MM4: Teachers Teaching Online: Building a MOOC in WizIQ - 30 second reflection

Just after attending the invigorating 'Teachers Teaching Online: Building a MOOC in WizIQ' live session delivered by Jason R. Lavine for Moodle MOOC for Teachers 4, hosted by Dr. Nellie Deutsch on 20 June 2014, all I could think of was how to put Jason's tips in a nutshell without losing the rap rhythm he had set there, and however, all that came to my mind was the ocean, To The Ocean.

That image set a different pace, leading my imagination to produce a peaceful relaxing 30-second-reflection clip with the aim of summarizing the online session in simple frames: event description, questions, feelings and further challenges, all of which were coming to mind while watching, so here it goes:


MM4: Teachers Teaching Online: Building a MOOC in WizIQ - 30 second reflection

As I am acually doing both #moodlemooc4 and #TTOmooc at the same time, I honestly thought it was a brilliant idea to have this crossover between both. Thanks for the it, Jason and Nellie.

Teachers Teaching Online MOOC, or #TTOmooc is perfectly explained by Jason as a MOOC for busy teachers, but this learning experience is far more than that, as 19 well-known presenters willing to help educators on how to succeed as online teachers have been gathered around a single MOOC, which is not to be regarded as a simple task. As I am an online teacher myself, I perfectly understand the effort, appreciate it, I relate to the content and feel grateful for the inspiration the experts are spreading.

The questions and thoughts that came through my mind while watching the session were of different kinds:

When managing and attending some other MOOCs at some other platforms, I have observed that the main worry is social engaging generating virtual communities, learning communities, and coming up with a dynamic activity schedule; one of the main concerns seems to be the follow-up MOOC activity, what will happen after the MOOC, if participants will keep in touch, or if they will take to their lessons whatever they learned during the MOOC, itself. And, however, this TTOmooc is not as demanding as others, it's much more relaxed and easy going; TTOmooc providers here do not seem as worried as other mooc providers about figures, or how many many people actually finish the course and grab the badges.
Learning seems to be the focus here and I wonder who is on the right track. Maybe all mooc providers are, I guess; it all depends on the target audience and the goals we are pursuing.

Well, the thing is that I felt quite motivated while listening to Jason to keep it up and connect; quite encouraged to improve my online teaching. Surprised by the way the MOOC is preented and how the team has actually managed to gather such inspirational presenters together, all expert teachers and educators, and I believe this is a key issue in a course of this kind as well.

I guess the main challenge now is to find some time to catch up. Time is what I lack, but I am in love with teaching, and so with online teaching, even though you might encounter obstacles when doing online teaching, as it is IT failure sometimes: platforms that do not work well, connections that disconnect, servers that do not run smoothly, and so forth. My experience tells me, on the other hand, that one can overcome IT obstacles like those with a little bit of goodwill: practising, rehearsal, asking others for help ... those are the best steps to overcome the challenge.

It would be nice to launch a virtual course or mooc at WizIQ in the future, maybe mini-courses at the beginning with simple tips for others to learn and try themselves in their lessons. I think I'd like that in the future, too.

The question now, for further research, after viewing this session, is from my viewpoint finding out what the best MOOc model is, one that focuses on a demanding activity schedule, or an easy going one?
What should be the focus on a MOOC: the number of individuals successfully finishing the MOOC or their evidence of quality learning?