Thoughts about VI Spanish Sakai Madrid '13

On 7 and 8 of November, I participated in the 6th Spanish Sakai Meeting in Madrid. I always enjoy these meetings because it's time to see friends and learn a lot about what are doing the rest of Spanish Sakaigers, and why not, feel that you are not alone in a country of moodlers.

On this edition, we shared our experiences, fun, and a lot of commitment to the Sakai community. Probably, it was the most productive Spanish meeting I ever assisted, because we got a lot of synergy between the members.

This meeting was highly supported from Sakai Community and Apereo Foundation with the presence of Dr. +Ian Dolphin  (Executive Director of the Apereo Foundation) y Dr. +Neal Caidin   (Sakai Community Coordinator). They gave us their vision about how the community is going on. They reflected the importance of the engagement of S2U (renamed to Spanish Sakai Users) with Sakai Community and they encouraged us to keep working and being involved more and more.

During the presentations we could see a lot of interesting things like a list of new features that will appear on Sakai 10 by +Neal Caidin. A new recommendations system that use LTI by Angel Ruiz y Alberto Corbí from UNIR (a new member of S2U).  xAPI LMS integration thoughts by Samoo,   and many others that make that session very exciting.

Also, I had time to do some presentations about Video chat on Sakai made with +Juan Jose Meroño Sánchez , the UdL 2.9 migration experience, and a funny session named "Let’s be honest, things that we dislike about Sakai". In that session we played with the "Sincerity ball". People were throwing the ball to each other and talking about their concerns about Sakai, and discovered which things of Sakai we would like to change. I consider the session was successful because I got what I was looking for, a constructive session with a lot of ideas to improve Sakai, and a way to start to work closer with the Sakai Community.

The most common concerns were focused on the interface and usability, most notably on the oldest tools that don't incorporate functions or components that we are accustomed to seeing today. Other functions people miss were:  The way the information is imported or exported; how notifications are managed depending the tool; Or the state of development of some core tools. All these things must be analysed and dive on it to understand why people feel these things.  

But if I have to choose one session, I choose the talk about "How to contribute" by UM members +Juan Jose Meroño Sánchez and +Jose Mariano Luján. They explained to us their experience collaborating with Sakai Community, contributing on solving bugs and adding new features. That opens a door to all the members of the S2U to do things better in terms of collaboration, and it gives a comfortable way to contribute our efforts.

You can find the videos of all the sessions here:
First part
Second part

The last day, we focused on organize ourselves and we formed teams to work on different topics. These groups will work on Jira Triage, i18n ,general bugs and features, and security.

I had to mention the extraordinary work made by the S2U representation members +Diego del Blanco Orobitg  and +Jose Mariano Lujan organizing this event. Also thanks the work of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and all the sponsors.

It feels like S2U gears turning again, and it seems to work better than ever. Perhaps the leadership role that Murcia University has assumed has encouraged others to be more proactive with the Sakai community and each other. I believe that in a short time the group's work will pay off

Sakai Video Plugin Test Fest

Finally we got an stable version of Sakai video chat plugin based on WebRTC . We had to solve some details to work in a cluster environment but finally we can offer you a release candidate.

Now, our intention is to know if that feature can be included on the main Sakai code, for this reason we prepared a TEST fest to achieve to purposes:

- Get any bug we missed.
-  Enable the Sakai community to test that functionality. That would help Sakai CLE members to decide if it would be interesting to put in the trunk on not.

We prepared a Sakai site at University of Murcia's QA server with the instruction to complete a test of functionalities of video calls.

If you want to participate, you must create an account at here, and join to the Test Video Chat Test site. There, you will find the instructions we wrote there. You will see that in that site you will find a sign-up tool to coordinate the availability of people to test each other.

Etherpad in Sakai CLE

Ethepad is an interesting tool to have in a LMS. It allows to build collaborative documents in real time. If you are teacher and you are looking for a way to make your students work together and see their work step by step, probably that tool is for you.

Today, in this post, I'm gonna tell you how to configure Etherpad-lite in a server join with a LTI connector. That will allow you to create pads into your Sakai sites.

