#openedMOOC begins October 1st
Jenny Mackness, Jenny Connected, 2017/09/11

David Wiley and Geoprghe Siemens are launching a new MOOC on open education at the beginning of October. More...

Why Is Live Interactive Video Streaming So Rare Among MOOCs and LMSs?
Henry Kronk, eLearning Inside News, 2017/10/16
I can answer that question from my own experience. It's really hard to put hundreds of people, let alone thousands, into a live interactive streaming conference. This article doesn't seem to recognize that difficulty. "It’s possible—in a course with scheduled lectures—for students to tune in, listen to a lecture in real time, ask questions, and participate in discussion from a remote location." Well yes, it's possible, but not in video. More...

Udacity Official Declares MOOCs ‘Dead’ (Though the Company Still Offers Them)
Jeffrey R. Young , EdSurge, 2017/10/16
Udacity's latest word on MOOCs, reported first by Economic Times in India: “Our mission is to bring relevant education which advances people in careers and socio-economic activities, and MOOCs aren't the way.” I don't think that's an accurate statement of Udacity's mission. I think that what drives the company is investor demands for profits. Really, I don't know why for-profit companies bother with a mission statement that says anything else, because we all know that they're in it for the money, nothing else - that's not a criticism, just a statement of fact. More...

TokyoTechXʼs MOOC Development Toolkit
Nopphon Keerativoranan, Online Education Development Office, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2017/11/27
This is a set of three tools in Python and Excel to support content development in EdX MOOCs. One is a content modification tool, which basically automates cobtent import and export to make it easier to work with entire courses. The second uses a similar functionality to create a course content and outline tool. More...

More Or Less Technology In The Classroom? We’re Asking The Wrong Question
Cathy Davidson, Fast Company, 2017/09/07
I'm not sure whether Catrhy Davidson's description of MOOC as "Massive Open Online Courseware" is a deliberate commentary or an accidental oversight. I prefer to think it's the former, especially in the context of her denunciation of tech hyperbole. More...

The Massively Open On Air Courses (MOOAC): Contextualizing MOOCs in Africa
Rebecca Yvonne Bayeck, e/merge Africa, YouTube, 2017/09/06
Education in Africa faces numerous challenges: infrastructure, affordances, teacher shortages and distance. MOOCs can be deployed to address these issues. But few African students actually attend MOOCs. Access to the internet is still very limited (about 9 percent) in Africa. More...

MOOC Adaptation and Translation to Improve Equity in Participation
Freda Wolfenden, Simon Cross, Fiona Henry, Journal of Learning for Development, 2017/08/02
This study shows why it's important to test hypotheses with different models and different user groups. It describes a MOOC in India offered first in English and then in Hindi, attracting more than 40,000 students in all, and achieving completion rates over 50%. More...