Picture this…
You’ve been offering a course that’s very popular amongst your learners; your classroom is a testimonial to how effectively you engage with them. You’ve now decided to offer the course online through a MOOC.
What are your considerations going to be?
How would you plan your instruction?
Will the outline of your MOOC be a replica of your classroom course outline?
“The Medium is the Message”- Marshall McLuhan
Each medium, independent of the content it mediates, has its own intrinsic effects which are its unique message.
If you are converting a classroom course to a digital one, a lot may be lost in translation. Besides, in doing so, you aren’t effectively leveraging what the digital medium has to offer. Remember, the content is the same but the medium isn’t! In this case, the nature and characteristics of the digital medium will impact the learning experience your MOOC will provide.
Adapting your content to the style and the syntax of the digital medium will help you achieve the best outcome for your course.
When designing your MOOC, consider creating a content outline that lends itself better to MOOC pedagogy.
Here’s one path to help you reimagine your MOOC curriculum:
- Learning Objectives – Begin by collaborating with an instructional designer or digital learning specialist to identify the learning objectives of your course
- Instructional Content – Explore the content (topics) you need for instruction, in order to meet those learning objectives
- Curriculum – Finally, create your topic-wise course outline that will harness the multi-media, non-linear as well as the collaborative and interactive aspects of the digital medium
Infographic created with showtweet.com
Now that you’ve explored the content outline for your MOOC, how is the design of your instruction going to be? What aspects of the pedagogy of a MOOC are you looking to engage in your delivery? Social learning, perhaps? These are important things to consider and you might want to spend good time on planning them out. I’d be happy to discuss these, but that’s a post for another day.
[This blog post was written by Natasha Mujgule, Instructional Design Consultant at IIMBx]
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