OpenMed Course

3.6. Learning with MOOCs on campus

Daniel Villar-Onrubia

June 16, 2017

¶ 1 Leave a comment on paragraph 1 0 Despite the overall difficulties in reusing the content of MOOCs as OER, due to the limited use of open licences, there are ways in which this type of courses can be of help to lecturers and students in higher education settings, whether it is in connection with the formal curriculum or not.

¶ 2 Leave a comment on paragraph 2 0 For instance, lecturers might integrate a given MOOC into their teaching in case there are some overlaps with the contents their students need to learn. This is what happened when students enrolled in the MA in English Language Teaching at Coventry University were invited to follow – in parallel to one of their modules – a MOOC offered by Southampton University and the British Council through FutureLearn. These are the main motivations driving the course director of that MA to integrated the MOOC into their teaching:

¶ 3 Leave a comment on paragraph 3 0 “I was struck by the amount of thematic overlap the content of the MOOC had with the content of my MA module Theories and Methods of Language Learning and Teaching (T&MoLL&T) and decided that it would be interesting to integrate the MOOC into my module. I found the prospect of offering my MA students the opportunity to engage with a globally connected discussion forum on teaching and learning quite appealing. An added advantage of the MOOC integration consisted in the fact that the level of the FutureLearn MOOC appeared to be appropriate for my students’ needs, as it was designed as a ‘taster’ for the online MA in English Language Teaching run by the University of Southampton in conjunction with the British Council (British Council 2014). The integration of the MOOC into the MA curriculum also provided the opportunity to explore how learner autonomy could be developed through the engagement with an online course used in conjunction with a face-to-face module” Orsini-Jones (2016)

¶ 4 Leave a comment on paragraph 4 0 Another example is the community built at the University of Granada (Spain) around a MOOC on Art and the Internet offered by MediaLab Prado in collaboration with the Spanish University of Distance Learning (UNED).

¶ 5 Leave a comment on paragraph 5 0 However, instead of being embedded into the formal curriculum, this was an informal learning initiative launched by the MediaLab of the University of Granada  (http://medialab.ugr.es/) and open to anyone interested being involved, whether affiliated with their university or not.

¶ 6 Leave a comment on paragraph 6 0 Aiming to foster the creation of local learning communities around MOOCs, the Peer 2 Peer University has developed a methodology and training materials for anyone willing to facilitate what they call a “learning circle.” Moreover, they have launched a platform to publicised learning circles in any city, so learning with similar interests can easily get in touch.

¶ 7 Leave a comment on paragraph 7 0 “Learning Circles are lightly-facilitated study groups for learners who want to take online courses together, in-person. Learning Circles are peer supported, facilitated by non-content experts, hosted in publicly accessible spaces, designed to be taken with few prerequisites, and free for learners. You can think of Learning Circles like a book group for learning.

¶ 8 Leave a comment on paragraph 8 0 Generally, Learning Circles meet for 90 minutes a week in a public space (like a library) for 6 to 8 weeks. Each Learning Circle has a facilitator. He or she is not necessarily a content expert, but has been trained in helping support a peer learning environment for learners like you who want to work through online courses together.

¶ 9 Leave a comment on paragraph 9 0 Learning Circles offer much more than a dedicated weekly study time and space. Past participants have commented on the value of working through material with peers, gaining access to new study strategies, finding a support group of like minded individuals, and learning at one’s own pace in low pressure environment.” https://learningcircles.p2pu.org/en/about/