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- Welcoming participants from all levels of abilities
- Free
- Cover hundreds of topics
- Content is open and accessible
- Provide supplemental learning opportunities
- Extend Professional Development and Training opportunities
- Engage in cultural and international communication and collaboration
- Improve teaching
Ferdig further shows differences between cMOOCs and xMOOCS in that the 'c' represents connectivism, where participants bring their own ideas, materials, questions and content to the course. Inversely, the 'x' refers to using a MOOC to deliver content in a manner that distributes traditional course materials to students.
MOOCs are right in line with what we are doing in our Instructional Technologies and Digital Media Literacy Sixth Year Certificate program at the University of New Haven; the ORMS MOOC is a great example of this. Students were invited to read, process, learn, share and create content that was, in turn, read, processed, learned and shared by others in the MOOC. A MOOC is not a Learning Management System, yet they share some very similar characteristics. The intentions behind each resemble one another, and the motivations for establishing each are also very similar. Collaboration, asynchronous workflows and free tools are all common traits that both MOOCs and LMSs share. Content can be created, shared and modified with each.
The challenges that arise as questions about MOOCs and their implementation are valid. What weight does a badge have? Will Universities need to restructure graduation requirements and credit awards? In our particular experience with the Online Research and Media Skills MOOC, it was part of a course and not the course itself. Much that we read about MOOCs this week cast them in the role of primary course; how does that impact student compensation? The more I read about MOOCs and Learning Management Systems, the more questions I have. I am glad that we have the opportunity to discuss these questions with each other!