Distance Learning, MOOCs, new Portal Project

 

Hi everyone,

I was listening to NPR and a program on Tom Ashbrook focused on MOOCs:  Massively Open Online Courses (http://onpoint.wbur.org/2012/09/10/big-changes-in-higher-ed). They were discussing how higher ed is pretty much scrambling to be able to offer degrees online.  I was interested in this because I have recently worked on a project that collected information on colleges/universities that offer higher ed degrees in adult education and an overwhelming number of these programs are offered online.  Not only that, most degrees are offered in a variety of formats:  face-to-face, online, and blended as well.  I thought it was cool and interesting that our field appears to be a bit ahead of the game; but we somehow often manage to have an edge in certain areas, perhaps because we must be resourceful and creative.

Anyway, they are having a discussion on distance learning and MOOCs right now on the Tech&DL Discussion List and I thought I'd post this in the ebpd  and tech cops to get your thoughts on MOOCs and/or the project.  I've pasted some info for you about the project below, which will launch later this month.  Thanks!

*****

 

Adult Education Degree and Credentialing Programs Portal

In celebration of National Adult Education & Family Literacy Week and Literacy Month, COABE and its partners are pleased to announce a new resource coming to you soon, the new Adult Education Degree and Credentialing Programs Portal.  Many adult educators seek courses and higher education degrees in adult education. However, little has been known about which higher education institutions offer these courses specific to our field.  With over 400 unique listings, this Portal is an interactive, one-stop online resource connecting you to higher education degree programs in our field that best meet your professional learning needs.

The Portal will allow you to:

•   Easily find program information on higher education degree programs in adult education across the country

•   Weigh important considerations when choosing the best program fit for you

•   Enable you to write and publish reviews of your higher education degree program, like one would review a book on Amazon.com

•   Learn more about featured programs and interact with guest bloggers from these programs

•   Use social media to share program information with your professional learning networks

Degree program coordinators can add and update information about their program offerings and participate as guest bloggers on topics of interest to adult education practitioners.

Join these guest bloggers upon launch of the Portal to discuss this fall’s featured programs:

•   Jim Berger, Ph.D., Acting Associate Dean, Graduate Studies and Research, Associate Professor of Adult Education at Western Kentucky University

•   Bob Hughes, Ed.D., Interim Dean of the College of Education, Associate Professor of Adult Education at Seattle University

Learn more at www.coabe.org.

This initiative is developed in partnership with TESOL International Association, the American Institutes for Research, the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education, the National Adult Educational Professional Development Consortium, and the Coalition of Lifelong Learning Organizations and is generously funded by the Dollar General Literacy Foundation.

 

Comments

   http://edtechtimes.com/2012/09/06/looc-moocs-little-brother/   has an interesting angle on "open online courses" -- there's a college that will allow a small number of people to take a regular course, that otherwise is done traditionally, as if they were auditing it; they don't have to "qualify" for it (but they also don't get credit for it, though there seems to be the possibility for some flex in that department). 

 

 

Here are the links that have been shared on the Tech and Distance Learning list

The MOOC Survivors

September 12, 2012 - 3:00am

By

Steve Kolowich

As the MOOC buzz continues to reverberate across higher education, the question of which subjects and populations these massive open online courses are best-suited to remains a mystery. The data released so far by the companies that run MOOC platforms have offered little insight beyond what countries students are logging in from and some information on who took a particular computer science course


Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/09/12/edx-explores-demographics-most-persistent-mooc-students#ixzz26GqqC0af 
Inside Higher Ed 

and

 

A link to USA Today discussion on MOOCs

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012/09/12/college-may-never-be-the-same/57752972/1

 

 

 

There is a MOOC happening from 10/8 to 11/16 discussing issues critical to the future of higher.  Http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=pEXnVTD0B10 

From October 8th to November 16, 2012, experts from across higher education are getting together to learn about trends and change patterns that will impact the future of the field.
This discussion will be in the form of a massive open online course (a MOOC) and will address the following topics:
1. Net pedagogies - What new ways of approaching the learning process are emerging in response to the connective possibilities of the web?
2. Entrepreneurship and commercial activity - What impact will new profit models have on the fabric of education?
3. Big data and analytics - What new lessons can we learn from data analysis and what impact will that have on the field?
4. Distributed Research - As research can increasingly be done between individual researchers, what impact does that have on their institutions?
5. Power Shifts - What impact will the disruption of leadership and learning hierarchies have on the future of Education?
We invite you to learn with us. Each weekly topic will be headed up by one of our partner organizations, but we want you to bring your perspectives and insight to the discussion. Go to edfuture.net to register.
Written and Narrated by Dave Cormier. Video by Neal Gillis.

I'm now taking my first MOOC:  http://mobimooc.wikispaces.com/a+MobiMOOC+hello%21   MobiMooc is an international mooc on mobile learning projects.  The mooc is well organized using google group discussions with experts as well as webinars that are live and also recorded for access on You Tube. 

Hi everyone,

Since we need to be continuously learning about new ways to teach in the online as well as face to face teaching environments using technology, I am so glad we have this space.

Sincerely,

Tina Luffman