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I made it!

By Vicki Dale, on 25 February 2013

… in both senses of word! 🙂

I’m one of the team of UCL staff who participated in the E-Learning and Digital Cultures MOOC (Massive Online Open Course), and I have just submitted my digital artefact, which briefly summarises my thinking about the course. You can view my artefact, created using Glogster, here.

I must be obsessed with shoes, because I have labelled the central feature my ‘digital footprint’. This was a Wordle (tag cloud) of my discussion posts in the forums. I’ve provided some audio narratives too – an overview of my Glog, an interpretation of my tag cloud in under two minutes and finally, some implications for teaching and learning. The sound could have been of better quality – but I think the message gets across. As educators, we often worry too much about delivering a polished performance and actually – it’s the spontaneous, raw, unedited performance that engages people – it might even be what we could call the ‘human’ aspect!

I feel, as we are coming to the end of this particular MOOC, that I’m really just getting into it, so I hope to continue discussions with other participants in UCL and online. For others who might be interested but who weren’t able to take part, Clive has provided a nice overview of the MOOC in his blogs (see ‘Meditations on a MOOC’) and he includes some of the references and links to videos which is a great way of making an online open course even more open!

The next stage for us is to wait patiently until Friday when we will receive the marks given to our digital artefacts by our peers, and in the meantime we will be marking other participants’ work, so this is a nice experience of peer-assessment too (from the student perspective).

‘Til next time …

 

5 Responses to “I made it!”

  • 1
    Jane Britton wrote on 26 February 2013:

    Wow Vicky – that’s really creative. Love it!

  • 2
    Vicki Dale wrote on 26 February 2013:

    Thanks Jane. It was fun to do – I think there’s potentially scope to use Glogster for other educational purposes too. What did you do in the end? Have you submitted? Looking forward to seeing it 🙂

  • 3
    Mira Vogel wrote on 27 February 2013:

    I wasn’t familiar with Glogster – it’s really good to be talked through a concept map isn’t it. Well done for your piece – I really enjoyed it. What you say about the videos brought home how helpful it is to offer different media. If the course team had only offered video I’d have found it harder to participate because I relied on my commute to study for the MOOC and the Central Line is so loud (in fact I think UCL audiologists may even have studied it) that I can’t hear properly at a safe volume – I read the papers and chapters instead. So I really appreciate the mix the course team provided. Does anybody else find it interesting that the papers and chapters are non-fiction while most of the vids are drama – I wonder why that was.

    Something else I find interesting – I have a trail of abandoned MOOCs in my wake, but this time I completed one for the first time – my assignment is at http://youtu.be/ybNAhE2xMBg. I think a big factor in pulling that off was being around you and Clive, and you both being so committed. Thanks both.

  • 4
    Vicki Dale wrote on 28 February 2013:

    Mira, I love your artefact, it’s really thought provoking and very professionally made. You have a great voice for narration too!
    Interesting point re: where and when people accessed the MOOC. Since MOOCs are supposed to be accessible and acceptable to everyone, there’s an important point here about MOOC design needing to take into account different learning preferences as well as the opportunistic nature of informal learning. I wonder if the more passive MOOCs with just videos and MCQs will be as engaging … personally I don’t think so, but it will be interesting to see how MOOCs develop in general.
    In the meantime, it’s good to continue to share our experiences. What do others who have participated in this MOOC or other ones think? What formats or media do you prefer for informal learning?

  • 5
    Mira Vogel wrote on 28 February 2013:

    Also I omitted to mention my close neighbour Matt Jenner – he grumbled so much I thought he would certainly jump ship – but then he organised a meet-up and was an absolute stalwart in our UCL discussion forum. Here’s his artefact.

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