Multiple pathways: Blending xMOOCs & cMOOCs

By George Siemens. I’m running a MOOC on edX in fall on Data Analytics & Learning (registration will be open soon). As part of this process, we organized a designjam recently bringing together 20 or so folks to think through the design process. I’ll post separately on this event. For now, I just want to highlight one aspect of the meeting: the difference between xMOOCs & cMOOCs and possible ways to blend them.
The interest in making xMOOCs more like cMOOCs (a few silly folks have called it MOOC 2.0 – haha) seems to be growing. In particular, MOOC providers are adding “social” in the same way that vitamins are added to food, “Now, with beta-carotene”! After much discussion at our designjam, I’ve concluded that cMOOCs and xMOOCs are incompatible. They cannot be blended. Pedagogically and philosophically, they are too different. It’s like trying to make a cat a dog. Entertaining, perhaps, but a fruitless venture. More...