Install Etherpad-lite and the LTI connector on Centos 6.4

For this job you will need to install two services. First is the Etherpad-lite it self. It's powered by node.js technology and should be installed too.

The second service is the LTI connector. It will handle the LTI requests from a LMS like Sakai, Moodle, Canvas, ... and will launch Etherpad tool in your LMS site.

Installing Etherpad-lite

First of all, as root, you should install node.js and all dependencies needed by the two services. So, log in as root and install the needed packages:
yum -y groupinstall "Development Tools" yum -y install wget gzip subversion git-core curl python openssl-devel unzip java-1.6.0-openjdk.x86_64 ant
Then download node.js sources and compile them. wget http://nodejs.org/dist/v0.10.13/node-v0.10.13.tar.gz
tar xvfz node-v0.10.13.tar.gz
cd node-v0.10.13
./configure
make
That step can spend a lot of time. When finished install all on the system. make install
Now you can download etherpad-lite and configure it. First, for sercurity reasons, create a new user and log in. adduser -m etherpad
su - etherpad
Download the etherpad-lite code and update it. git clone git://github.com/ether/etherpad-lite.git
cd etherpad-lite
git pull origin
Copy the configuration template and set it up. cp settings.json.template settings.json
Modify the following parts.
"ip": "your.host.name",
...
"editOnly" : true,
...
"requireSession" : true,

Uncomment "users" block and change passwords. "users": {
  "admin": {
    "password": "changeme1",
    "is_admin": true
  },
   "user
...


Now you can start the etherpad-lite for first time. Execute it from console. It will take some time on the first start.
bin/run.sh
You will notice that a new file exists 'APIKEY.txt'. That contains a key that let external applications connect with etherpad API. You will need that value later to allow LTI connector use the API to create and edit pads.
Note: If you get an error on startup, update again code again and start it.

Later, when all are configured and all dependencies installed, you can execute it as a background service if you want. nohup bin/run.sh &

Install Basic LTI Connector for etherpad

It's time to install the LTI connector. We are going to install it on the etherpad's home so, if you exited "etherpad" user session, remember to log in again: su - etherpad, and ensure you are in the home directory cd.
Create a directory to store all necessary. mkdir etherpad-lti-service
cd etherpad-lti-service

Download an old version of tomcat 5.5 . It could be installed on a newer Tomcat, but it would be harder to explain how to set it up. wget http://archive.apache.org/dist/tomcat/tomcat-5/v5.5.36/bin/apache-tomcat-5.5.36.zip
unzip apache-tomcat-5.5.36.zip
cd apache-tomcat-5.5.36
chmod +x bin/*.sh

Edit .bashrc file from etherpad's home to include Java and Tomcat system required variables: vim /home/etherpad/.bashrc
Add the following lines at the top, just after the # .bashrc export JAVA_HOME=/usr/share/java
export CATALINA_HOME=/home/etherpad/etherpad-lti-service/apache-tomcat-5.5.36
Save and execute
bash
Now check out the LTI connector for etherpad. That connector provides the LTI integration to Etherpad Lite. It was designed and developed by Mark J. Norton of Nolaria Consulting
cd ..
svn co https://source.sakaiproject.org/contrib/mnorton/etherpad-lti/
cd etherpad-lti
Create a file called build.properties and add the following line:
catalina.home=/home/etherpad/etherpad-lti-service/apache-tomcat-5.5.36

Compile with the command ant
Copy the needed libraries to the tomcat's common/lib directory.
cp lib/* ../apache-tomcat-5.5.36/common/lib/

Create a directory on tomcat to store the configuration, and copy it from the sample that exists in the source code
mkdir ../apache-tomcat-5.5.36/etherpad
cp web/eplti.properties ../apache-tomcat-5.5.36/etherpad

