What is a MOOC?

Written and Narrated by Dave Cormier
Video by Neal Gillis

Researchers:
Dave Cormier
Alexander McAuley
George Siemens
Bonnie Stewart

Created through funding received by the University of Prince Edward Island through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council's "Knowledge Synthesis Grants on the Digital Economy"

CC-BY 2010

• Category

  Education

[Yasser Sami Amer]

Great Lecture Dave! But in what sense in the conversation above you mentioned anti-MOOC regarding Cousera and Udacity.......Why?? I would appreciate an explanation.

Thank you again for the great lecture

[dave cormier]

The video recorded here was done 18 months before coursera and Udacity existed... so there's no real relationship to them intended.

[vilkoos]

Thanks for this nice well made video. However this is not what a MOOC is. It not necessarily participatory, connective or distributed (you projected your personal preferences/hobbies/limitation­s/fetishes onto this exciting new concept?). For many purposes expert driven, centralized MOOC’s are not only possible, they are just the right thing. So, either change the title of this video into “this is what I think a MOOC ought to be” or expand the content to cover the full range of possible MOOC’s.

[dave cormier]

Thanks for your comments. But, as I was one of the people who coined the word, and this research was done before the new versions of MOOCs came along in 2011... i think my position is probably justified :)

[vilkoos]

Hello Dave, you are right, I discovered that only after I published my comment. I am sorry if I you took offence. The terminology is confusing. Conceptually the original MOOC's (your creation, you "own" the term) are polar opposites form what Coursera and Udacity are doing. So what Coursera uses should be labeled as an anti-MOOC.

[dave cormier]

I couldn't agree more. The terminology is very confusing... no offense taken :)

It might be time to try and make an updated version... we're working on a book right now... might do it in time for the publication of that.

Thanks for coming back to comment!

[kjaam32]

Examples of MOOC's for the curious ones: Udacity, KhanAcademy, Coursera, Udemy, Codecademy, Duolingo, Google Online Courses. (Last three are debatable.)

[Neal Gillis]

Hi William (and Pierre). The video was created in Apple Motion and Final Cut Pro. YouTube won't let me link to it, but if you search for "How I made the MOOC videos" you should find it.

[Christine Newton Bush]

Since my comment below, I have learned that MOOC is really a generic term that is quickly losing meaning without qualification. Coursera is an xMOOC which is redistribution expertise; Mozilla's TeachTheWeb and P2PU are cMOOCs which allow users to find AND CREATE the material through their channel of choice. According to Mr. Gormier's colleague George Siemens, cMOOCs are much more in line with Connectivist ideas. For me something is either a free online class or it is part of the problem ;-)

[Nellie Deutsch]

You can create a MOOC on a blog, too. It doesn't have to cost money to be a MOOC. Moodle and Google sites are free. You just have to pay for the domain and a hosting company. A MOOC does not have to be on a course or learning management system. It's supposed to be "open".

[Nellie Deutsch]

Christine, the key here is "open". How can a course management or learning management system be open if teachers cannot create a course on the platform? Coursera is not open to teachers. It costs the universities money to use it. Why don't universities use a free open source system such as MOODLE?

[Pierre Monclos]

same question about the software :-)

[Christine Newton Bush]

No, what Coursera is doing is not an anti-MOOC which is really unhelpful term given that you've just come to agreement with D.C.that the idea of what a MOOC entails, regardless of who coined the !#$%?@! acronym, is changing. Coursera's platform has some benefits which are not found in what Cormier describes here.

[Louise Lewis]

A great presentation.We are developing connectivist-style MOOCs for a vocational education and training project in Australia. As part of my research, I have read extensively the work that you, Messrs Siemens, Downes and Attwell have completed. As a result, we are also developing a generic PLE linked to resources and social media, an open source e-Portfolio, a series of MOOCs, learner guide blog and support structures. I am looking forward to the end product. Thank you for your inspiration.

[stevemac121]

Examples of MOOC platforms i think would be more precise.