I have just enrolled in the MOOC: First Steps into Learning & Teaching in Higher Education (#fslt13). This post serves as my introduction and outlines the reasons why I have signed up.
I am currently completing a dissertation for a Masters in Education, seeking to answer the following:
To what extent can virtual courses support the development of independent learning beyond ‘real time’ curriculum delivery?
To explore this I have recently completed the data collection process, which involved running a MOOC titled: Critical Skills 101. The course sought to develop in(ter)dependent learning skills in 14-18 year-olds. I am currently analysing and evaluating the collected data and will be submitting my dissertation in August.
Taking the M.Ed has not only continued to fuel my interests in Independent Learning and Online Learning but has also made me question what it is I want to do next with my career. I had often felt that it would follow a path that would take me into senior management within Secondary Education. However, I am not at all convinced that I wish to pursue such a career.
As such participating in #fslt13 is going to serve several purposes:
I wish to explore another MOOC. As well as running the aforementioned MOOC: #crit101, I participated in #moocmooc (A MOOC about MOOCs) during August 2012. While that MOOC explored open online courses themselves, I wish to participate in a course that is teaching a less-meta topic.
Moreover, having just completed the delivery of #crit101, I hope #fslt13 will provide some useful reference points in terms of pedagogy, participation and assessment, as I continue to analyse and evaluate my course. In addition to this, I want to see how open badges are put into use in #fslt13 having implemented them in #crit101.
Finally, I am beginning to feel that studying towards a PHD and/or teaching within HE may be a career path that I wish to pursue. I hope that participating in this course will give me some further insight into that as well.
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Posts relating to my participation in #fslt13 will appear here. Being in the middle of my dissertation poses a significant challenge to my time but I hope to be able to keep up with the course reading and get involved in some useful discussions around learning and teaching.
Hi James
Welcome to #FSLT13 from me, Marion one of the tutors. You have an impressive track record of MOOC participation. Great to see that you have blogged about this. I don’t know if you are aware but you can aggregate your blog on the main #FSLT13 word press site. Look forward to working with you on the MOOC.
Marion
Hi Marion, thank you for taking the time to reply and welcome me to the course. As an active ‘MOOCer’ I am looking forward to seeing what this course has to offer and I added my blog information (feed and relevant tag: fslt13) yesterday so that it can be aggregated. I used the exact same set up for my #crit101 MOOC. 🙂
Great I think it takes time to appear on the wordpress site. Will be very interested to have your feedback on this MOOC
I’d heard through the MOOCvine (George Roberts 😉 about your fascinating dissertation, James. I’m really looking forward to hearing how your students took to the MOOC. I’m sort of a MOOC junkie and really enjoy seeing how they’re structured and how that structure reflects pedagogy.
Hi Cris, the course has ran twice and is now complete. I’m into the analysis and writing stage.
You can find out what they got out of the course directly by reading some of the students’ posts. Like #fslt13 I aggregated posts to the main #crit101 blog. Please feel free to have a scroll through and read what the students wrote. The easiest way would be to look at the archive: http://jamesmichie.com/criticalskills/archive/. If you look for posts titled with ‘reflection’ or ‘week six’ you will be able to see what they made of the course and what they got out of it. Group 1 completed the course at the end of February and the most recent group in April.
I’m also becomming a bit of a MOOC junkie, I am planning to participate in DS106 more fully later in the year after I have completed my dissertation. I really love the collaborative, creative principles that underpin DS106 and want to be able to go at it with some vigour. I have only been able to dip my toe in the water while I have been working on my M.Ed.
Look forward to conversing more as #fslt13 continue. 🙂