1.Provide a short description of the MOOC ā what was the topic? how was it organized? what interactions were available? how were you assessed?
The MOOC that I joined was on edX and was a course put out by the University of Queensland in Australia and is about The Psychology of Criminal Justice. The course is set up that you go through one episode a week until July 30th, each episode has a quiz as a form of assessment, with paying peers having more assessments to determine their knowledge. Ā The quizzes available for everyone have you rate how confident you are in your answer to eliminate people from guessing. The quizzes are all automated, so you have instant feedback once the quiz has been submitted. The paying peers also have the ability to earn marks by completing activities along with participating in discussion topics.
2. How did this learning experience compare to ātraditionalā courses? Consider any of the following factors:
The course seems relatively traditional with it being based both off of formative and summative grading. It is similar to the traditional class because you have access to your peers, and you are encouraged to engage with them about the topics being learned. You however do not have much connection with your instructors since you cannot direct message or email them. However, they are involved in the discussion chats but mainly just to monitor the content. This class is traditional as well in the way that you have some autonomy over the different activities you do, however it is very content specific and there is no possibility to do different types of assignments for grades. However, since the content is specific you end the class with other knowledge that you may not have learned before. Additionally, the way the assessments are designed, the instructors found that people reflect back that they learned more effectively
3. Do you think this MOOC would be considered an xMOOC or a cMOOC?
I think that this would be considered a xMOOC because the class is more content specific, and the content does define the course. As well it is still based off of a traditional classroom with the only difference is that it is online with many people instead of in person with only a select view. Additionally, the interaction in this class is very similar to a xMOOC with the only form of peer connection is through a discussion, and through feedback. Furthermore, the assessment method is the same as xMOOC as it is all automated graded, providing you with instant feedback on your assessment.
4. Based on your experiences, would you consider the MOOC that you completed to be āOpenā? If so, in what sense of the word? If not, why not?
I would consider the class to āOpenā because the MOOC was available to anyone who wanted to access it. It didnāt require you to put that you where in University or that you completed High School, and it had an easy sign up that was accessible to everyone. Additionally, you could pay for the class to achieve credit, however, you did not have to if you wanted to take it just for interest as well. Additionally, I would say that it is Open because even if you are paying for the course which would cost about $270 dollars, it is considerably cheaper than most University classes as many of them cost about $600. So, in the sense of the word open I would say this MOOC was open to everyone.
Reflection
I choose this learning activity because I thought it would help me understand the different ways MOOC can be structured. I found that thus learning activity helped give me insight on how these courses work, and how they are accessible and open for everyone to use. I learned how you can have a massive open online class and make it still possible to interact with all of your peers in your class, and to have the class be collaborative. Additionally, the way the class is designed you have to really reflect back on what you have learned which helps you realize what you have learned so far. This aligned with my learning goal because it helped me learn more about the different ways technology can be accessible to all learners, with courses like this being free to use. Additionally it helped me learn more about the future of education because I could see MOOC being a way to in the future make some of your more general first year classes, switch to this format so that it can be more accessible to everyone.