Configure the connector editing the file eplti.properties you just copied:
Oauth LTI secret. It will be used in Sakai basic LTI tool as shared secret
oauth.secret= YOUR-ETHERPAD-LITE-LTI-SECRET
Etherpad's API key. Fill it with the value you found in APIKEY.txt on etherpad-lite
api.key = ...
Set the the etherpad service URL and the administrator roles allowed to create and delete pads on a site: etherpad.url= http://your.host.name:9001
access.create.roles=Admin,Instructor,maintain
access.delete.roles=Admin,Instructor,maintain

Now, you can start the service:
cd ~/etherpad-lti-service/apache-tomcat-5.5.36
bin/startup.sh


Configure your sakai Basic LTI tool instance

Add a Basic Lti Tool on a site
Press the edit button on the top right of the tool and provide the following values:
Remote Tool Url: http://your.host.name:8080/eplti
Remote Tool Key: admin
Remote Tool Secret: YOUR-ETHERPAD-LITE-LTI-SECRET

That's all, if you access to the tool as Instructor you will see an screen that allows you to create a new pads associated with this site. Enjoy it.

Set up this as a service

If you look to keep it as a service, you must write two scripts on /etc/init.d to allow system start and stop the service on boot.
You can follow the instructions on Setup etherpad-lite as a service, or you can download the one I created to set up my server here
Also, you can download my version of Apache Tomcat script to set it up as a service here
After that you can register them with command chkconfig --add tomcat-lti
chkconfig --add etherpad-lite-lti setup Then go to 'System services' and check the recent installed scripts.

Some references used to write that post that you would find useful.

How to install and run a node.js app on centos 6.4 64bit
Etherpad installation guide
Etherpad LTI Connector

Video Call Plugin for sakai Demo

We are working hard to implement all the features that Sakai Video Call plugin should have. We recorded a video to show you how the plugin works.

The current version of this plugin is installed on a University of Murcia QA server if you want to test it: http://sakai-trunk.atica.um.es/portal

There are some details that we are currently testing, but I hope we can release the first beta at the end of this month (June 13).

During the last weeks we have been working on:

• Improving the signaling protocol to avoid conflicts in the calling process.
• Changing the interface to clearly show the call status.
• Implementing the mute/unmute and switch off/on features.
• Adding a time counter for each call.

I hope you enjoyed this video and comment whatever you want.



You can  follow previous steps we did reading related old post:

• Sakai videocall status update (13/05/2013)
• Video Conference on Sakai Portal

Sakai videocall status update

Some days ago a functional version of videocall feature was installed on a University of Murcia QA server.
http://sakai-trunk.atica.um.es/portal

It's just an alpha version. Although some functionalities are missing, it's ready to maintain some video calls concurrently between members.

What's yet implemented:

• Users can call / answer and hang up video calls from/to other +WebRTC  compatible browser.
• Users can see which users can do a video call with a +WebRTC compatible browser.
• Users can establish up to 4 connections concurrently with a perfect time response (no more were tested)

• User can maximize an restore a video call window.
• User can disable his video status to not receive video calls offers.
• Administrator can configure if the video call feature is enabled or not
• Administrator can configure the list of stun / turn servers used to determine under which NAT type are the users.
• Tested on Chrome, Chrome Beta for android and Firefox aurora.

Next to be implemented:

• Nicer video setup process (Now, we believe that it's so direct and people get confused with browser permission request).
• User should choose if he wants to start a video or just an audio call.
• User should be able to mute audio and stop video during a conversation.
• Pop up option mechanism to unlink the conversation from the main portal screen to another empty one. That way user could keep navigating on sites and tools.
• Ensure the interoperability across the other browsers, as soon as they become WebRTC compatible

Mozilla Open Badges 1.0. Show your skills to the world.

We have been accrediting our skills for decades. Each time we achieved a goal, got a certification or received an award we ran to put in our curriculum. That was the classic way we used to get our first job or get a better one.  When the www appeared, we build awesome webs, ePortfolios, professional networks to make it open to the world, waiting to get a $million/year job offer :-D.

