Reset, Reboot, RemOOC

Start a new game. Continue one you already started. Quit without even starting. These are your options when you enter a video game.

Ontario Extend is not so much a video game as it is a healthy lifestyle choice for your pedagogical endeavors, but we are offering up all three of these options for the #ExtendmOOC that we are currently running. (3rd option strongly discouraged).

It is currently Day 71 of 91 originally planned days spent in the EdX LMS for this particular iteration of the Ontario Extend professional learning experience. 13 total weeks, one week for an intro module and then a fortnight for each of the 6 proper Extend modules.

280+ people made it in to the EdX workspace. 280+ people whose work life during the winter term could possibly be represented by this GIF:

via GIPHY

There are not 280+ people actively working in the mOOC today. Far less, I’m afraid to say. This is par for the course with MOOCs. But we want to see if we can do something about that.

We’re going with the most overused tactic for trying to accommodate and include learners in a learning experience: We’re going to give you more time. A lot more time. We’re nearly doubling it.

What does this mean for you?

-If you’re “behind” but have still been chugging along at your own pace, it means you keep right on keeping on. You are the ones who press the “continue” button.

-If you signed up back in the fall but never got started because winter term came at you like a wrecking ball, you can start over, with us still here to help facilitate your experience. We will “reset” to help you through in May and June. You are those who press the “start a new game” button.

-If you’re thinking “what the heck is Ontario Extend?” first of all, watch this video, then pop your name in here and I’ll email you the details for kicking off the remOOC at the beginning of May. You are most welcome to join us. You also are hitting the “start a new game” button.

-If you’ve been keeping up with us and are just sitting there wondering what all the fuss is, you just do you and finish up so we have your examples to learn from. You are the ones who never turned the game off. You are allowed to rest sometimes you know.

The only question left is, what do we call this experience? Do the poll to have your voice heard.

https://twitter.com/greeneterry/status/1112814175020089349

If you have any ideas for how to help everyone with interest new and old in this experience, please comment below or email me at tgreene@ecampusontario.ca.

Hope to see you in there!

UPDATE: We are holding a webinar about the Extended experience on April 24th at noon ET

https://twitter.com/ontarioextend/status/1115259565690576897

Images created at http://arcade.photonstorm.com/

We’ll Make It I Swear

Oh. We’re half way there. We are at the start of the second half of #ExtendmOOC. We are at the beginning of the Collaborator Module, with two more to go after this. There’s still a ways to go. But we’ll get there.

I love that people are going their own pace, coming and going. Doing it in short sprints here and there. Keeping pace or catching up in bursts. Every day I get notifications that there are badge applications waiting for approval. And every day they come from all three of the previously opened modules.

We understand that when your plate gets full, this thing that you didn’t pay for, that will always be there, might be the first thing to go when the going gets busy. We’re happy to still have a great amount of activity and that many of you come back in when your other stuff dies down a bit.

I’ve made a couple posts and comments myself:


My goal is to hit 2000 comments by the end. I’m not really going for quantity over quality. I’m going for both. I want to make sure everyone’s posts are heard, that anyone feeling stuck can get help, or to try to make some new connections between people (which EdX does not make easy!).

Over the last week or so, my commenting pace has lagged for various reasons, so this post is for me to tell myself out loud to get back in there and keep making as many connections for the mOOCers as I can, maybe to try to help someone push up another stair. The other half of the Parts & Service Department has been doing a stellar job of putting things in place as they approach (he’s building the staircase ahead while still climbing the steps with us).

I have run up the staircase in the image above. The second half is harder to keep pushing up all the way to the top. But that push and making it to the top is what you remember. I am looking forward to getting to the top of that staircase with you, checking out the view and seeing where we can go from there!

Photo:”Half Way To The Top” flickr photo by wburris https://flickr.com/photos/billburris/2239509431 shared under a Creative Commons (BY-SA) license

Carry On, Carry On

Today in #ExtendmOOC, it is finally time to really get down to business. Module One is launched!

The week we spent getting to know each other in Module Zero has been just a wonderful, fun time seeing educators from all over the place, geographically and discipline-wise, get to know each other a bit. There have been just a boatload of responses from participants sharing where they are and what they do and what they hope to get out of this mOOC. I am happy to see participants willing to share their thoughts about how we’ve deployed things in the EdX platform as well as a great group going for the outside EdX free wheeling DIY route!

Now it’s time to get down to the nitty gritty of the Extend Modules as we begin the Teacher for Learning Module. I said this before, but I want to say it again: what an opportunity. An opportunity for all of us involved to gain a bit of each other’s experience, to borrow pedagogical ideas from across disciplines, and to hopefully make enjoyable connections to each other that maybe could lead to any number of positive future collaborations, beyond this mOOC.

On another note, please view the GIF below to see who is extremely grateful to have Alan Levine helping to guide this experience. He is working very hard to make everyone feel welcome and for having a lovely trail-head created and mapped for all the paths that may be taken by Extend mOOCers.

via GIPHY

I feel incredibly lucky to get this chance to work with him on this project.

Here are my hopes for this module: That we see many different takes on what can be done with the upcoming Teacher for Learning activities, That we see many different routes taken to get there using many different tools, and that we hear some reflections and feedback on the experience. Oh and I hope some people join us on the Extend Radio Show!

I’d better get to work on my own responses! See you in there!

Photo by Ron Hansen on Unsplash

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