The Great #8bitmooc Refactoring
You know what isn't conducive to research? Whenever you take the project you've been working on for four months and completely change the scope and codebase of the project.
I've been working nearly 12 hours each day this week moving things around and getting them the way I like them. The past few blog entries made it look like I was just drawing pictures, but nope! I started a new branch of #8bitmooc and have changed just about everything.
I am much happier with it. :)
The previous incarnation of #8bitmooc wasn't very satisfying, because despite everything I said about gamification and exploration being key features in the MOOC I wanted to make, I was basically just reimplementing Udacity. That isn't very interesting, and I fundamentally disagree with the messages it sends to its students. My MOOC is definitely not going to be one where the system stuffs your face full of information for you - it will require a higher degree of attention and willingness to find information on your own, but there will still be a demonstrable pathway to growth. Whether you decide to grow by writing your own projects or by doing the exercises I provide, they all culminate in a final project that authentically measures the students' learning.
There are lots of quotes out there that take jabs at perfectionism: "done is better than perfect" being one of my favorites, but they are all based on the premise of perfectionists being unwilling to compromise. Compromise is a sticky subject - sometimes it's a good thing. Remember earlier in the #8bitmooc development process, I said that my willingness to drop the animated world map in favor of a menu was a compromise that helped me move on? Yes, that was a good one. However, if I were to compromise on my beliefs in a project-based and exploration-based learning MOOC, that would fly in the face of why I'm doing this project in the first place.
The best part is that most of the features, the sandbox and stuff, are still there, so I've been able to copy and paste most of the code I wrote for the original incarnation of #8bitmooc. Most of what I've rewritten is how I position the various features of the MOOC, and truly offer a non-linear approach to learning the content.