In the best-case scenarios, we must accredit the skills we said and that produces that tons of original papers or digital certificates should run with you to verify that it's true. In other cases, it's more difficult or impossible to get a valid accreditation. In some ways, it seems that certifying higher education studies is a problem resolved but not for the skills you get out of a regular line. Well, not since now. Here comes Mozilla Open Badges 1.0 released on 03/14/2013.

Mozilla Open Badges is a project that allow us to get together all the accreditation/certification,  learning recognition and skills from multiple sources (online and offline) using badges. A badge is a PNG image (with some embedded data) that basically represents an achievement or skill. They are used to represent an accomplishment of a set goals, commonly out of the regular education like online courses, after-school programs, communities, or skills gotten in work.

badges issued by Webmaker project

Institutions, online learning platforms, communities, even games will be able to generate their own badges depending on their activity. Once somebody earns a badge could be downloaded or stored on a Backpack. The Mozilla Backpack is an authorized data storage space and management interface for earners of Open Badges. Each earner can access their own Backpack that holds all of their badges and gives them an interface to manage and share their badges.

Earners and Issuers can host their own Backpack server using the main open source code. Mozilla offers his own instance of Backpack Service for registered earners, linking the badges to their email addresses.

When a user has his badges in the Backpack, he can link them to social networks, CMSs, or LMSs in order to show to the world their skills and be success with their purpose, get the $million/year job :). Nowadays, exists some widgets implementations for Facebook, Drupal, Blackboard, Moodle, and more. 

Open Badges process (Extracted from https://wiki.mozilla.org/Badges)

We can find several institutions in Open Badges comunity that are already offering badges: Smithsonian American Art Museum, NYC Department of Education, Dr Chuck Online,... and others that are currently designing their own like NASA, Microsoft or Disney Pictures. 

The success of that framework will depend on the levels of adoption by the different actors. On one hand we find MOOC platforms like Coursera, Udacity, edX... along with high education institutions, they can determine an inflection point if they start to give certificates of achievement using OB. But we have to consider that, it can't be used as de facto standard until social networks such as Facebook or LinkedIn (great people showcase) get involved and integrate it in naturally.

If we look at Europe, we can see a big door opened to apply Open badges on "European Space for the Higher Education". ESHE defined a common framework of readable and comparable degrees, through the implementation of a Diploma Supplement which has the information about the studies content and competences achieved to improve the mobility of students between European countries that have signed this contract. I feel that Open Badges can help to accomplish these requirements. In my opinion it seems a very good initiative, and the project grows with well-focused ideas. Maintaining it as an open source project will ensure that an important thing like this accreditation standard will survive to private business interests and will facilitate the adoption by institutions. 

If you are still  interested, I recommend you also read:

Open Badges project: www.openbadges.org

The New York Times article : Show me your badge 

TechCrunch Article: Mozilla Launches Open Badges 1.0, A New Standard to Recognize and Verify Online Learning and Education 

Video Conference on Sakai Portal

Sakai CLE [1], from its 2.9 version, has a facebook style chat system. That allows to see which contacts are connected and talk to them through a small window at the bottom of the portal. It's an important feature that gives greater social wealth to the platform. Sakai CLE provides communication tools such as message forums, announcements from long time ago, but does not incorporate any video/audio communication mechanisms natively. Sakai CLE allows you to connect external systems such as Big blue button, Adobe Connect or Opencast through lti or with custom tool connectors. At the moment these tools are based on Flash for capturing.

I took some time observing WebRTC [2] technology. It's an open framework that brings Real Time Comunication to browsers. It is supported by Google, Mozilla and Opera. The WebRTC effort is being standardized on a API level at the W3C [3] and at the protocol level at the IETF. In my opinion, one of the best features that it includes is allowing you to capture video and audio from local devices through the browser, avoiding to use intermediate technologies such as flash or java applets. It also has a way to create peer connections between browsers themselves making possible the transmission of the generated streams without having to be processed by a server. Thanks to this system, the hard process of capture and retransmission of the current web video conferencing systems will be reduced to just introduce the members of the conversation. That lets programmers to implement video conferencing abilities to any web application.

