Drawing Nature

I recently took a free online MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) on "Drawing Nature, Science and Culture: Natural History Illustration" that is offered by the University of Newcastle (UOM Australia) that is now included in the edX platform.

If you are new to MOOCs, they are online courses that are offered for free. They are usually university courses, though many are hosted by MOOC providers (edX, Coursera etc.). To many people the experience will not be at all like "taking a course" at a university. It might be your first time learning online, and that is odd for anyone. They are "massive" because you probably will be one of thousands of students in the class. The "lectures" are probably videos and probably (thankfully) much shorter than the 90-minute ones you had in college.

Learners may take a MOOC for credit or to get a certificate of successful completion (it is an option for many courses) and pay a fee (generally far less than typical tuition). But the majority of learners take them for lifelong learning and perhaps professional development with no desire to get credit.

This particular course is an "archived course" which means there is no active instructor. The six-week course was first offered with an instructor in October 2016. EdX keeps courses open for enrollment after they end to allow learners to explore content and continue learning. All features and materials may not be available, and course content will not be updated, but courses are sometimes offered "live" again.

UON has a prestigious Natural History Illustration program. I do some drawing and painting, but I am certainly not an aspiring scientific or medical illustrator. That is one of the great things about these MOOCs. There is very little pressure and no prerequisites to taking a course. A middle school student could attempt one. You need no artistic background. You might want to take it to learn about the topic and not even expect to try drawing yourself.

I audited a few art courses as an undergraduate. I was an English major and they didn't count towards my degree requirements - and I wasn't really good enough to be in those courses, but professors often allowed a few extra students. Professors made it clear that you needed to attend classes and do the assignments, but you would not get the same attention as the tuition-paying students. The MOOC model is similar.

This course is about observing and illustrating subjects from nature, science and culture, with their linkages to the environment being central. My interest is half art interest and half my interest in nature.

My own artwork is not "realistic" so it was a challenge to try creating accurate replications of subjects from the natural world.

Topics included:
- Core scientific observational skills
- Field drawing and sketching techniques
- Concept sketch development
- Composition for natural history illustration
- Form, proportion and structure essentials
- Drawing and rendering techniques

There are sample videos from many edX courses on YouTube and that's a good way to get a taste of what is in a course.  Here is an intro on the illustration course.

Macro-Level Learning through Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs): Strategies and Predictions for the Future

My wife, Lynnette, and I contributed a chapter to the new book, Macro-Level Learning through Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs): Strategies and Predictions for the Future. 

Our chapter is titled "MOOCs: Evolution and Revolution."

This chapter introduces the evolution of the MOOC, using narratives that are documented by research generated from the educational community. It concentrates on the history and progression of distance learning and its movement toward online education. The authors' perspectives focus on their own anecdotal evolution, from traditional classroom teaching, infusing distance and online learning, to designing and teaching in a MOOC setting. In examining whether the MOOC is more of an evolution or a revolution in learning, they explore questions that have emerged about MOOCs including what distinguishes this model from other online offerings, characteristics of learners who succeed in this environment, and debates regarding best practices. Critical reaction and responses by proponents of this learning format are presented and acknowledged. The research, perspectives and debates clearly impact what the future of the MOOC appears to offer. This continues the discussion within the book section ‘RIA and education practice of MOOCs,' aligning to the discussion on the topic of ‘educational training design.'

Because it is a big (and expensive) book (tell your librarian to order it!), I did a 3-part article about some of the ideas in our chapter on my Serendipty35 blog.

In Part 1, I write about the MOOC as revolution and an evolution.

In Part 2, I cover some of the path Lynnette and I followed in teaching and learning face-to-face, then online and finally in a MOOC environment, which probably parallels many other educators development.

The third part covers the pre-history of the MOOC, which is a backstory that encapsulates how distance education developed into online learning.

MOOC: The Seven Year Itch

I am looking forward to speaking at NJEDge.Net's 15th Annual Faculty Showcase on March 28, 2014.

Last year, I spoke about Massive Open Online Courses just ahead of teaching one myself. That was "Academia and the MOOC" which was offered with NJEDge.Net through Canvas Network last spring.

This year I will be back as the lunch plenary and I'm calling my talk "MOOC: The Seven Year Itch" since the MOOC is now 7 years old.

If 2012 was the "Year of the MOOC", then what happened in 2013 - and what will become of the MOOC in 2014?

I will give an update on the past year in Massive Open Online Courses and a sense of how they are really impacting education and training.

The morning speaker is Dr. Erin Templeton an Associate professor of English at Converse College and a fellow lover of poetry. But for this audience, it is more that she is a regular contributor to The Chronicle of Higher Education blog, ProfHacker.

