MOOC’s (massive open online courses) hit their zenith in 2012 with The New York Times proclaiming that the year was the Year of the MOOC (Pappano, 2012). Since then the acronym has become familiar to most within education, and will often illicit responses that can range as dramatically as excitement and interest to disinterest and rebuke. I have worked within Adult Education for over 20 years, and In my experience the mention of MOOC’s always raises another educator’s strongly held beliefs surrounding the creation, use or facility of a MOOC in higher education, and very few are not forthcoming with their opinions. It seems many have strongly formed ideas surrounding MOOC’s, but most of the thoughts and conversations are centered around MOOC’s as they have been approached and adopted in use from past implementations. The conversation will inevitably be pivoted to three main concerns in the use of MOOC’s; “the vast majority of MOOC learners never return after their first year, the growth in MOOC participation has been concentrated almost entirely in the world’s most affluent countries, and the bane of MOOCs—low completion rates” (Reich & Ruipérez-Valiente, 2019, para. 1). These concerns are always applied to cover all MOOC’s – which I have always found interesting, because as professional educators we would never make such broad, sweeping statements about all learning theories, or even, all implementations of a specific learning framework. I believe these large statements are much too encompassing, and do not allow for individual and unique applications to a learning environment.
My interest in my proposed paper is to explore the possibility of an implementation of a MOOC that iterates on it’s successes – along with heeding the hard learned lessons that were gained by past MOOC’s – and building in a different paradigm that has been largely ignored by past implementations of MOOC’s; an Indigenous informed view. I have worked in Adult Ed for over 20 years, and many of these have been in Indigenous organizations that create curriculum that is informed by an Indigenous world view. I will bring these same skills to the creation of a MOOC. I believe there is great value in this undertaking. What do you think?
References
Pappano, L. (2012) The year of the MOOC. The New York Times. Blog Post. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/04/education/edlife/massive-open-online-courses-are-multiplying-at-a-rapid-pace.html
Reich, J., & Ruipérez-Valiente, J. (2019). The mooc pivot. Science, 363(6423). Retrieved from https://science-sciencemag-org.ezproxy.royalroads.ca/content/363/6423/130
April 20, 2020 at 8:29 am
Earl,
There is such incredible value in your work. The creation of a MOOC that is presented through an indigenous lens would be such a welcomed change in a sea of homologous courses.
In LRNT 523 I had the opportunity to explore MOOCs and found that the majority of participants were white, employed males with flexible schedules – so much so that they have been nicknamed “Masculine Open Online Courses” (Veletsianos, 2015; Zhenghao et al., 2015)
I look forward to seeing your project evolve Earl,
much needed!!
Cheers,
Lisa
Veletsianos, G. (2015, May 27). The invisible learners taking MOOCs [Blog post]. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/higher-ed-gamma/invisible-learners-taking-moocs
Zhenghao, C., Alcorn, B., Christensen, G., Eriksson, N., Koller, D., & Emanuel, E. J. (2015, September). Who’s benefiting from MOOCs, and why. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2015/09/whos-benefiting-from-moocs-and-why
April 20, 2020 at 11:50 am
Earl this sounds like a fascinating study and I look forward to seeing where it takes you. As you are suggesting, the literature on MOOCs has tended to be binary in terms of hype vs. critique. There is enough experience and research into MOOCs at this point to provide a good base for your project.
April 20, 2020 at 1:12 pm
Thank you for your input, Irwin – In the preliminary research that I’ve done in recent and past (and there is a documented past history of MOOC’s) I have not found an alternative view to MOOC’s than to summarize all MOOC’s commentary as if to say that all MOOC’s are approached in the same way – this seems incredulous to me; how can such sweeping statements be taken for as commentary on ALL MOOC’s?
April 20, 2020 at 1:15 pm
Thank you for taking the time to comment, Lisa – I have not heard that nickname of MOOC’s “Masculine Open Online Courses”, but in my preliminary research there does seem to be some truth in it. I find it so interesting that there has not been further investigation in MOOC’s outside of the focus on the delivery models that have already been tried; there’s a lot of exploration that can happen in this field.