Together with Juan Jose Meroño Sánchez, we started developing an experiment to bring WebRTC technology to the Sakai portal chat. We want to give to Sakai CLE a mechanism to let their users talking and seeing each other. Imagine how easy would be for a student to talk with a Teacher or a classmate.  WebRTC API allows us to add those functionalities quickly using the messaging system implemented by the portal chat service.

We decided to do that as a particular contribution beyond our jobs at the universities we work for, because that feature is not topping its list of priorities. It would start as an experiment, a toy that will allow Juanjo an me work together, and collaborate in this great open source project (Sakai), in a different way.  For this reason we prefer that all the suggestions, critics or complains were addressed directly to us instead of our Universities or Working groups we belong.

Before to design that feature, we've done some tests to see if that technology is compatible with the Sakai portal chat system. With very little effort, we've been able to integrate video call streams to the chat. Play the video to see the first test result:

That is just a demo. The full functionality will come after a real "Use Case" analysis   We will have to face up to some adverse scenarios like the disconnection/reconnection of the streams when user navigates from site/tool to other one, opened session by the same user, etc. But I'm sure that it will be a funny and amazing road-trip.

For now, we don't have a roadmap in mind, but I believe that you will be able to see a minimal stable version before the summer 2013. We are decided to apply a solid QA process to ensure that this new feature will work fine from its first release.  If Sakai community thinks that is an interesting thing to have in Sakai, we will work hard to make it possible.

Please, feel free to comment whatever you think about this experiment. All the feedback we receive  will help to build a better solution.  We will be happy to receive collaborations offers, suggestions or  critics.

If you want to know more about:
[1] Sakai CLE: http://www.sakaiproject.org/sakai-cle
[2] WebRTC: http://www.webrtc.org
[3] W3C WebRTC draft:  http://dev.w3.org/2011/webrtc/editor/webrtc.html

If you want to know more:
Get started with WebRTC at: http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/webrtc/basics/

Synchronize Sakai content with an Android device

The Sakai CLE offers a WebDAV service to connect from your computer to the contents of a Sakai site as if they were folders in your computer. Normally all WebDAV clients can edit directly files and folders.

  

Today, mobile devices like smartphones, tablets or ultrabooks allow us to work directly with these files everywhere, although working always on-line maybe is not the best. We must keep in mind that it's easy to lose the network connection so will make it impossible to work on these documents. You must look for a tool that allows you to work directly with documents in your device and synchronize with the server to avoid having to download, edit and reload the document manually each time.

 

There is a free tool called WebDAV File Manager for Android, developed by Shigadroid, that allows to work with WebDAV services letting you to synchronize with a folder of your mobile device.

 

On this post, I will explain how to set it up in order to access and synchronize content of a Sakai site.

First of all, install the app in your device. You can find it at Google Play Store. Once installed, open the app and press the Android menu button. Now, press 'Server Add'.

 

 

Type a server name (you can choose whatever you want), the "http/s" URL where the content is offered (Sakai offers the content under  'https://yoursakaiserverdomain.com/dav/your-site-id/), and finally provide your Sakai username and password. Press 'Registration'.

 

 

If you don't know the WebDAV URL of your site, then log in to your Sakai, go to the site and select the 'Resources' tool. Now, press the 'Upload-Download Multiple Resources' button.

 

 

Now, you can access to the content through the app, but it's not linked to a device folder yet. To do that, you must go to the main app screen and hold pressed the item you just created. A pop-up menu will appear. Press on 'Sync Setting' option. Fill the second text input field with the device folder path you want to synchronize with. (The folder must already exist). Use a file manager app like Explorer ES or File Manager , to create the folder.

 

 

Check the 'Download Sync (Preferred server)' option if you want to get the existing site content and then Press 'Synchronous starting' button.
If you go to the path using the file manager app, you will find all the contents of your site there, and you will be able to edit and save them locally. Now, you can synchronize from server to device, and from device to server opening the main menu and pressing 'Sync' button.
You can also automate the sync process pressing 'Setting' on the main screen menu. Check the option 'Background synchronization' and set the sync interval period pressing 'Synchronization interval' option.

