Well, all good things must come to an end and the same can be said of my micro-MOOC #GE4L. Although, while it might be the end of the MOOC, my journey into the world of Gamification has only just begun. As I said in my last post, I’m keen to start applying what I’ve been reading and learning about in this course and I intend to do this in the near future.
Some reflections about this course:
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I’ve been exposed to a rich array of resources and examples which has both consolidated what I already know about Gamification and expanded my thinking on the subject
- I need to play more games!
- Gamification (if done well) should make learning more interesting, enjoyable and fun for the learners
- Creating a gamified learning experience will take some time in the planning, design and creation but we need to start (as always) with our learners and what they need to be able to do ( I also believe this extra effort is worth it)
- Some people I would recommend to learn more about Gamification are – Karl Kapp, Jane McGonigal, and Amy Jo Kim. If you know of others, let me know!
- I’ve made some great connections because of this course and hopefully we’ll stay in contact in the future.
From an overall MOOC experience, I’ve learned that:
- Ryan Tracey’s 10 Hot Tips for MOOCers was very useful and worked well for me
- It’s best to not be overwhelmed by the amount of resources and discussion threads, look for things that interest you or might be useful to you and focus on them
- You only get out what you put in (a cliché but its true)
- Participate as much as you can and get involved somehow (and do this regularly)
- MOOCs seem suit people who are self-directed learners so they might not be for everyone.
Last but not least, a huge thank-you to our Game Masters: Robin Bartoletti, Whitney Kilgore, Heather Farmakis and Michelle Pacansky-Brock. You are great facilitators and provided a lot of support to participants, clear instructions, a large variety of resources that covered a number of different fields and you encouraged all of us to contribute and share with others in some way. The time and effort that you put into creating and running this course was terrific and greatly appreciated by me and I’m sure all of the other participants. I would definitely participate in another MOOC.
Learning Snippets 
tanyalau
August 4, 2013 at 12:14 pm
Hello again Matt. I’m kinda starting to feel like the weird crazy stalker on your blog ; ). Just wanted to say enjoyed reading about your Mooc experience, it seems like an interesting and worthwhile Mooc to undertake. Def agree with your last point about Moocs – and I find tit interesting that the hype that talks about how Moocs are going to democratise, and change the world of education glosses over this: it really isn’t for everyone and takes a lot of discipline, time and commitment to stick with it and get the most out of the experience (as with all online / distance learning). But then – the other interesting thing about the whole Mooc phenomenon is also that it’s new and evolving…so exciting to see how it changes over time.
I know we’ve touched on cMoocs vs xMoocs before and I thought you might be interested in Jeff Merrell’s Moocing blog http://jeffdmerrell.wordpress.com/ where he writes about his experiences in 2 cMoocs etMooc and edcMooc. He’s a great writer and reflects quite deeply about his experiences; I found it fascinating and was pretty hooked when I discovered his blog! Anyway, just thought it might be something you might enjoy too.
Catch you next time.
learningsnippets
August 5, 2013 at 10:53 am
Thanks T!
I did enjoy my MOOC experience and we still have access to the resources now that its over. One thing I do wonder – who pays for the costs involved with MOOCs? This one was free and others are too.
You are right, there’s a lot of talk around about MOOCs – a lot for and against. It is an exciting time though. For me they do have a lot of potential. Thanks for the link, I read a couple of posts and am now following Jeff’s blog too!
Cheers
Matt
tanyalau
August 5, 2013 at 1:31 pm
Re business model for Moocs, I understand it’s the universities who are paying; banking on it being a good marketing tool to get paying students (those who have a good free Mooc experience more likely to become a paying student…?). It’s as yet an unproven marketing strategy, but I think it’s also about being seen as innovative too – if lots of other competing unis are offering Moocs, you kind of have to jump on the bandwagon….but interesting to see how long free Moocs will last!
Smita
August 20, 2013 at 2:20 pm
Hi Thanks … for this useful information and pointers. There is an interesting webinar coming up by Ross Smith, Director of Test Microsoft Skype Division on 12th September. Ross will be speaking about ‘Where do serious games make the most sense?’. You might want to be a part of it. Here is the link to register for the session http://bit.ly/19GyqQ7.
learningsnippets
August 25, 2013 at 7:32 am
Thanks for your comment and link. It sounds interesting.