I’m still mullling over the issues of complexity and how learners deal with it in the context of a MOOC. Stephen, George and Dave have spent a lot of time and effort in making the process easy for newcomers. But, I’ll push a bit and say that to open the MOOC experience to a broader set of learners (esp. those technically challenged) we need to make it simpler.
A recent article on Human Computer Interaction that Thad Starner, one of my colleagues at Georgia Tech, told me about, distilled the issues of humans interacting with machines. A trivial change to a web shopping system resulted in a company increasing its sales on the web by $300,000,000 per year. The point of the article was that the developers who originally made the web page thought they were making it easier for the user to shop but in fact they were discouraging the users to the point of their taking their business elsewhere.
I’m beating on something that is being worked on by many people. Human Computer Interaction issues with tools for learning is a more complex problem than tools for shopping or reading. Why? Learning is not easy and is a more complicated problem for the learner engaged in self-directed learning. It requires dedication, perseverance, desire and initiative among other things. We do not want to discourage the learner. We want to encourage the learner by making it as easy as possible for them to acquire the knowledge they desire.
The article is at:
I agree with you whole-heartedly, Mike. Though I love the idea of the MOOC, it is still a bit awkward for mainstream. When we can make it as simple to participate as using an iPad app, then it will be much more attractive to the general public. Simplicity is the key. People don’t have the time to participate in activities that are inherently time-comsuming in our present society.
No easy answers to this one but I really appreciate the question. Part of the beauty of this #change11 mooc is the ability to use multiple social platforms that we are already on (or have heard about and now have a reason to try them out). I can’t foresee a single sign-on for all of the G+, Twitter, FB, WP, Blogger and other tools we use to comment, connect and contribute so not sure how a big button or simple form would work in this context? I wouldn’t want to be forced into one platform throughout the course and it’s probably not possible given the diverse tech issues we face as an international crowd of participants. For now, I enjoy The Daily as my “front door” into all of these rooms.
I’m a big fan of efficiency and I get the idea of new learners being turned off by complexity but I’m wondering if part of the richness of learning in the mooc is that it *is* a challenge for some (many? all?) of us. The content is certainly rich and challenging but the tools and processes themselves can also push all of us (facilitators and participants alike) to try new things, fail and stumble, dust ourselves off, reflect, explore and try again. I wonder if looking for easy in this context would diminish our quality of learning in and about the mooc experience?