The Faculty Showcase is all about best practices from member institutions and is targeted to educators from K-12, higher education, institutional research, and healthcare-related teaching as an opportunity to show their work to NJ colleagues. The event features presentations and posters on technology-mediated instruction.

Event information at njedge.net/activities/facultyshowcase/2014/ 

To MOOC Or Not To MOOC

This is a video of a workshop Mary Zedeck (Seton Hall University) and I conducted at the 2013 NJEDge.Net Annual Conference in November.

After a brief history of the brief history of Massive Open Online Courses and the educational philosophy that drove the creation of the first MOOCs in 2008, this workshop was about academics deciding whether or not MOOCs offer opportunities for their college.

Examining MOOCs from the points of view of stakeholders - faculty, designers, administration, support staff and students - was our approach as we worked our way through the pros and cons.

The MOOC Experience: Faculty Reflections

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) are growing in popularity at colleges and universities across the country at a rapid pace. They are the newest type of online learning experience open to people around the world.

I will be part of a panel discussion at William Paterson University offered by the Technology Across the Curriculum and Instructional Research Technology group and Co-Sponsored by the NJEDge Academic Technology Group. The event, "The MOOC Experience: Faculty Reflections," is on October 29, 2013. We will discuss the brief history of the MOOC, design principles, and the experience of teaching/facilitating a MOOC.

After light refreshment at noon, the panel discussion will  start at 12:30.  Following the discussion, the NJEDge Academic Technology Group will continue this discussion its first meeting of the academic year.

SITE: William Paterson University, 300 Pompton Road, Library Auditorium, Building 10, Wayne, New Jersey 07470

For registration information: http://njedge.net/events/

The event will be streamed live and later archived at NJVID.Net.

About the Panelists

I have been designing and teaching online courses since 2000. I was the Manager of Instructional Technology at the New Jersey Institute of Technology for seven years where I managed the design of online courses for the University as well as for corporate clients. From 2008-2012, I directed the Federal writing grant at Passaic County Community College. I continue to teach at PCCC and also online for the graduate program in Professional Technical Communication at NJIT.  I have taught and learned in a MOOC environment forp2pu.org since 2011 and this year I taught the “Academia and the MOOC” course offered by the Canvas Network in 2013. I started my career in education in 1975 as a secondary school teacher of English.

Also on the panel is Mary Zedeck, an Instructional Designer with Seton Hall University’s Teaching, Learning and Technology Center where she is responsible for supporting faculty in the design, integration and assessment of technology resources for courses and programs on campus, as well as hybrid and online. Mary was a designer and facilitator with me on the "Academia and the MOOC" course this past spring. She also manages the Freshman Studies ePortfolio program and is leading the campus Early Alert Retention Initiative.

Dr. Sandra. L. Miller provides leadership and vision for the departments of Academic Technology, Media Services, and Broadcast, Production and Support for Cable, Satellite, and Videoconferencing. Miller was the PI for NJVID, an IMLS National Leadership Grant in 2007-2011. Miller’s recent conference presentations have included: Lilly Conference on “Creating a Video Dialogue Using Video Clips” in 2013, EDUCAUSE Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference in 2012 on “Planning for Informal Learning Spaces”, EDUCAUSE National Conference in 2010 on “NJVid: A Collaborative Portal for Statewide Video Access” and “Focus Groups as Formative Assessment” at CCUMC in 2008. Miller (2013) currently has a chapter on “Creating a Video Dialogue” in the Plugged-In Professor, Eds., Ferris, S. and Wilder, P., has published with Felson, J. “Student response systems: Are they for large classes only?” in the College and University Media Review 2009, “Faculty Focus Groups” in the College and University Media Review 2007-2008, “Video as process and product” in EDUCAUSE Quarterly, 2005 and numerous other technology articles. Miller was awarded the Innovation Technology Award by NJLA-CUS in 2011 and along with NJEDge, the 2012 WOW award from WCET. Miller has served as an NGLC Grant Reviewer, EDUCAUSE Review article reviewer, and is President-Elect for CCUMC. Miller received her doctorate in Educational Technology from Pepperdine University.

Mung Chiang is the Arthur LeGrand Doty Professor of Electrical Engineering at Princeton University. His research on networking received the Alan T. Waterman Award (2013) and the IEEE Kiyo Tomiyasu Award (2012). A Technology Review TR35 Award recipient (2007) and founder of the Princeton EDGE Lab, his technologies have resulted in several commercial adoptions. His education activities received the Frederick Emmons Terman Award (2013) from ASEE. He started the “3 Nights and Done” learning platform, and his MOOC reached 90,000 students in 2012-2013. The corresponding textbooks, “Networked Life: 20 Questions and Answers,” which received the PROSE Award in Engineering and Technology (2012) from AAP, and “Networks Illustrated: 8 Principles without Calculus”, adapted to individual readers via a mobile app. He chairs Princeton University’s Committee on Classroom Design, the founding steering committee of the IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering, and co-chaired the U.S. NITRD Workshop on Complex Engineered Networks.

