«Opening degrees in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC)»
Michael Totschnige-Learning independent consulting
Abstract
Even though the media attention around Massive Open Online Courses is focused on projects started by America’s elite universities and two companies founded by Stanford University professors since 2011, the concept has been created earlier. . Today there is a wide variety of projects that differ with respect to the learning design they apply and what is meant by “open” in their respective contexts. The distinction between cMOOCs and xMOOCs refers to the different degrees of control that participants retain over their activities. This talk presents a perspective on MOOC in the context of Open Education; In addition, technological options are analyzed to conceive MOOC platforms as open environments that foster cultures of participation and allow integration with personal learning environments.
Bio
Michael Totschnig has until recently worked at the Hasso Plattner–Institute of the University of Potsdam, Germany, where he coordinated the start-up and operation of openhpi.de, a platform for Massive Open Online Courses. From 2005 to 2011, within the Vienna University of Economics and Business and its spin-off “Knowledge Markets”, he has been active as a software engineer, system architect, project manager and principal researcher in the development and operation of large-scale systems for learning and collaboration (Open Icoper Content Space, Learn@WU, EducaNext, Bildungspool, lms.at). Likewise, he has been responsible for document management systems, content creation tools and learning object repositories and the application of e-Learning standards (OAI-PMH, IMS QTI, SCORM).