You can do that process for each site you want. Just keep in mind that synchronization interval is applied to all folders you set up.

Connecting Sakai to Wordpress

LMS platforms have fairly long been consolidated at universities as on-line learning support tools. For a long time they were exposed to disappear because of the low level of interoperability to third-party services they offered. Finally, as a result of that need together with the mobility nature of teachers and students between institutions (and consequently on its LMS), interoperability mechanisms were implemented to bring the required tools to their users.

Tool interoperability allows to connect remote tools inside LMS environment, keeping them contextualized by the courses or activities from they are called. There were some attempts like IMS-TI (IMS Tool Interoperability) or Campus Project, but it was not until the emergence of IMS LTI  1.0 (IMS Learning Tool Interoperability) that TI technology became more popular.
 
Nowadays, you can find several examples of LMS that implement IMS LTI  like Angel, Moodle, BlackBoard, D2L, etc. Many of these LMS, in addition to consuming LTI tools are also able to provide their own tools to the rest of LMS through IMS LTI.  We can find multiple scenarios like a teacher using Sakai with Moolde tools and viceversa; Moodle consuming a tool from a payment service like Piazza, etc.

Now, I will guide you about how integrate Wordpress into Sakai using LTI. Wordpress is an open blog platform that can be installed or used as a hosted service. Blog functions are not related to pure pedagogical uses, but the need of keeping students involved in the course building process, made these tools to take active part on LMS's live.

Although many LMS already have their own blog tool, they don't provide as features as a dedicated blog products like Wordpress offers. Thanks to LTI and the Wordpress connector developed by  +Chuck Severance and subsequently improved by people of Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), we can enjoy a Wordpress space for each Sakai site.

The following guide will take you through the necessary steps to install and connect a Wordpress in your institution's Sakai.

Previous requirements

Before installing Wordpress you need:

• Apache Web Server 2.2 or above
• PHP 5.2.4 or above.
• MySQL 5.0 or above.

Download Wordpress from its web page: http://wordpress.org/latest.zip

Also, you must download the LTI Wordpress plugin:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/learningapps/files/Files/Basic%20LTI%20Integrations/Wordpress/wordpressLTIPlugin.zip/download

Install and configure Wordpress

You must follow the "Famous 5-Minute Install" instructions at http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress to install and configure Wordpress.

After that, you should activate the Wordpress multisite feature. Open the wp-config.php and set up the variable WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE to true, just before the stop editing mark.

You should have something like that:

...


/* Multisite */

define('WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE', true); 

/* That's all, stop editing! Happy blogging. */
... 

If you did it well, you will find a new item called "Network setup", on the "Tools" section on the left-hand navigation menu.

If you go to this section, you will see the available options to setup your Wordpress as multisite (directories or domains). Let's use directories mode.


If you press on "Install" button, you will see the configuration files paths you should update to enable this feature. Remember to grant the privileges again to apache user on these files.

Maybe, you should set up the main Apache configuration file to allow overriding site behaviours through .htaccess files.

  
    #
    # AllowOverride controls what directives may be placed in .htaccess files.
    # It can be "All", "None", or any combination of the keywords:
    #   Options FileInfo AuthConfig Limit
    #
    AllowOverride All

Once finished, you will see a new item "Network settings".

If it didn't work for you, you should consider taking a look at the following instructions: http://codex.wordpress.org/Create_A_Network

Install lti plugin

Unzip the content of the LTI plugin package into "plugins" directory on Wordpress. Remember to grant privileges on these files. Then, on the "Network Admin Dashboard" -> "Settings", you will find a new section called "LTI consumer keys".

You should specify here a new key to be used on Sakai Basic LTI consumer tool.  For instance, you can use:

• Consumer key: my-sakai.consumer.key
• Secret: my-sakai-secret

Check the 'active' option, before saving.

Connect Sakai to wordpress

If you are 'maintain' or 'Instructor' of a Sakai site, you are able to set up a tool instance on that site that connects to an external tool. You can do it going to "Site Info"-> "Edit Tools" and checking "External Tool". Now, press "Continue" and  write a name for that tool.Press "Continue"  and "Save" on the confirmation screen. 

