The second iteration of the Metadata MOOC recently ended, and Statements of Accomplishment have gone out. So now I can share some data from round 2. Recall that back before round 2 launched, I made some predictions about how student engagement in the course would play out over the course of the course. Well, it turns out that I lowballed myself… over the 8-week span, the number of active students.. Read More
LMS Bingo
I realized yesterday that in my long and storied career in academia, I’ve taught with a pretty fair cross-section of learning management systems. And then, because I’m just that compulsive, I started to try to count them. So for your edification… or maybe for my own amusement… here’s that list. WebCT: I cut my teeth on this LMS, way back as a doctoral student at Syracuse University. I used it.. Read More
Gearing up for round 2 of the Metadata MOOC
I mentioned in a previous post that we’re relaunching the Metadata MOOC. The official launch date is Monday July 14, & like last time it will run for 8 weeks. Which means it will wrap up on September 5 (or that following weekend). Which hopefully means that it will end just in time for the start of the semester… which of course is only an issue for MOOC students who.. Read More
On advising Masters papers remotely
Part of my agreement with my Dean, that allows me to be remote for this academic year, is that I will document the effects of being remote on doing the job. So, now that the deadline has passed for our Masters students to submit their Masters papers (basically a thesis, only without a committee, just a single advisor), I wanted to write a bit about how it went to advise.. Read More
The Metadata MOOC takes over the world!
I continue to futz around with the data from the Metadata MOOC. About 2 weeks ago, I was interviewed for this story in the UNC University Gazette. (It’s a good story, you should read it. And not because I’m quoted… honestly, Don Hornstein said much more intelligent things than I did.) Anyway, one of the questions the reporter asked me was: What was the breakdown of countries the students were.. Read More
Students take MOOCs out of general interest. In other news, water is wet.
In my last post, I posed the question: Why do students engage in a course, when they began intending to lurk? So I thought I’d do some more fishing, to see if I could identify students who, at the end of the course, were motivated to do it again for a Statement. Because if we could identify these students before the course, maybe we could get them to engage more.. Read More
More analysis of the Metadata MOOC: Statement of Accomplishment earners
It’s been a long time since I’ve posted any data analysis of my Metadata MOOC… so to the 5 of you who were looking forward to hearing more about it, I apologize. But I’ve started thinking about this again. For one thing, I’m collaborating with colleagues on 2 projects making use of data from the MOOC. I’ll report on those projects, when there’s something to report. For another thing, I’m.. Read More
MOOC in the Classroom
Ithaka S+R recently produced a report titled MOOCs in the Classroom? Which is well worth a read, and I recommend it. I’ve dedicated the past several posts to analyzing data from my Metadata MOOC. But what I haven’t mentioned is that this semester I’m also teaching the Metadata course (INLS 720) for my School, the School of Information and Library Science, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill… Read More
Thoughts on group projects
I’m teaching the Library Assessment course for SILS this semester. The major assignment for that course is one large semester-long project: the students work with a client library on an actual evaluation project, usually one that otherwise might not get done at all. Thus, hopefully this project is a win-win: the students get experience working on a real project, and the library gets some free labor. But the point is,.. Read More
If you want something done right, do it yourself
We’ve had two issues come up in the MOOC in last few days that I think are worth discussing here, as they’re both related to the issue of relying — or not — on other people’s resources. First: For some of the Unit 2 homework questions, I had pointed to students to a metadata record from Europeana, and asked questions like “What’s the name of the property in such-and-such property-value.. Read More