Author: George Roberts

re Furedi: The Unhappiness Principle

This is a version of a letter that I wrote to the editor of the THE, which they did not publish, further to Frank Furedi's rant against learning outcomes. I am the course leader for Oxford Brookes University's Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching in Higher Education. We were very pleased to see that when Professor Furedi … Continue reading re Furedi: The Unhappiness Principle

Blogging the iPad Study

Just read Andy Saul's excellent post on blogging the iPad project. Using blogs for peer mentoring is a very good idea. It is the way the "blogosphere" works. Bloggers carry on conversations on their blogs. I am slightly less certain about the need to make the readership a closed group. Maybe I am just being … Continue reading Blogging the iPad Study

Setting up for the OLDS MOOC

I am familiarising myself with the OLDS MOOC. It will be very interesting to see if Cloudworks works as a learning platform. I am going to see if I can consume this blog into a cloudscape. I do not intend to use a different blogging platform for the course. In fact I wonder why they … Continue reading Setting up for the OLDS MOOC

x v c: falsifiability or hybrid learning in, through and about MOOCs

[This is my abstract for OER13] Two thousand and twelve was the year of the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) (Creelman 2012). The MOOC has become a complex phenomenon leaving aspiring designers and conveners with many questions and decisions to make. Speaking loosely, observers notice two broad categories of MOOC. cMOOCs are the earlier form, … Continue reading x v c: falsifiability or hybrid learning in, through and about MOOCs

The limits of navigation: how far does the online go?

Reflections on New Lecturers Courses at Oxford Brookes Among the practices, which have emerged through the New Lecturers Programme in 2011-12, there are three that challenge the limits to online learning: massive open on-line courses (moocs), virtual conferences as a means of assessment, and distributed collaboration as a means of working in learning sets. While … Continue reading The limits of navigation: how far does the online go?

Blog conversation on FSLT12

The feeds are starting to come in to the FSLT12 blog aggregator. And it is already a rich source of information and potential conversation. Questions are being asked about what makes a good teacher, and what makes a bad one! Jenny Mackness addresses the issue of blog aggregation generally in a MOOC. We are struggling … Continue reading Blog conversation on FSLT12

Learning objectives or not?

Jo Badge pointed me to a post by Stuart (no other id given), "Learning objectives or not?", which started with this intentionally provocative statement, "A good teacher states clear Learning Objectives. The best don't. Discuss." I commented on the blog and repost my comment here. My perspective is from higher education. Courses are required to … Continue reading Learning objectives or not?

MOOCs and chaos

Dave Cormier has written a thoughtful critique from a cynefin perspective of massive open online courses (moocs) as an approach to learning the "basics". I reduce his argument almost to absurdity, but it is extremely relevant to a massive open online course that I, Jenny Mackness and Marion Waite are developing. Our mooc is called … Continue reading MOOCs and chaos