Dr. Bela Florenthal graduated from the Smeal College of Business Administration, Pennsylvania State University with a Ph.D. in Marketing. Her professional areas of interest include social media, e-learning, e-tailing/retailing, and culture-based behavior. Her teaching experience is in Marketing Management, Consumer Behavior, Introduction to Marketing, and Marketing Research.

Loretta C. Mc Laughlin Vignier is an Assistant Professor of Media Production and Broadcast Journalism at William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey specializing in television production. She has served as the chairperson of the Technology Across the Curriculum (TAC) Committee since 2011. In 2012, she moderated a campus-wide forum on E-books. In spring 2013, Loretta co-presented at an iPad teaching circle. She is currently doing research on the use of cell phones to alleviate test-taking anxiety.

Christopher Brinton is a third year PhD Candidate at Princeton University in the Department of Electrical Engineering. His primary research focus is on developing machine learning and social networking techniques to enhance the efficacy of massively scalable digital and online education. He is a MOOC co-instructor, reaching out to over 90,000 students from 2012-2013, and co-author of the textbook Networks Illustrated: 8 Principles Without Calculus, which became a best-seller on Amazon, and also adapted to individual readers in a mobile app format. Chris received his Master’s Degree in EE from Princeton University in May 2013, and his BSEE from The College of New Jersey (valedictorian and summa cum laude) in May 2011.

Academia and the MOOC

"Academia and the MOOC" is an upcoming online course I will be facilitating for NJEDge.Net using the Canvas Network.

"Academia and the MOOC" is itself a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) although we will be capping enrollment at a maximum of 2000 participants. (So, it is more of a Big Open Online Course.)

MOOCs are a huge topic in academia right now, but many schools are still wondering if they should be offering them or how they will deal with this alternative to their own offerings.

Can a course where the participants and the course materials are distributed across the web and the courses are "open" and offered at no cost to a very large number of participants who do not receive institutional credit be a worthwhile venture for a college?

The purpose of this particular MOOC is to gather a large group of people from academia who have an interest in this movement and give them information about MOOCs to get them thinking and discussing their impact on education.

This course will begin with some background in the history and development of MOOCs. Then, we will examine MOOCs from the perspectives of five academic roles (teacher, designer, support, administration and student). We will also critique some case studies of courses that have been offered. Throughout the course, we will consider how MOOCs might impact those roles and an institution in the near future.

I am referring to this offering as a "course" because it's a term we all understand, but I really believe this is not a course. If you associate courses with textbooks, assignments, grades, assessment, credits and all that comes with those things, then it is not a course because none of those elements exist in this experience. It might be best to think of the "C" in this MOOC as a Conversation, Community or Colloquium. Discussion, as with most online courses, will be at the heart of the experience.

The course is set to launch April 15, 2013 and will run for 4 weeks. It is open and free to anyone interested in this topic. To register, go to www.canvas.net.

NJ Faculty Best Practices Showcase

Next Friday (march 15, 2013) is the 14th Annual NJ Faculty Best Practices Showcase at Georgian Court University in Lakewood, New Jersey, sponsored by the Academic Technology Group (ATG) of NJEDge.Net.

The showcase features presentations and poster sessions on technology-mediated instruction by faculty, researchers and professional staff on the newest applications and the latest ideas about learning activities for on-ground, blended and online courses.

Some of my colleagues from PCCC  and NJIT will be presenting on adaptive learning in math, using Wikipedia effectively and the flipped classroom.

I will be the luncheon speaker this year, and I will be speaking about “Academia and the MOOC.” Many of the elite universities are offering these Massive Open Online Courses, but most colleges and educators are still unsure about what MOOCs are and if they are worthwhile. Although MOOCs have gotten a lot of attention, there is still a lot of doubt that a course where the participants and the course materials are distributed across the web, and the courses are "open" and offered at no cost to a very large number of participants who do not receive institutional credit, can  be a worthwhile venture for a college.

I will be previewing a MOOC by the same name that I will be "teaching" for NJEDge using Canvas Network. That MOOC will be open to anyone interested in the use of MOOCs in academia.  More about that next week.

