I am very interested in different kinds of MOOC platforms and MOOC course designs. Right now, I joined a MOOC on Blackboard’s Coursesites platform which goes by the title „Badges: New Currency for Professional Credentials„. For me, there is an obvious link between the topics badges and moocs and voilà, in this MOOC there is one discussion group regarding the aspect „Badges for MOOCs“. Two discussion groups are about Higher Ed and six other discussion groups cover aspects like „Badges in Museums, Galleries and Heritage Centres“, „Badges for Corporate Training and Professional Development“, „Badges AI“, „Badges for Government Entities“, „Badges for Military Use and Veterans“, „Mozilla Open Badges Initiative“ .
Yesterday 8 p.m. local time, there was the first live session with much input from Erin Knight, a very good YouTube video „What is a badge“ and a lot of chat in Blackboard Collaborate and via Twitter. About 270 participants max. were there, which I found to be an impressing number (at the time about 1200 participants had registered in the MOOC).
Some literature tips were already there before yesterday, but I think the course structuring with the weekly topics „Openness, Badge Fundamentals, Employers, Learning Providers, Learners, Opportunites“ was recent as I hadn’t seen it before yesterday evening (but maybe I simply didn’t notice it until then). The 6 topic areas will correspond to the 6 live sessions which will be recorded.
The course activities part I have yet to have a look at, especially the „Badge Challenge Assignments“ and I have further reading to do (some of the links I’ll put on my Delicious-Account). Of course there will be the discussions – I don’t know yet, how much time I’ll have for them. My goals in this MOOC mostly are as the course designers put it in the course description as a possible option number 2 „Those who need to report back to their organizations about what badges are, how they work, and what opportunities they present„.
Hopefully, the platform will be a little faster in the next weeks as the web sites were really slow until yesterday. By the way, there was also a survey „getting to know you“ which I didn’t find really anonymous when you ask the participants for the name of their institution and their role within, but it really is a good idea to ask what their goals are within the course and if there are experiences with badges.
by Ingrid Dethloff