April 20, 2020 at 1:14 pm
Hi Earl, thank you for sharing your perspectives on the rise and controversies that surround MOOCs. I found your observation interesting and that MOOCs are not unique in its advantages and shortcomings. Often, education technologies promise of glitter and state-of-the-art technologies that will revolutionize learning and education fall short. Selwyn argued that educators should do a critical look at educational technologies at the present time rather than going beyond the here and now (2010), which I think you alluded to in your post. I am also interested in your research topic of implementing MOOCs with indigenous views and perspectives. This is definitely a paradigm shift. Most often, the learning environment and technologies are informed by the majority -western or Eurocentric views (Kennedy, 2012). As our cultural borders become non-existent, developing a culturally inclusive and indigenized learning environment is becoming imperative.
References:
Kennedy, C. P. (2012). Indigenizing Student-Centred Learning: A Western Approach In An Indigenous Educational Institution. Journal of International Education Research (JIER), 9(1), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.19030/jier.v9i1.7494
Selwyn, N. (2010). Looking beyond learning: Notes towards the critical study of educational technology. Journal of computer assisted learning, 26(1), 65-73.
https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.ezproxy.royalroads.ca/doi/full/10.1111/j.1365-2729.2009.00338.x
April 20, 2020 at 1:22 pm
Thank you for your thoughtful comment – I believe that the approach to Education – and specifically Ed Tech – has been rooted in a western viewpoint for an extended time in the present day, but there was an education system in place prior to the colonization of these lands. Indigenous ways-of-knowing have been, and are, alive on these lands far before the present day education system was put in place. There is value in exploring both.
April 23, 2020 at 5:52 pm
Earl,
Lambert states that “While commercial MOOCs may have been offered in many developing nations, it was still the already-privileged in those countries who primarily benefitted” (Lambert, 2020, p.2). (I give full credit to our team mate Sue Reid for bringing this quote to our attention.) The reason why I pasted it here is that the disconnect and inequity of traditional MOOCs highlight the need for Indigenous Informed MOOC. If MOOCs have primarily been consumed by the privileged class, there should be a concerted effort to bring MOOCs to a wider swath of the population. To me, an Indigenous Informed MOOC would have a much better chance of connecting and sticking with Indigenous learners than a MOOC developed by non-Indigenous designers. I wish you much success with your project.
Jeff
April 23, 2020 at 9:53 pm
Hey Earl,
I appreciate your passion for indigenous education and how it can benefit through MOOCs. I am not that familiar with MOOCs s a whole, but I have done some studying on them in general. I will therefore not be able to give you any insight into MOOCs themselves, but maybe some questions to ponder as your move forward in your critical inquiry. You mentioned, “from an indigenous world view?” I think it would be good to unpack this in your paper or ‘narrow the scope’ (more readily define) what you mean by that statement. The term world view is a loaded word with a multifaceted character to it.I am sure you already have an idea in your mind, but food for thought. I love where you are going with this idea – look forward to seeing how the final product. Cheers, M
April 26, 2020 at 1:34 pm
Hi Mark,
Great thoughts re: fully unpacking my wording and my view as to what is meant by “an Indigenous world view”; this can be easily interpreted to mean many things to many people.
April 24, 2020 at 8:11 pm
Hi Earl,
This sounds like such an interesting topic! Oftentimes, educational technologies are seen as ‘the next great thing’ or conversely, they can fall to the waste side, ignoring those organizations or programs that have made the technology work for them. In LRNT523 I did research on MOOC’s (Lisa G. was my partner). None of the research I read that declared MOOCs a ‘boom’ or ‘bust’ was from an Indigenous perspective. As someone that works in education and more broadly, as a resident on this land, it is important to view MOOC’s through an Indigenous lens.
