Free course on teaching connected #online courses

Thanks to the wonderful Maha Bali, I was pointed towards a really nice initiative that allows everyone with an interest to learn how to set up, facilitate and experience an online, connected course (cfr connected-MOOCs). This initiative is called the Connected Courses Initiative, and will introduce active co-learning in higher ed. There is a wonderful bunch of intelligent, kind and creative people at the helm (look at that awesome list of online learning gurus! - I mean the list is simply mind baffling!), all with loads of experience and insight in the matter, so this looks like an exceptional chance to deepen, strengthen or simply explore the idea and the actions related to connected learning. 

There is an introduction on the 2nd of September, and the first (online and free) unit starts on 15 September 2014... it looks like fun. 

The course runs from September to December 2014 and has 6 units all focusing on another - very well tested - online connected learning feature.  

Some words of the organisers (with useful links):

We invite you to participate in a free open online learning experience designed to get you ready to teach open, connected courses no matter what kind of institution you’re working in. We’ll explore how openness and collaboration can improve your practice and help you develop new, open approaches.

You can mix and match — take one unit or take them all, and go at your own pace. You’ll be joined by other participants from around the world who are looking to:

• get hands-on with the tools of openness;
• create open educational resources, curriculum and teaching activities and get feedback from a community of your peers; and
• connect with and learn alongside other faculty, educators and technologists.

Sign up and receive updates from the organizers. Everyone is welcome, and no experience is required. We will all learn together in this free and fun opportunity to start planning your own connected course. The instructors, award-winning university professors from around the globe, are the innovative educators behind successful connected courses such as FemTechNet, ds106, phonar, and the National Writing Project CLMOOC.

An orientation starts Sept. 2 and the first unit starts Sept. 15, 2014 and you can sign up and find more details about the topics we’ll be exploring at connectedcourses.net.

When I read this options, I immediately looked at all the units and though: I must register at once!

Blatantly copying from the core website for immediate reading:

9/2-9/14 Pre-Course: Move in, Registration, Orientation

Facilitators: Jim Groom, Alan Levine, Howard Rheingold

Pre-course: Setting Up Your Network and Registration

Why open learning? Why create your own space, domain, host? Why use your own tools. Why be a node on the web? Why is this important? What does connected learning mean?

9/15-9/28 Unit 1: Why We Need a Why

Facilitators: Mike Wesch, Mimi Ito, Helen Keegan

What is, or should be, the future of higher education?  What do we stand to lose or gain in pursuing the possibilities opened up by the Web?  What are the underlying logics and effects of different approaches to teaching with technology/online?

9/29-10/12 Unit 2: Trust and Network Fluency (Leveraging your “Why”)

Facilitators: Jonathan Worth, Kira Baker-Doyle

In the quantum learning space where interest is a key driver, how do we employ the same dynamics in our teaching? or How do we leverage the power of open? How do we maintain trust and a sense of security in open networks? How do we build our networks? What is social capital? How do we enable at-large learners to engage in our courses? Where should we teach our classes?

10/13-10/26 Unit 3: The World Wide Web - From Concept to Platform to Cultures

Facilitators: Gardner Campbell, Kim Jaxon, Chris Mattia, Howard Rheingold, Laura HIlliger

What is this thing called the World Wide Web? What are the values and ambitions that gave rise to its design? If “the medium is the message,” what is the message of the web? What are some threshold concepts that help us to understand what is meant by “the web”? How is it reframing learning and education?  What do we stand to lose or gain in pursuing the possibilities opened up by the web?

10/27-11/9 Unit 4: Diversity, Equity, Access

Facilitators: Lisa Nakamura, Anne Balsamo, Liz Losh

Co-Instructors:  Veronica Paredes

Goals / Topics:

• The Dialogic Creation of Knowledge
• Networking Across Differences
• Infrastructuring Equity, Access, and Participation
• Subtopics:  Race, Gender, Sexuality, Feminist Pedagogy, Praxis of Networking and Mentoring

11/10-11/23 Unit 5: About Co-learning

Facilitators: Howard Rheingold, Mia Zamora, Alec Couros

What is co-learning?  Why co-learning?  How can teachers empower students as co-learners?  How does this pedagogy differ from traditional methods of teaching & learning? How does the instructor support a co-learning environment?  What obstacles might educators encounter in this paradigm shift?  What obstacles might students encounter in this paradigm shift?

12/1-12/14 Unit 6: Putting it all into practice. Planning the connected course

Facilitators: Jim Groom, Lisa M. Lane, Jaime Hannans, Jaimie Hoffman, Mikhail Gershovich, Alan Levine

Focus on practical issues, overview of issues in teaching open online classes, reflections on previous weeks’ activities, goals for the future.