The MOOC opened on Monday, September 23 and things seem to be going well. The only glitch was that Open Courses experienced a one and a half hour “system down” episode early Monday evening. We didn’t hear any complaints from students, so most didn’t know it occurred. The course was limited to 200 participants and at last count, 198 students enrolled. In addition to the Week 1 assignments, participants were asked to complete a Pre MOOC Survey. By the third day of the MOOC, 25% (n = 50) of the registered participants had completed the survey. Forty-seven percent indicated this is their first MOOC, the majority (68%) heard about it through email, over 50% of them are either middle or high school teachers and the main reason for joining the MOOC is interest in the content (80%) and interest in science and engineering practices (60%). Most (60%) anticipate spending the suggested 6-8 hours per week on the class, with 20% planning to spend less than that. Forty-four percent are not sure if they plan to complete the course at either the blue or gold level, but 26% claim to complete the blue level and 30% plan to go for gold. Seventy percent indicated they plan to join a specific discussion group and to date there two full random discussion groups, 1 full group of elementary teachers, 2 full middle school and high school group and a scattered few in other groups. Holly, my MOOC TA is sending individual emails to those who have registered but have not logged in yet. We will do that for the first two weeks of the course. Some open-ended responses from the survey include the following:
• I was glad for a MOOC because I am currently unemployed and cannot afford to pay for a course but had always been curious about this one. Also, with my situation up in the air, I didn’t dare register for a course where I could end up with a bad grade on my transcript if I couldn’t keep up with the assignments because of a change of schedule if I get a job. So thank you very much — this is the best of both worlds — no pressure now, but if I do the work, I can exchange it for credit if I want to later.
• This course content is very timely for me. My school district is preparing to do an extensive science curriculum writing procedure grades K-12. I am hoping to be able to add to their conversation with what I learn in this course.
• I graduated the MSSE program a few years ago and am actually pretty stoked about have a (free) way to stay current with my practices! I feel that exchanging ideas with other teachers when I was in the program was just as valuable to me as the course material. This MOOC seems like a great way to both learn a little and exchange practical ideas with some great teachers (I found that the teachers I met in the program were really good at their job). Thanks for reaching out and giving us the opportunity to continue out education!
• I’m interested in the MOOC concept and idea, so I thought this would be a safe one to start out with since I already have my MSSE and have worked with John before.
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