April 25, 2020 at 4:00 pm
Hi Earl,
I think you have found an undertaking with phenomenal value! MOOCs from an Indigenous perspective are long overdue. I remember enjoying Lisa and Sanjay’s presentation/debate about MOOCs for our LRNT 523 course. Their presentation was very educational, specifically in terms of their discussion about the main group of users of MOOCs, as well as the creative perspective of MOOCs (also largely male and Western).
Earl, as our group (yourself, Jeff G., Marta S., Sue R., and myself – Leigh M.) explores MOOCs and Barriers to Access, “the voice,” and creative perspectives of MOOCs are one of my concerns. In my research thus far, Lambert (2018) addresses some of my concerns regarding social-justice and equity issues with open educational resources (OERs) and open educational practices (OEPs) under the following three headings:
1) redistributive justice
2) recognitive justice
3) representational justice.
I think that you would really appreciate her work. An Indigenous informed MOOC would meet all three of Lambert’s criteria. Redistributive justice addresses different elements, including looking at the digital divide and access to OER/OEP/technology/bandwidth — SO that people can access MOOCs or educational technology in the first place. Recognitive justice addresses an awareness of content that recognizes different perspectives in the educational technology and resources that we provide to learners. Representational justice addresses people being represented in person, VOICE, or images, in the content that we are providing through educational technology.
Valuable work! I can’t wait to hear more about it.
Leigh
Lambert, S. R. (2018). Changing our (dis)course: A distinctive social justice aligned definition of open education. Journal of Learning for Development, 5(3), 225-244. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1197463.pdf
April 28, 2020 at 9:44 am
Hi Earl,
In your post I believe that you bring up two vital points. The first one being society’s constant need generalize when criticizing or evaluating anything that does not conform to accepted norms. This is most typically anything that isn’t conforming to the controlling points of view, which more often than not is defined along racial and gender lines (Fitzgerald, 2003) (Weller, 2020).
Which leads to the second point being your desire to create a MOOC that is informed by an Indigenous world views; a view that is often not included in the conversations about education.
I think we are past due on this point in particular and we should all be working together to frame education in a context that reflects as many views as possible, especially the views of the founding citizens of this continent. It is so important to deliver teaching materials in a way that is relevant and authentic to the learners to help them construct meaning and I believe you will have a great response from your students (Ertmer & Newby, 2013).
Your project would not only serve the Indigenous learners by providing a better informed learning resource, it would also provide non-indigenous learners the opportunity to learn and develop a better understanding of our shared past and experience the other’s context.
I found the BCcampus’ Indigenization guides very informative and so much in these guides needs to be said in a larger forum. The Holding Space and Humility for Other Ways of Knowing and Being and Knowing Yourself in Relation to Indigenous Peoples chapters made some excellent points worth deep reflection and consideration (Allan et al., 2018).
You asked what I think.
I think you should design a MOOC that reflect the learners and learnings of Indigenous peoples so that we can all begin to relate and move in a direction of shared learning and understanding.
Thank you for such a thought provoking post.
Owen
Allan, B., Perreault, A., Chenoweth, J., Biin, D., Hobenshield, S., Ormiston, T., … Wilson, J. (2018). Pulling Together: A Guide for Teachers and Instructors. Retrieved from https://opentextbc.ca/indigenizationinstructors/
Ertmer, P. A., & Newby, T. J. (2013). Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Constructivism: Comparing Critical Features From an Instructional Design Perspective. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 26(2), 43–71. https://doi.org/10.1002/piq.21143
Fitzgerald, T. (2003). Changing the deafening silence of indigenous women’s voices in educational leadership. Journal of Educational Administration, 41(1), 9–23. https://doi.org/10.1108/09578230310457402
Weller, M. (2020). 25 Years of Ed Tech. https://doi.org/10.15215/aupress/9781771993050.01
May 19, 2020 at 1:05 pm
Thanks commenters for your contributions and references for further exploration, and to Earl for your responses.