Now, you will see a new page on your site. Go there and press the edit icon on the top-right corner  to set up the tool.

Provide the parameters:

• Remote Tool Url: Your Wordpress url  (http://my-wordpres.mydomain.com/)
• Remote Tool Key: my-sakai.consumer.key
• Remote Tool Secret:  my-sakai-secret

o

Also, check the options:

• Send Names to the External Tool
• Open in a new window (Optional)

Now, you can see a new Wordpress site for that Sakai site, and its members can publish posts on it.

If you want to show Wordpress site on the same frame of the tool, you should uncheck the "Open in a new window" option  on Sakai LTI tool, and install the "Allow From X-Frame-Options" plugin on Wordpress. You can get it at http://blog.dearbornschools.org/webmaster/files/2012/10/wp_allow-from-x-frame-options.zip

Copy the content of that zip on the "plugins" directory of your Wordpress and activate it for all Sites going to "Network Admin" Dashboard -> "Plugins" (left menu) -> "Installed plugins" , and press "Networt activate" link option of that plugin.

Recommendations

I really recommend you to take a look at the following sites to understand better all the process:

IMS LTI: http://www.imsglobal.org/toolsinteroperability2.cfm

Wordpress LTI connector: http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/learningapps/index.php?title=LTI4Wordpress

 

Are MOOCs just a fad?

Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platforms have burst into the lives of millions of people.  The concept was born in 2008 by Dave Cormier and Bryan Alexander inspirated by the course "Connectivism and Connective Knowledge" designed by George Siemens. But the true impact came in the fall of 2011 with the "Artificial Intelligence" course offered by Stanford University. Since then millions of people have received courses in any of the platforms that have emerged (coursera, udacity, edX,...). Now, the burning questions that people ask are: What is the pedagogical value of this course? Are we simply dealing with a fad like already happened with Open Course Ware (OCW)? There are already a lot of responses and formed opinions, but I will give you my own.

I don't see MOOCs like a fad. I see that more like a normal, necessary and inevitable step to the new learning model.
In my opinion, the really interesting thing of MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) is not in these four words, but in the way courses are being implemented within these containers.

Based on my little experience (I have followed two courses and snooped around two more), these courses have supported in learning methodologies based on the collaboration of the participants. It is undeniable that the development of that courses are still guided by the content and its structure, but its success doesn't lies here.

In these learning spaces, I see the teacher like the captain of a ship, in which participants do not have the role of passengers but are the boat itself. The teacher must manage and take advantage of all this participation (which is very high due to its massive and open nature) to make the experience awesome.

The success of these platform, is due to several reasons. On the one hand we find that these courses are made by elite universities not accessible to everyone. Receiving lessons  from the best teachers in the world is an opportunity that nobody wants to miss. We must remember also that in many countries the access to the studies is hard to get for different reasons. The gratuity of MOOCs have made it accessible to many people.

On the other hand, we can observe the MOOC use as a way to continue training once you have finished your official academic studies. A revealing fact is that the audience aged between 25 and 35 years old is the most present in some of these courses. That detail confirms the need by people that has already completed his formal training, but even are building and maturing their job profile.

Current LMS platforms such Sakai CLE, Moodle, BB or D2L can leverage this feedback to improve its model. It should not only include  performance improvements, but also to give more importance to the tools that allow the student take more responsibility on the course development, allowing them to translate videos, share notes, create study groups, designate advanced students as consultants or even build the course goals and content. In the close future we'll see how this new eLearning paradigm merges with the reality of social networks. A very promising project is Sakai OAE. I will talk about it on my future posts.

If you want to know more about MOOCs and its future I really recommend you

to see Dr. +Chuck Severance's presentation at: http://www.dr-chuck.com/csev-blog/2012/11/abstract-moocs-are-really-great-but-whats-next/

Another interesting presentation by Daphne Koller at http://www.ted.com/talks/daphne_koller_what_we_re_learning_from_online_education.html