The MOOC MOOC

I'm participating this week in a MOOC on MOOCs, aka "moocmooc"  (#moocmooc) through the new Canvas Network, that formally launched its first round of courses today.  I have many thoughts on MOOCs (massive open online classes), some of which I'll share this week.

Now, I have to admit that I'm a tad biased. Seattle Central has a MOOC on Canvas.net - US History 2. It was designed by faculty member Nate Weston. Nate did the heavy lifting of creating the content, I spent a significant part of Winter break acting as instructional designer, putting the content into Canvas and making it pretty.  It turned out pretty nicely, if I may say so myself.  It's self paced, based on one of our correspondence courses, with no real interaction between the faculty and the students and little interaction between the students themselves.  This is a total experiment and I'm very curious to see how it turns out.  To date, over 300 people from all over the world have enrolled.

US history MOOC enrollments from 1/3/13

If nothing else, it is quite exciting that this many people are interested in US History.  Whether they complete the course or not (a huge complaint about MOOCs - completion), they will certainly know more about US History then they did when they started. Nate has a fabulous take that focuses on minorities and women and their experience over the last century, so even those knowledgeable about history will be intrigued by his innovative approach. Toss in the free online textbook, compelling images and videos from archives of history and the fact that the class is totally free - hey, what's not to like?

Plus, it's sort of a try before you buy sort of thing. If student's like the class, they can register at Central, interact with the instructor and earn credit, hopefully increasing enrollments for us.

So, as I blog about MOOCs this week, know that I do have some personal interest in the idea - I don't see it as an end to traditional education, but merely another way to learn.