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Thought I should share some MOOC creativity #mscedc

via Instagram http://ift.tt/2lEy1ZI

I realised today that I have been sharing my MOOC participation with everyone except my classmates, who probably understand it the most.

I chose to try out Photography Basics and Beyond: From Smartphone to DSLR Specialisation from Michigan university.  I have never studied photography before but had decided to give it a try before our MOOC weeks started and had even signed up for a local class. I thought this would be a great way to compare on and off-line courses.

I really had no expectations for this MOOC and had thought I’d just lurk and see what was what, but very quickly found myself being drawn in.  I think I may be falling into the label of devotee from Kozinet’s writing (2010).
I have actively taken part in all the peer review assignments and tried to take on board the teachings from each video lecture. I have to be honest as well and say my photos are getting better 🙂
Just for fun, here is a selection of the ones I have taken so far.

A gallery of my photos taken since the start of my MOOC choice.

You can keep up to date with my photos on my Instagram feed: https://www.instagram.com/edonald774/
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References

Kozinets, R.V., 2010. Understanding Culture Online. In Netnography: doing ethnographic research online. London: Sage, pp. 21–40. Available at: https://www.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/31334_02_Kozinets_Ch_02.pdf.
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Tweet! – am I showing unconscious bias?

We all have unconscious bias, where we are drawn to people or communities like ourselves and pull away from anyone we deem as different. This comes up frequently if you are responsible for hiring or people management.

I’m wondering if I am showing this in my verbalisation of the teaching staff on my MOOC, am I choosing to name them differently because I don’t see them as equal to teaching staff who work on campus?

It makes me wonder about opinions of online behaviour and community and if we unconsciously judge them in the same way. Kozinet’s writing (2010) made me think of this when he spoke of the assumption that online interactions were superficial and short term. Somehow in this opinion, the statement is there that online is less than.

It’s a similar bias with online study, with MOOCs or even ODL seen as less than on-campus study, even though as Knox (2013) shows, the potential of a 2 tier system with MOOCs means MOOC students could end up having to achieve the same results without the teaching support, on-campus support and direction of a campus student working towards the same accreditation. Still online study can be perceived as “less than”,  maybe why the Digital Education degree at the University of Edinburgh is not listed as online study in any way on the degree certificate? To prevent this bias?

Maybe I should try harder to ensure my language doesn’t show my unconscious bias.

References

Knox, J., 2013. Five critiques of the open educational resources movement. Teaching in Higher Education, 18(8), pp.821–832. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2013.774354.

Kozinets, R.V., 2010. Understanding Culture Online. In Netnography: doing ethnographic research online. London: Sage, pp. 21–40. Available at: https://www.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/31334_02_Kozinets_Ch_02.pdf.