Mentors as ConnectorsMOOC Mentor Interventions Towards a

Connected Learning Community

Manuel León Urrutia @mleonurr

Steve White @s_t_white

Su White@suuki

Overview

Context and IntroductionManagementMentors as connectorsConclusion

The “Understanding Language” MOOC

Intro to FL Platform

Intro to Course

Language Learning Theories

Individual Level

Language in Classrooms

Classroom Cultures

Language Tasks

Classroom Level

Learning Languages Online

F2F vs Online

Social Media

“Web” Level

English in the World

ELF

“Native Teachers” Debate

Global Level

Some figures: Learners

Source:

Some more figures: Comments

Interaction: some figures

Total comments (within course dates) 145,426

Replies 27,669 (19%)

Mentor Interventions (reported, only team) 994 (0.68%)

Total mentor hours 147.5 (6.7 interventions/hour)

Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4

Comments by Step (during course days)

Zeemap

Task: What is Meaning?

Reflection step

The ZeeMap

Comments by day

Busy Mondays! End of Course (last mentoring day)

Users and Comments

N. of users

N. of Comments

Active social learners?

Highly active social learners?How many of these completed the course?

The Mentoring Team

UoS

Manuel Leon (coord.) Neil McLaren

Steve White Tina Pole

Dr. Mariko Kitazawa

The Mentoring Team Roles

Berge, (1995)

Extended role: Mentors as Connectors

Internal challenges

Physical distanceAvailabilityContent Familiarity (≠ subject knowledge)Platform FamiliarityReporting

Addressing Physical Distance & AvailabilityIt is online The whole team can access and comment

Easy for shift swapping

Familiarising with content...… and testing usability

...and proofreading

...and reviewing

ReportingTo be completed each shift. It usually takes some 5 minutes.

Also online, of course!

● Communication and interaction are the main affordances of the Web for education (Anderson, 2008)

● Social isolation as barrier to student retention and integration (Gasevic, 2014)

● Need to enhance sense of presence (social, cognitive, teaching) - of participants and mentors (Kop, 2011)

Mentors as connectors:

1. Use forum tools to connect the learning community

Gasevic (2014) - learner position in socialnetwork positively influences learning outcomes

Using “likes”

Linking comments

Using “follow”

could lead to Networked Learning Community

2. Link to content / external resources

3. Foster learning as conversation

Learner Y

LearnerZ

“conversational learning can and does scale”

Sharples and Ferguson (2014:108)

Learner X

4. Encourage external networks

Anderson & Ponti (2014); Gasevic, (2014); Stewart (2014)

5. Produce weekly reviews / “Hangouts”

Mentoring Challenges

● Maintaining communication between mentors

● Identifying key issues among learners

● Choosing learner contributions to address

● Linking learner contributions

● Confidence with content knowledge

Mentors as researchers:

Using MOOCs to improve online and face-to-face education in HE (Fischer, 2014; Waldrop, 2014; White, 2014; Yuan et al., 2014)

Conclusion

● Mentor interventions align with platform design, course design and content

● Mentors encourage and promote the affordances of the platform

● Planning is required

ReferencesBerge, Z.L. (1995). Facilitating Computer Conferencing: Recommendations From the Field. Educational Technology. 35(1) 22-30.Anderson, T. (2008). Towards a theory of online learning. Theory and practice of online learning,, 45-74.Andersen, R., & Ponti, M. (2014). Participatory pedagogy in an open educational course: challenges and opportunities. Distance Education, 35(2), 234–249. doi:10.1080/01587919.2014.917703Ferguson, R. and Sharples, M. (2014). Innovative pedagogy at massive scale: teaching and learning in MOOCs.In: 9th European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning (EC-TEL 2014): Open Learning and Teaching in Educational Communities , 16-19 September 2014, Graz, Austria (Forthcoming), Springer International Publishing, pp. 98–111.Fischer, G. (2014). Beyond hype and underestimation: identifying research challenges for the future of MOOCs. Distance Education, (ahead-of-print), 1–10. Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01587919.2014.920752Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (1999). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The internet and higher education, 2(2), 87-105.Gasevic, D., Kovanovic, V., Joksimovic, S., & Siemens, G. (2014, October 3). Where is research on massive open online courses headed? A data analysis of the MOOC Research Initiative. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning. Retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1954/3101Kop, R. (2011). The challenges to connectivist learning on open online networks: learning experiences during a massive open online course. … Learning, Special Issue-Connectivism: …, 12, 19–38. Retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/882\nhttp://nparc.cisti-icist.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/npsi/ctrl?action=rtdoc&an=18150443Stewart, B. (2013). Massiveness+ openness= new literacies of participation. MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 9(2). Retrieved from http://jolt.merlot.org/vol9no2/stewart_bonnie_0613.htmWaldrop, M. (2014). Massive open online courses, aka MOOCs, transform higher education and science. Scientific American, 9. Retrieved from http://er.dut.ac.za/handle/123456789/70Yuan, L., Powell, S., & Olivier, B. (2014). Beyond-MOOCs-Sustainable-Online-Learning-in-Institutions.pdf. Retrieved from http://publications.cetis.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Beyond-MOOCs-Sustainable Online-Learning-in-Institutions.pdfWhite, S. (2014) Exploring stakeholder perspectives on the development of MOOCs in higher education – a case study of the University of Southampton. Masters Dissertation. University of Southampton: UK