MOOCs

Massive! Open! Online! Understanding MOOCs and Their Impact on Library Instruction and Services

Presented by: Kevin Stranack, Simon Fraser University Library
Barriers to teaching and learning: money, time, geography, authentication, teaching methodology
MOOCs - examples include Udacity, MITx, Coursera
Open, course based courses that are available to anyone

Decoupling university education:
• Content no longer has to come only from one place
• Support - study together on open study, inviting students to study groups
o Answer questions really well, students can earn badges and be seen as an expert within the community
• Accreditation and Evaluation - advent of robo-graders
• Badges - online badges when you have completed a course
• Prior Learning Assessment from Athabasca University, pay to be assessed and not have to take certain courses based on previous learning

Mind the Gap
• Information Literacy and Librarians
• Content Focused Pedagogy
• Community of Learning?
o Social presence, huge factor of success
o Teacher presence well beyond a video

Opportunities for Libraries
• Study spaces - outreach to wider community who may be taking these courses
• Reference
• Information literacy instruction
• Programming

Possibilities for MOOCs
• Networked Learning - knowledge exists between nodes and grows through the community (professor and students). The greater the community the greater the possibility of learning
• Open enrolment - combination of credited students and interested individuals from the global community
• Open Tools for learning
• Open Learning Objectives as determined by the participants
• Open Content
• Open Assessment - reflective papers and self-graded

Opportunities for Libraries
• Talk it up - how can we facilitate this from the library’s perspective
• Focus on openness
• Information Literacy? Could we do a massive MOOC for IL?
• Professional development