Bob and I get the urge to write a book on how all major historical figures were actually aliens. What’s to stop me? Let’s say I don’t write very well and my book has misspellings throughout as well as just plain mistakes and bad grammar, etc.

If that’s the case, people will dismiss it, right? But what if only of the above is true? Let’s stick with Bob. He’s a nutjob, but he’s a great writer. So his book on historical figures being aliens is very well written, very interesting and it actually seems to make sense. What’s to stop kids from picking up this book and, since it’s a “textbook” thinking it’s the truth?

Let’s look at the other side. You have Dan. Dan is an expert in his field – say boating. But he couldn’t write a coherent sentence to save his life. He puts up a book that has great content but doesn’t really make a lot of sense. People don’t pick it up and this excellent content is totally missed.

If Bob would have gone to a publisher, he would have been laughed out of the place (or offered a great book deal to write fiction). If Dan had gone to a publisher, they could have hooked him up with proofreaders, editors, etc who could have helped him put out a quality product.

So I’m looking at this whole announcement and the only thing I can come up with it “WTF?” This isn’t revolutionary. This isn’t even a good idea.

Welcome

January 22, 2012 Graphic Design, Instructional Design, Instructional Technology, Randomness, Social Media No comments

As you can tell (if you’ve ever visited before, that is) there have been some changes around here. Gone is the snazzy portfolio-type site advertising my wares and skills. I thought it would be a nice change to share some knowledge and some funny and give something back for a change.

What I’m going for here is a blog that will allow me to flex my instructional design/tech  and graphic design muscles and keep them in shape. I’ll also keep with the funny, ’cause I’m just that kind of guy. I’ll be posting about things that intrigue me in the various worlds in which I occasionally dip my toes. Hopefully you can find something of interest to you.

In the coming days/weeks/months I’ll be fixing up the pages so you can find out more about me if, get in touch with me and take a look at my portfolio.

Thanks for stopping by. I’m working on a post about the new, underwhelming Apple announcement that should be ready later this week. Stop back by and check it out.