This spring in April and May, I jumped on and spent a bit of my time in two #MOOCs: open networked learning #ONL151, and #rhizo15. These two courses were somehow different in terms of structure, the level of engagement and the way of participation.
#ONL151 was like more of a community-based course centered in Google+ community consisted of small problem-based learning groups (BPL) with weekly topics. Like any other MOOC, it uses many other tools such as Twitter, Diigo, Google hangout, and weekly online webinars.
On the other hand, #rhizo15 as assumed from its name, was more of a network-based and rhizomatically-structured #MOOC built upon rhizomatic learning (community as curriculum) by Dave Cormier. #rhizo15 course activities were mainly centered on Facebook, Twitter (see all tweets here), and participants’ blogs talking about their experiences, challenges and understanding of rhizomatic learning.
Although, I was mainly lurking around #rhizo15 and following Facebook activities and tweets but, I was more active in #ONL151 especially in PBL group where we were working on scenarios related to the weekly topics. Collaborating in such communities was a bit challenging while entails more time and commitment to work on topics and prepare something to be shared with the bigger ONL151 community. Nonetheless, it was both challenging and fun having a lot of learning encounters. I always enjoy both active participation and lurking in MOOCs where I interact, learn, and collaborate with a range of professionals with diverse backgrounds. This has helped me a lot in my research and to develop my professional network in the past five years.
Now, both of the courses coming to an end but, learning and networking still continue with MOOCs.
Below, I share a diagram as an example of our PBL group work on Open educational resources (OER) and MOOCs.
