The MOOC I'm taking is named Learn HTML5 From Scratch. This is a self-pace MOOC with five sections and 37 lectures and five quizzes separated amongst the section. The lectures are easy to follow and the instructor provides resources for the students to use while following along with the lectures. For me, this has taken the most time since I like to participate in the lectures by following along with the instructor. So far I have found the information to be very helpful and it provides me with a deeper understanding of HTML5.
In addition to ease of use, I like how the instructor explains the information - starting with the basics of HTML and building each lesson upon that basic knowledge. Starting with this basic knowledge was a good way to begin the lesson given requiring students to have a vast amount of base knowledge was identified as one of the reasons students does not complete a MOOC (Colman, 2013). The instructor also offers recommendation for free software so that students can use the resources provided to complete the activities hands on. The course also has a discussion area where students can post questions and receive answers within a very reasonable time frame. I have found this to be very helpful as well.
In the brief introduction video, the instructor outlined the course and explained the learning outcomes. This video was the deciding factor that led me to take this course. The technology requirements for this course are very minimum, but it does help if you have some basic knowledge and understanding of HTML, even though the instructor starts from the basics. One of the things I think can benefit this MOOC is the incorporation of other technologies and pedagogies that can increase student learning. As Bruff (2013) stated in his article, MOOCs should include more than lecture videos. Colman (2013) also referenced this notion and recommended the use of interactive pedagogy. The unfortunate side is identifying other ways to teach HTML5 or similar concepts. In a way, I guess the free software and resources should make up for this. Maybe an end of semester project that requires students to use HTML5 to create a web site would add more value to the course (this may be already incorporated into the course as I haven't finished it yet. But I have not seen any indication of this yet.).
The free software and resources provided by the instructor were found to be extremely helpful in understanding the concepts in this course. I believe if these resources were not provided, it would be hard to grapple and understand the concepts. With these resources, I also found the discussion board helpful. In this area, if other students were experiencing problems you could read their questions and view the responses. While this was the only form of interaction I've found in the course, it was pivotal to the learning experience.
The assessment of student learning was as I expected - a short multiple choice quiz. At the conclusion of the quiz, the student received a grade, the course average, and the statistics for each question in respect to how you fared with the rest of the class. Students are also given the opportunity to share their grades on social media. Why someone would want to share their grade beats me. But that option is available for the social media enthusiasts.
My interest in this subject was heightened because I used HTML on my job. However, I've always wanted to increase my knowledge of HTML5. I not only gained knowledge about HTML5, but I also received some basic clarifications about HTML. While I was not as engaged in the course as I would have liked, I was engaged with the material because of my ability to follow along with the instructor and complete hands-on activities.
The instructor helps the students with time management by including the length of the videos (which are the most time consuming activities in the course) and the number of questions for each quiz. This helped me as a student when deciding on when to complete tasks. Small techniques as such are important to the course design and layout. Because I was informed at the beginning I was able to schedule how I completed tasks.
As for most things at this point in my life, time is a huge variable that determines how many tasks I complete. Unfortunately, I haven't had much time to dedicate to the MOOC. But I hope to complete more of the lessons because the information is very helpful.
Finally, I created my brief survey for this course. If I was to implement this MOOC, the survey would include about 10 in-depth questions both open ended and Likert scale.
Sources:
Bruff, D. (2013). Lessons learned from Vanderbilt's first MOOC.
Colman, D. (2013). MOOC interrupted: Top 10 reasons our readers didn’t finish a massive open online course.
