Spring offer of MOOCs launched

EMMA MOOC: Business organisation, social innovation and cultural heritage, a personal user experience
by Kai Pata, PhD/ Senior Researcher, Centre for Educational Technology, Tallinn University, Estonia

I work as a senior researcher in Educational technology in Tallinn University. My work has been related to digital ecosystems and the principles of ecological meta-designs for such systems, this means that I have had a research interest in connectivist MOOCs as evolving course environments. I have read many examples of user experiences in those cMOOCs. Some time ago in Tallinn University we facilitated a similar kind of big multi-site courses where different universities participated with social media tools. I have not participated in MOOCs or similar courses before as a learner.

In autumn 2014 I took part in the EMMA MOOC “Business organisation, social innovation and cultural heritage” provided by UNINA. My course was provided in Italian and in normal circumstances I could not have participated in that course, but as EMMA has an internal translation tool, the course was translated into English. Learning materials, discussions between peers and assignments were translated and helped a lot to get the overview of the course content. What was not translated was the reading material in papers that we were asked to read, so I got stuck in doing the tasks. Probably next time some alternative research papers in English will be provided for other nationalities.

Learning in EMMA increases the possibilities for lifelong learning. I like that the selection of courses in EMMA platform is varied. Firstly, I have the possibility to select courses that are not related to my own teaching practice, but which interest me as a researcher. I was interested of this particular course because in my research practice, in European projects’ exploitation of social innovation is a growing trend. I don’t have an innovation background, so I need to get new competences as a self-learner. I thought this MOOC might provide me with the needed knowledge. Additionally I was interested in how the translation from Italian to English would work, although I have limited Italian language skills, the vocabulary used in the MOOC in Italian was beyond what I could understand. So translation was helpful. And finally I liked that I could choose the courses that are interesting for me personally. For instance I have seen that one of the next MOOCs in EMMA is about wines, which I’m sure will be a really good learning experience for every wine enthusiast.

EMMA has a kind of easy-to-use platform and is rather intuitive. There are not too many functionalities and mostly the focus is on passing the materials and performing the tasks. I would have needed more reminders to come directly to my email to go and do the task – perhaps I am not so self-directed after all and nowadays there are so many different environments one must visit, so it is not so easy to develop a new routine to go to a MOOC site. My own courses’ pedagogy relies a lot on collaborative learning and knowledge building. That might be something that is currently missing in the EMMA platform. All in all though, I am looking forward to trying out one of the next EMMA MOOCs being offered in April.

Register for the EMMA Summer School on MOOC design!
 

This week-long summer school is aimed at anyone interested in setting up and delivering a MOOC using the EMMA platform from initial concept through to evaluation. Sessions will be led by a number of well-known practitioners who will share their experience in creating and delivering MOOCs. Practical information about how the EMMA platform operates will be provided as well as tips and suggestions as to how to get the most out of the available functionalities. This summer school will also provide training and support on using the translation and transcription services available on EMMA as well as the practicalities of harvesting information provided by the platform. Organisational aspects to do with licensing, IPR and the management of the MOOC when made available on EMMA will also be addressed as part of the week-long programme. The Summer School will take place between 6-11 July 2015 on the beautiful island Ischia in Italy. You can find the programme now online. For more information and to register go to this page.