Underlying Circumstances

Further education courses are usually high cost undertakings for both the provider and the participant. For working people or those who have families, participating in an in-class course is hardly possible or only with a great amount of organizational effort. Nevertheless many people are interested in further education – and not only through books. Both interaction and exchange with others along with the flexibility and freedom to adapt the amount of participation to one’s needs (e.g. work and family) are desired. The Internet offers a variety of possibilities to inform oneself, to communicate or work together. The diversity of the sources of information and offers can, however, also overburden those interested.

Solution

An open online course is a solely web-based course without admission restrictions that can last for weeks or months. If a large number of people take part, then the course is called a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). Courses, communication, and interaction are presented using various tools in Internet. The organizers regularly add input on the topic and moderate the discussions that follow. The active participation of the users is an important building block, is however, not mandatory. According to one’s time resources, it is also possible to take part only passively. At the end of some courses, it is possible to receive a performance achievement report if certain requirements have been fulfilled.

Details

The idea of open online courses goes back to a concept that the Canadian e-learning experts, Stephen Downes and George Siemens, introduced. According to Stephen Downes, the concept was influenced by earlier online courses, namely Alec Couros’s online graduate course and David Wiley’s course based on a wiki. The appearance of „Massive Online Conferences“ was another influencing factor. The first „Open Online Course“ initiated by Siemens und Downes took place under the title „Connectivism and Connective Knowledge“ 2008 .

Characteristic for an open course is its open and decentralized infrastructure. The course takes place purely web-based; there are no restrictions on the number of participants and all materials are freely accessible. There are courses in which the participants define their goals themselves. In some cases, they are affiliated with an university or some other educational institution that sets the learning goals and what is required to attain them, along with the opportunity to receive credit for the course (certificate, Badge or credit for a research course, e,g, in the open course on „Artifical Intelligence“ by Sebastian Thrun, Stanford University). The requirements for credit can be quite different. Most of the time, some kind of participation is required (e.g. a written report or commentary). Registering ensures that the participants receive all of the important information from the organizers.

Introductory papers and live sessions with experts give impulses and set the focus of the topic. The participants read, comment, ask questions, and continue the discussion online. Downes & Siemens find the following four pattern of activities to be characteristic for network learning: aggregation, remixing, creating, feed-forward (PLENK 2010). The course may have live events (such as online lectures). Most of the time, live events and discussion and exchange phases alternate.

The learning environment can consist of different tools (see below) that map and support the distribution of materials and communication. The participants can take part using their preferred medium: their own blog, their facebook profile, or a twitter channel.

The organizers of the course set the agenda. They are also the central contact point for all participants. A course-specific Hashtag serves to identify and aggregate (bring together) all contents that have to do with the course (e.g. on a Weblog). It is practically impossible for all the participants to read all of the contributions. For this reason, the greatest task for the participants is to select from the mass of contributions and material that which is most interesting for them. By summarizing the contents regularly, the organizers can help the participants to avoid getting lost. The summary can be made available, for example, in a newsletter.

Stumbling Blocks

The mass of contributions by the participants, spread across the different media, must be managed.
The many and varied sources can become confusing for the participants.
It is a challenge for the participants to select from and sort out the huge amount of information.
Taking part requires a lot of self-driven action and discipline from the participants.
Participants have to be supported and motivated (online).
Among other things, many participants drop out due to the amount of time needed for the course.
Some participants feel inhibited about making their own contributions public.
Comments of users on the contributions of other users could be discouraging or hurtful.
If browser-based software is used, one must trust that is will run reliably
With no restrictions for participation, the group of participants is often very heterogeneous.

Advantages

Teaching is independent of place and, for the most part, of time; the learning process and participation can be organized for the most part individually
The group of participants is not limited
The courses are free for the participants
The group of participants is very heterogeneous which can help one look at “the broader picture”.

Disadvantages

The amount of time needed is hard to calculate
According to size, the organizers can only give little or no feedback personally
The amount and variation of the information can appear confusing or may just demand too much of the participants.
It is difficult to evaluate the work of the participants (e.g. with respect to certificates or credit).

Examples

Open Course “Workplace Learning 2011“. The course was offered in combination with an in-class lecture at the University of Tübingen. Graduate students of the University of Tübingen could receive credit for participation in this course.
Open Course 2011 organized by Digital Studies of the E-Learning Department of the Goethe University of Frankfurt am Main und Jochen Robes (further education blog), on the topic "The Future of Learning".
MOOC change11 (offered from Sept. 2011-May 2012) was organized by Dave Cormier, George Siemens und Stephen Downes.
PLENK2010: Course by Dave Cormier, George Siemens, Stephen Downes und Rita Kop on the topic "Personal Learning Environments Networks and Knowledge".

Tools

Weblogs
Wikis
RSS-Feed-Aggregator
Mailing Lists
Twitter
EtherPad
Skype
Filesharing-Tools (e.g. Dropbox)
Application Sharing (Google Docs)
Tools for Online Courses and Live-Streaming (e.g. Adobe Connect)
Social Networks (such as Facebook, Google+, Xing)

Further information

"Massive Open Online Courses: Das Potenzial des offenen und vernetzten Lernens" is the title of an article that Jochen Robes, who has a blog on further education, wrote for the handbook, E-Learning.
What an Open Course is, is demonstrated in this video. Other questions about massive open online courses are answered in the MOOC-Guide.
Stefanie Panke deals with the format, „open course“ in the long text "Personal Learning Environment und Open Online Course: Neue Formen offenen Lernens im Netz" Important background information for discussion is provided by the experience contributions and discussions originating within the framework of the massive open online course, „Personal Learning Environments, Networks and Knowledge“ (PLENK, 2010)
Stephen Downes explains in his blog report, "Creating the Connectivist Course", how the concept of the first open online course that he had organized originated.
In the article "Cloud Computing and Creativity: Learning on a Massive Open Online Course(2011) Rita Kop und Fiona Carroll deal with the topic open courses.

Open Courses