Category Archives: MOOC

MOOCs and Student Support

Posted on September 13, 2013 by geoffcain

Internet Penetration (% Population). Red indicates no statistics available. (Wikipedia) I read an article this week that I found via Stephen Downe’s blog that is from the eLearning Africa News Portal called “The Underlying Inequality of MOOCs” by Alicia Mitchell. … Continue reading →

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Four Steps to Getting MOOCs Right

Posted on July 23, 2013 by geoffcain

“Lehrer-Student” von Reinhard Schmidt in Rostock (Photo credit: Wikipedia) I love alarming education headlines – five MOOC classes are put on hold and the San Francisco Chronicle says “San Jose suspends online courses.” Which it didn’t – it suspended five MOOC … Continue reading →

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MOOCs: Disruption is the Mother of Invention

Posted on June 14, 2013 by geoffcain

Stephen Downes There is an article in the Boston Review by Thomas Leddy called “Are MOOCs Good for Students?” In this article Leddy claims that “MOOCs pose a great threat to the most important value of higher education: ‘literacy.’ By … Continue reading →

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Open Textbooks and the Student Debt Crisis

Posted on April 26, 2013 by geoffcain

Loans (Photo credit: zingbot) Daniel De Vise at The Washington Post reported that student loan debt is now at “$870 billion nationally, surpassing the nation’s outstanding balance on auto loans ($730 billion) and credit cards ($693 billion).” This is according … Continue reading →

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MOOCs, Group Work, and Instructional Design

Posted on April 18, 2013 by geoffcain

Debate Chamber of the Oxford Union Society (Wikipedia) Everything Old is New AgainIn my last post I pointed out that all the arguments about MOOCs sound so much like the old arguments against online education in the 90s. One of … Continue reading →

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MOOCs: Lets Do The Timewarp Again!

Posted on April 12, 2013 by geoffcain

I love all the arguments from the 1990s that were leveled at online teaching and learning that are now being leveled at MOOCs. I re-read all of my favorite straw-man hits from the 90s including the digital divide, lack of … Continue reading →

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The Trouble with College, Online or Off

Posted on February 19, 2013 by geoffcain

There is an editorial in the New York Times entitled “The Trouble with Online College” this morning about online education. It argues that online education has high attrition rates and that students who are unprepared for college will not do … Continue reading →

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MOOCs and Other Four-Legged Chickens

Posted on February 8, 2013 by geoffcain

I have just moved to Humboldt State University. The college is fairly rural but we get a lot of folks from urban areas. I over heard a very interesting conversation between some students in the cafeteria.  One of them was … Continue reading →

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MOOCs: Why Do We Need Instructional Design?

Posted on January 16, 2013 by geoffcain

Note: The following is an extended abstract for a paper. I was in the process of sending this out to journals when I realized that this needs to be an open document. I have always found the publishing process in … Continue reading →

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MOOCs and Connectivist Instructional Design

Posted on October 27, 2012 by geoffcain

I am very interested in the instructional design of MOOCs. While I was working at Tacoma Community College, I co-taught a course called “Health Information Management 101.” The purpose of the course was to introduce health information management students to … Continue reading →

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