Curriculum Transformation @curriculumtransformation - Tumblr Blog

Hi, I research and teach about professional practice, pedagogies, curricula, law, and policy in higher education and legal education. I am an Australian lawyer and have a PhD. I write about things to do with lawyering, legal education, clinical legal education, practical legal training, teaching, learning, qualitative and practice research. The opinions I express on this blog are personal and should not be taken to represent the views of my employers, or be taken as legal advice. Interdisciplinary educators follow this site too. You can find me on LinkedIn and Twitter. Some of my work is available on Impactstory, Academia.edu, SSRN , Deakin Research Online, SlideShare, Prezi, and YouTube.

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Was the revolution over as soon as it had begun? To put the events of the past three years into perspective, University Affairs checked in with George Siemens, professor at the Centre for Distance Education and associate director of the Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute at Athabasca University, and an early MOOC innovator. Dr. Siemens, along with Stephen Downes, senior researcher at the National Research Council, years earlier had launched what is widely recognized as the first MOOC, in 2008. It was a course on learning theory offered through the University of Manitoba where Dr. Siemens then taught. Dr. Siemens is also principal investigator of the MOOC Research Initiative, a project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to fund research that assesses the impact of MOOCs on teaching and learning. The group held its first conference in December in Arlington, Texas with dozens of researchers presenting their findings.

An interview with Canadian MOOC pioneer George Siemens | University Affairs

Since MOOCs have started to multiply on the web, many discussions about their structure, effectiveness and openness have been appearing. Students, teachers, e-learning specialists, academics, the media: everyone has an opinion. However, not much commentary looks at the history of MOOCs with an approach to understanding why so many universities are creating them and massive numbers of students are joining them. A short history of distance learning and may explain much about the sudden popularity of MOOCs.

A Short History of MOOCs and Distance Learning - moocnewsandreviews.com

The news media’s appetite for MOOC stories has been insatiable. So when the University of Pennsylvania sent an email inviting several hundred education reporters to a seminar on massive open online courses, it anticipated a healthy turnout. But as the catering deadline approached at the National Press Club, in Washington, organizers realized that they had barely enough registered attendees to justify a platter of finger food. “We didn’t have a set thing in mind as to how many would attend, but what we were thinking was 15 to 20 from, let’s call them, ‘established’ media outlets,” said Ron Ozio, director of media relations at Penn. “And we got four.” The university canceled the event.

2014: The Year the Media Stopped Caring About MOOCs? – Wired Campus - Blogs - The Chronicle of Higher Education

It seems that at some point in all our lives we ask the question “What’s the ‘point’?” Having recently retired, I’ve been reflecting on my career. The verdict: “Fine as far as it went, but it could have gone further”. Soul searching led, inter alia, to A Life of Happiness and Fulfillment, on the wonderful platform called Coursera, which has a vast array of online high-quality courses. Then came Raj, AKA Dr. “Happy Smarts”, a marketing professor at the University of Texas, Austin, asking the question: “If you’re so smart, why aren’t you happy?” Boom! Right between the eyes! How could I not explore this one? Thankfully this irresistible desire was rewarded beyond my expectations. Pulling together vast amounts of research from many disciplines, Raj helped me to answer the question “What is the point?” … it is to be who I am at my core–happy.

How Dr. Happy Smarts is Spreading Happiness Through MOOCs | MOOC Report

When one of the first massive open online courses appeared at Stanford University, 160,000 students enrolled. It was 2011, and fewer than 10 MOOCs existed worldwide. It has been four years since then, and according to a new report, the cumulative number of MOOCs has reached nearly 4,000. Compiled earlier this month by Dhawal Shah, founder of the MOOC aggregator Class Central, the report summarizes data on MOOCs from the past four years. And the data show that even as the MOOC hype has started to die down, interest hasn’t tapered off.

MOOCs Are Still Rising, at Least in Numbers – Wired Campus - Blogs - The Chronicle of Higher Education

ince “Year of the MOOC” became a catchphrase in 2012, massive open online courses have had their fans and detractors. Some have claimed that online learning is a “disruptive revolution” and a harbinger of the end of residential colleges, while others have called MOOCs at best “mere marketing” or at worst an abject failure, singling out low completion rates. Expanded data and research about MOOC participants and evidence-based assessments of online learning trends might, however, begin to move the conversation beyond anecdotes and heated opinions. Today, a joint Harvard and MIT research team published one of the largest investigations of MOOCs (massive open online courses) to date. Building on their prior work — a January 2014 report describing the first year of open online courses launched on edX, a nonprofit learning platform founded by the two institutions — the latest effort incorporates another year of data, bringing the total to nearly 70 courses in subjects from programming to poetry.

Massive study on MOOCs | Harvard Gazette

When one of the first massive open online courses, or MOOCs, appeared at Stanford University, 160,000 students enrolled. It was 2011, and fewer than 10 MOOCs existed worldwide. [This is an article from The Chronicle of Higher Education, America’s leading higher education publication. It is presented here under an agreement with University World News.] It has been four years since then, and according to a new report, the cumulative number of MOOCs has reached nearly 4,000. Compiled earlier this month by Dhawal Shah, founder of the MOOC aggregator Class Central, the report summarises data on MOOCs from the past four years. And the data show that even as the MOOC hype has started to die down, interest hasn’t tapered off.

MOOCs are still rising, at least in numbers - University World News

(via Can MOOCs Really Boost Your Career? Findings From Coursera’s First Impact Report | EdSurge News)

(via MOOCs in 2014: Breaking Down the Numbers | EdSurge News)

Every year, thousands of Googlers take one of a dozen company courses on mindfulness meditation, the increasingly prevalent practice of having a “balanced awareness” of what’s happening around you. The most popular class — titled “Search Inside Yourself” — regularly has a wait list stretching six months. “I know this sounds melodramatic,” a Google employee reported on an after-course examination, “but I really think this course changed my life.”

Here's What Google Teaches Employees In Its 'Search Inside Yourself' Course | Business Insider

#mindfulness

When the Associated Colleges of the South and the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education issued our joint call for case studies in blended learning in the liberal arts, it was with ...

#hybridlearning

Chapter I: What a show: love, fear, lost dreams, broken hearts. Here's your ticket to the making of a high school musical. The real action takes place offstage -- in the drama known as growing up. Spellbound she sits, her mother on one side, her boyfriend on the other, as another young woman performs the role that will someday be hers. Since she was little, Angie Guido has dreamed of standing on stage, playing the Puerto Rican girl who falls in love with the Polish boy named Tony. Maria. She will be Maria in West Side Story. Say it loud and there's music playing. "That's me, Mom," she said. Say it soft and it's almost like praying

A Stage in their lives: Ken Fuson

I’ve been applying gamification principles to my classes and so far the results have been positive. Specifically, I’ve eliminate all exams, quizzes, and papers in my course and replaced them with a set of 24 badges students can earn. Students are free to choose which badges they will to earn. No specific badge or set of badges is required for students to pass the course. If a student does not earn a badge on their first try, they can try as many times as they wish or try earning another badge. Finally, there is no timetable for when badges must be earned.

4. Benefits to Using Badges in the Classroom | HASTAC

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