I have heard this term very often in the recent months. Every time it came up I needed to look it up to be reminded of what it meant! I officially participated in my first MOOC a few weeks ago.
So, what is a MOOC you ask?
I have a K-12 administrative license in Washington DC and needed to make sure that I had enough Continuing Education Units (CEU) to get re-certified. I thought I was being proactive by saving all my certificates from my professional development courses in a folder on my computer. “Renew Admin License” was on my to do list for weeks, even months before I actually stopped to figure out how many hours I earned and how many I still needed. I created a spreadsheet to organize all my hours and GASP, I was little shy of my 200 hours. Additionally, the Office of the State Superintendent’s office requires that you submit your license renewal documentation 90 days in advance! GASP again! My timeline was getting shorter and shorter by the day. To make the process more complicated, I then noticed that I needed an updated background check and fingerprints. I knew I needed to take action on so many levels!
There are many sites that you can choose from when selecting a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course). I decided to enroll with Coursera and I signed up for a 5 week course called Coaching Teachers: Making Changes that Stick, which was sponsored by Match Education. In my current role I have the privilege of coaching teacher leaders and administrators and I know Match has a very fine reputation, so I eagerly signed up.
I completed an online course many moons ago when I was in grad school and thought it was amazing back then that I could participate in class from my couch! The old version of online courses or distance education was still very didactic to me compared to this MOOC.
What I really liked about this specific MOOC through Coursera was:
- Commitment – Approximately 2-4 hours of work per week
- Medium – There were videos to watch, an article to read after watching the videos, an opportunity to chat with hundreds or thousands of people taking the class and a quiz weekly. The videos were very helpful and made the reading really come to life. There were multiple-choice questions posed visually while watching the videos to also check for understanding along the way.
- Accessibility – I had the option to use a web browser from my laptop or download the app on my iPad. Additionally, I loved that I had the option of closed caption while watching the videos, as I sometimes need to read and watch at the same time (UDL principal of representation in action).
- Application – The final week was about applying what I learned as well as completing a peer review of four other participant’s work and scoring using a rubric.
The information and resources from the course was so helpful and timely that I have referenced it to many people in my work following completion of the MOOC. I am looking forward to finding another MOOC in the near future whether it is directly related to my work or something completely new that I want to learn more about. I appreciate having access to high quality content how and when I want it.
#EDhead #lifelonglearner #instantgratification #EDspired #MOOC
EDspired 