Mentors as connectors
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Transcript of Mentors as connectors
Mentors as ConnectorsMOOC Mentor Interventions Towards a
Connected Learning Community
Manuel León Urrutia @mleonurr
Steve White @s_t_white
Su White@suuki
The “Understanding Language” MOOC
Intro to FL Platform
Intro to Course
Language Learning Theories
Individual Level
Language in Classrooms
Classroom Cultures
Language Tasks
Classroom Level
Learning Languages Online
F2F vs Online
Social Media
“Web” Level
English in the World
ELF
“Native Teachers” Debate
Global Level
Some more figures: Comments
Interaction: some figures
Total comments (within course dates) 145,426
Replies 27,669 (19%)
Mentor Interventions (reported, only team) 994 (0.68%)
Total mentor hours 147.5 (6.7 interventions/hour)
Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4
Users and Comments
N. of users
N. of Comments
Active social learners?
Highly active social learners?How many of these completed the course?
Internal challenges
Physical distanceAvailabilityContent Familiarity (≠ subject knowledge)Platform FamiliarityReporting
Addressing Physical Distance & AvailabilityIt is online The whole team can access and comment
Easy for shift swapping
● Communication and interaction are the main affordances of the Web for education (Anderson, 2008)
● Social isolation as barrier to student retention and integration (Gasevic, 2014)
● Need to enhance sense of presence (social, cognitive, teaching) - of participants and mentors (Kop, 2011)
Mentors as connectors:
1. Use forum tools to connect the learning community
Gasevic (2014) - learner position in socialnetwork positively influences learning outcomes
Using “likes”
Linking comments
Using “follow”
could lead to Networked Learning Community
3. Foster learning as conversation
Learner Y
LearnerZ
“conversational learning can and does scale”
Sharples and Ferguson (2014:108)
Learner X
Mentoring Challenges
● Maintaining communication between mentors
● Identifying key issues among learners
● Choosing learner contributions to address
● Linking learner contributions
● Confidence with content knowledge
Mentors as researchers:
Using MOOCs to improve online and face-to-face education in HE (Fischer, 2014; Waldrop, 2014; White, 2014; Yuan et al., 2014)
Conclusion
● Mentor interventions align with platform design, course design and content
● Mentors encourage and promote the affordances of the platform
● Planning is required
ReferencesBerge, Z.L. (1995). Facilitating Computer Conferencing: Recommendations From the Field. Educational Technology. 35(1) 22-30.Anderson, T. (2008). Towards a theory of online learning. Theory and practice of online learning,, 45-74.Andersen, R., & Ponti, M. (2014). Participatory pedagogy in an open educational course: challenges and opportunities. Distance Education, 35(2), 234–249. doi:10.1080/01587919.2014.917703Ferguson, R. and Sharples, M. (2014). Innovative pedagogy at massive scale: teaching and learning in MOOCs.In: 9th European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning (EC-TEL 2014): Open Learning and Teaching in Educational Communities , 16-19 September 2014, Graz, Austria (Forthcoming), Springer International Publishing, pp. 98–111.Fischer, G. (2014). Beyond hype and underestimation: identifying research challenges for the future of MOOCs. Distance Education, (ahead-of-print), 1–10. Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01587919.2014.920752Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (1999). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The internet and higher education, 2(2), 87-105.Gasevic, D., Kovanovic, V., Joksimovic, S., & Siemens, G. (2014, October 3). Where is research on massive open online courses headed? A data analysis of the MOOC Research Initiative. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning. Retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1954/3101Kop, R. (2011). The challenges to connectivist learning on open online networks: learning experiences during a massive open online course. … Learning, Special Issue-Connectivism: …, 12, 19–38. Retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/882\nhttp://nparc.cisti-icist.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/npsi/ctrl?action=rtdoc&an=18150443Stewart, B. (2013). Massiveness+ openness= new literacies of participation. MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 9(2). Retrieved from http://jolt.merlot.org/vol9no2/stewart_bonnie_0613.htmWaldrop, M. (2014). Massive open online courses, aka MOOCs, transform higher education and science. Scientific American, 9. Retrieved from http://er.dut.ac.za/handle/123456789/70Yuan, L., Powell, S., & Olivier, B. (2014). Beyond-MOOCs-Sustainable-Online-Learning-in-Institutions.pdf. Retrieved from http://publications.cetis.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Beyond-MOOCs-Sustainable Online-Learning-in-Institutions.pdfWhite, S. (2014) Exploring stakeholder perspectives on the development of MOOCs in higher education – a case study of the University of Southampton. Masters Dissertation. University of Southampton: UK