We are now in week 5 of the third delivery of the 6-week course, Making MOOCs on a Budget. However, in a way, rather than coming to an end, we are approaching a new beginning!

Phase 1

Up to now, we have presented materials which we consider useful for anyone who wants to make a MOOC (on a budget). We have used quizzes with multiple attempts possible as a tool to help you know if you have retained the information or if you need to go over it again.  The discussions aimed to encourage you to reflect a little on some of the big challenges you may face as you move forward with your project.

Phase 2

All the materials will still be available until 28 February, during which time the MOOC will also continue as a self-paced option. However, in the next phase, which starts on 29 November, for those of you who have gone through some/all of the materials, the ‘C’ in MOOC, will be more about ‘Community’ than ‘Course’.

Harnessing the community

A lot of people with different backgrounds, expertise and experience have come together because of a shared interest in making an online course.  This community is a wonderful resource, and we would now like to invite you to harness it, as you move into the next phase of actually developing your own course.

In order for this next phase to be successful, we are including in this week’s newsletter some guidance on how to benefit from being part of a community of this type.

Find your group!

A first step is to update your profile. This will help you to identify and connect with people who could be useful and supportive in your project. For example, if you are an educator, with little expertise in technical matters, you might find it useful to reach out to someone with these skills, and vice versa. Likewise, it might be interesting to connect with people in the same country as you, or with people who are developing MOOCs on a topic similar to yours, or people who are developing a course for a similar target audience – it’s up to you.

Update your profile

A suggested template for you profile is this (you are not bound by this – the intended purpose is simply to standardize the format so as to help people quickly scan profiles easily to find what they consider to be a good match)

1.    My Sector

2.    Country (where you are based/working)

3.    My area(s) of expertise

4.    Area(s) I need help in

5.    Type of project I am working on (MOOC, OOC, etc.)

6.    My target learner group (s)

7.    Anything else.

Find out how to do this here: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-1865

Ask us anything!

On 28 November at 5 PM (Dublin time), we will host a conversation to start planning your MOOC project! All are welcome to join at this link: https://learn.canvas.net/courses/1412/pages/final-discussion-webinar-live-emerging-issues.