For information and Showcase registration:  http://njedge.net/activities/facultyshowcase/2013/

NJEDge.Net 14th Annual Faculty Best Practices Showcase

Royal Geographical Society lecture, Brisbane, November 1946 - Flickr Commons

The 14th Annual NJ Faculty Best Practices Showcase will be held at Georgian Court University in Lakewood, New Jersey, on Friday, March 15th, 2013.  The Academic Technology Group (ATG) of NJEDge.Net sponsors the event.

The showcase features presentations and poster sessions on technology-mediated instruction by faculty, researchers and professional staff on the newest applications and the latest ideas about learning activities for on-ground, blended and online courses.

I will be the luncheon speaker this year and I will be speaking about “Academia and the MOOC.”

The New York Times said that 2012 was “the year of the MOOC” and EDUCAUSE said that they have “the potential to alter the relationship between learner and instructor and between academe and the wider community.” Many of the elite universities are offering these Massive Open Online Courses, but most colleges and educators are still unsure about what MOOCs are and if they are worthwhile.

Can a course where the participants and the course materials are distributed across the web and the courses are "open" and offered at no cost to a very large number of participants who do not receive institutional credit be a worthwhile venture for a college?

In this presentation, I will briefly cover some history of the development of  MOOCs, and talk about the possible benefits and problems for schools and students.

Peer 2 Peer University

Peer 2 Peer University P2PU.org is the grassroots open education project that introduced me to MOOCs before that term was in the education vocabulary.

P2PU is a nonprofit online open learning community which allows users to organize and participate in courses and study groups to learn about specific topics. They started in 2009 with funding from the Hewlett Foundation and the Shuttleworth Foundation and I discovered them when I took a class that fall.

Back then, people labeled them as "edupunk" because they charge no tuition and courses are not accredited. That has changed recently as some courses in their School of Webcraft provide the opportunity for recognition of achievements through the Open Badges project.

P2PU is very similar to what MOOC (massive open online courses) offer, but rather than focusing on the "massive" aspect, its focus is on people sharing their knowledge on a topic with others. It is much easier to create a course on P2PU than on most of the other big providers. (Coursera and Stanford are understandably not going to allow most of us to create a course on the their platform.)

Actually, P2PU offerings aren't always "courses" as you can select "Study Group" and "Challenge" and can even create your own term. P2PU is a great model of true lifelong learning.

Some of their latest projects are moving this type of learning forward. They are working on a draft “Bill of Rights” for online learning and you can help them edit the document.

They also announced the launch of Learning Creative Learning - an online course for designers, developers and educators offered by the MIT Media Lab in collaboration with P2PU.   The course starts Feb 11, 2013. You can sign up here and find out more about the course here.

Another big issue in this space is validating learning and offering something resembling "credit" for your efforts. This currently means getting involved in badges, feedback, metrics and more. Vanessa Gennarelli presented at the Digital Media and Learning Grantees Conference on their plan for a qualitative, feed-back based system for their third badges iteration. Take a look at her slides here.

Looking at Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) and Academia

I'm setting up a course to provide an introduction to using Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in academic settings that will be a meta-MOOC itself (a MOOC about MOOCs).

A MOOC is generally a course where the participants and the course materials are distributed across the web and the courses are "open" and offered at no cost to a very large number of participants who do not receive institutional credit.

I'm doing this for NJEDge.NET and the course will be offered via the Canvas Network.  Canvas is an open-source learning management system by Instructure Inc. It is released under the AGPLv3 license for use by anyone interested in learning more about or using learning management systems.

Canvas Network gives teachers, learners and institutions alike the place and platform to define the world of open online learning in a way that makes sense for everyone. It grows as teachers and learners apply it in individual ways and then share the results with the world.

Built on the same Canvas platform that millions already use to learn every day, Canvas Network will grow to be a gathering place for the open online courses, communities and collections that millions more will be able to use to evolve learning to meet their goals.

The course -which is more of a Conversation -  is set to launch in April 2013 and run for 4 weeks. It will be open and free to anyone interested. There are a number of courses being offered now at www.canvas.net.

One of the courses there is "Learning Analytics and Knowledge" taught by Dr. George Siemens, Associate Director of the Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute at Athabasca University, where he leads the learning analytics research team. That course will run from February 11, 2013 to Apr 7, 2013. Siemensis  one of the earliest MOOC teachers, and the author of Knowing Knowledge (a Handbook of  Emerging Technologies for Learning and Knowing Knowledge).

"Academia and the MOOC" will briefly cover the history and development of MOOCs and it will engage participants in discussions of why institutions are offering these courses, and the possible benefits to both a school and to students. We will look at MOOCs from several perspectives: as an instructional designer building and supporting a course; as an instructor; as a student; as an institution offering the course.

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