Tag Archive for Coursera

Back on the MOOC

March 6, 2014 Education, Online Resources, Research Journey No comments

I did feel a little disheartened after giving up on my last MOOC. I became a statistic, I dropped out. Though I feel like it was far less of a conscious decision to drop out, and more of a gradual lack of time in which to watch the video lectures and complete the online content.

I’m back! A couple of weeks ago I started a MOOC on Gamification. I actually started whilst I was away, so the initial time commitment to get through the first few modules increased the barrier to entry slightly. I got through it. We are now in week 7, which marks the halfway point. I am keeping up… just. There are quizzes most weeks, expect for those weeks that have a written piece of work due. Thus far I have completed 4 quizzes and one written piece, with the next written assignment due in five days.

Overall the experience has been pleasant. The peer assessment for the first written piece went well, with only one technical difficulty. I feel like I’m much more engaged this MOOC around. I find the content more engaging and the opportunity to see some of the other students work through peer assessment was interesting.

We have covered a number of topics:

  • Intro to Gamification
  • Games (and why they are important)
  • Game thinking
  • Game elements
  • Psychology and Motivation
  • Gamification Design Framework

With topics such as design choices, enterprise gamification and behaviour change still on the menu I’m very much keen to see this one through. I am slightly disappointed that they haven’t taken the opportunity to practice what they preach, by gamifying the course. A badge or leaderboard here and there may not be a bad thing. Though I have a feeling that the restriction may be less about their desires to , and more about the system limitations of the Coursera platform.

My First MOOC

August 16, 2013 Education, Online Resources, Research Journey No comments

Since finishing my degree I have felt this gap in my life. I think more so it’s the ways in which I now need to fill spare time I have. Spare time in previous years has been a somewhat foreign concept. Though now that I have no study commitments, I have no pressure to be spending spare moments researching, and reading. In saying that I feel like there is a small void that video games and leisure reading just isn’t filling. I have identified this as missing learning. I enjoy the process of learning and research, I enjoy acquiring new knowledge.

Image courtesy of lisamcalister.com

How do I address this insatiable desire to learn? I have no desire for another bachelors degree, and my university opportunities for further studies in my desired fields are slim, at best. So I have turned to the latest trend in education, MOOCs. A MOOC is a Massive Open Online Course. So its basically anyone in the world with an interest in a given topic connecting to the course. Why? many people have a variety of reasons to engage in online study.

I have enrolled in The Global Business of Sports, delivered by Penn, University of Pennsylvania, on Corsera. My course so far consists of lectures and discussion forums, with 2 assessible quizzes coming, one at the mid-point and one at the end. The lectures have been split up into modules, with a module released each week. The lectures are split up into nice digestible chucks, 20-25 minutes a piece. Then we have the forums. Coming in a little bit late to the course (mid-week 2) discussion had well an truly kicked off. This meant for some of the more interesting debate topics in the forums, postings had already reached beyond 300 posts. I found this a barrier to engaging with that particular topic since reading more than 300 posts and comments isn’t really my idea of a good time. So I sought out topics that I could jump into that hadn’t yet reached a such a size, and have had some great (almost academic) discussion. Though mostly so far it has been very low key, with most people offering their opions with no references and discussion about farourite sports and teams. I look forward to moving a little further beyond this.

Retention rates for students in MOOCs are generally pretty low. Many sources note that students will enroll but not complete the course. I need to find some good statistics for this. For the current course there is no way I can see to find out how many students are currently enrolled, and this is not something the teaching staff have shared yet. I can see many reasons for low retention rates, beyond the usual reason students may drop out of face to face style courses. There is the appeal of free, the ease in which to enroll, the seemingly low commitment required, and a dislike of the teaching method or style. I would imagine that for many it is combination of these.

This is week still week two of the course. I’m interested in if I manage to stick it out and complete the course, or whether I just become another statistic. Stay tuned.