Applied Abstractions

This week a few pieces of MOOC news. Wesleyan wants to change the world Wesleyan president, Micheal Roth, announced a new course offered through Coursera called How to Change the World . Its a six week course that covers a range of topics (the environment, poverty, gender, etc.) and has a recommended workload of 3-5 hours. Given the breadth of the topics and the amount of time that will be taken to go over them, I'm not expecting much world changing from the course. Mashable might think so, but then again they sponsored the event this course was announced at . Europe's MOOCs The Gray Lady did a piece on Europe's MOOCs. What most interests me about the European market is the dynamic between the course provider's country of origin's culture, language, and local-specific issues, and how they relate to the wider market. However this may just be an American's fascination of countries that are smaller than most US states. New UK MOOC provider, Future Learn S

Not much MOOC news since last week's post , but I thought I'd point you in a few different directions; some analysis articles, people I listen to about this subject, and some fun stuff. One blogger's analysis of another blogger's post, in another blog Jimmy Daly over at EdTech Focus on Higher Education wrote a post about the recent MOOC for credit brewhaha, and mentions Johnathan Tapson's article at pandodaily and his application of the Gartner Hype Cycle to MOOCs. Tapson makes a number of good points defending MOOCs (the completion rate boogeyman being one) and gives plausible predictions as to the future of MOOCs, and Daly takes the Gartner Hype Cycle a bit further by adding a more detailed graph. Give Tapson's article a read, and Daly's a once over. Stephen Downes Stephen Downes is a Canadian education researcher at the National Research Council of Canada. His blog discusses education news, MOOCs , education technology, and plenty of other good st

Saw this ad and thought you all might be interested: Instructional Designer - Social Studies (Downtown Seattle) . I know as much as the ad says, and am not affiliated with the poster. Good luck! via craigslist seattle | all jobs search "instructional design" at September 11, 2013 at 02:21PM

It looks like my favorite MOOC provider Coursera is making (some) money. From their blog : At Coursera, we want to help you get recognized for your achievements in online learning, whether it is earned in a degree program or in a single online course. For this reason, we launched  Signature Track  in January of this year, which gives students the opportunity to earn Verified Certificates in recognition of their hard work and successful completion of some of Coursera’s rigorous course offerings... 25,000 sign ups and $1 million in revenue, and in light of this, we’d like to share more about this program and the achievements of the students. For those that don't know, signature track does include a 'Verified Certificate' but also some premium services. These services are similar to those freemium services, or free-to-play games that give you special services after you pay a bit of money, individualized support, quicker response time from staff/faculty/TAs, etc. Initially

I've been planning to do a regular Monday MOOC News article for some time now, compiling my own experiences with MOOCs, and discussing some of the current news and trends. Yesterday I was busy with a few small projects, applying for teaching positions this fall, and there was a general lack of MOOC news. Today has been almost the complete opposite, so let's get into it. EdX and Google get in bed together. So it seems that EdX and Google are teaming up to launch MOOC.org sometime next year in the hopes of creating a platform for MOOCs. Individuals, businesses, educational institutions and others would be able to offer their own MOOCs through this platform, similar to having your videos hosted on YouTube . This seems confusing to me, doesn't Google have something like this in Course Builder ? What does EdX have that Course Builder doesn't? Well, users for one. Course Builder really hasn't had wide-adoption, and with their university partners, EdX's standing in

I'm starting a company to formalize my freelance work, and to grow the services I offer. You can read more about it here  Academic Designs . My service offerings would include the following types of projects; Developing the curriculum and courseware for a developmental mathematics program at a college or university. Refine course objectives of an existing course. Work with a school district or individual school to revamp their Grade 6-12 mathematics curriculum to align to the Common Core State Standards. Consult on the creation of online courseware that aligns to the Quality Matters rubric in an unofficial capacity. Moodle support, training, and workshops. There are also plans for a few products that align to the Grades 6-12 CCSS mathematics standards, and small Moodle plug-ins. I am looking to grow both my client base, and my contractor base. If you know of either, feel free to send them my information by copying and pasting the below: Academic Designs Lin

As you may or may not know, I have moved to Portland, Oregon from Brooklyn, New York. My fiance and I have moved back to Oregon for a number of reasons; closer to family and friends, while we enjoyed the New York lifestyle it didn't fit us long term, and we would like to start a family here. What this means for you is my posts should be more in-depth, more frequent, and the job leads may focus on institutions, companies, and start-ups based in the Pacific Northwest. With my job and project prospects looking a bit more distributed, I will have more time and more reasons to post here. If you live in Portland, or in the surrounding areas, feel free to contact me to discuss the education technology trends of the area. I'm looking forward to getting to know the Portland market, its needs, and how I can help.