4.+cMOOC+vs.+xMOOCs

Start by watching this video introduction where David Cormier describes MOOCs and talks about characteristics of cMOOCs
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Narrative**: CMOOCs and xMOOCs**
There are two main kinds of MOOCs: cMOOCs and xMOOCs.
 * The “c” in cMOOC stands for connectivism. It points to the theory of learning in a community as participants learn the content and are encouraged (not required) to share their work and ideas in a digital environment. Course organizers (who are not typically sponsored by a higher education institution but simply individuals who are passionate about a topic), collect the student contributions and share them with all participants. Participants can then learn from each other and provide responses and feedback in order to create and construct knowledge.


 * cMOOCs support the goal of lifelong, networked learning and places emphasis on engaging with other students to cultivate knowledge that can be born of the inter-sharing of ideas. Organizers of cMOOCs create and maintain networks for participants to grow personally and professionally. Students of cMOOCs distribute information all over the internet via blogs, tweets, Facebook or other social media. One can find out about new cMOOCs through networking and social media. While cMOOCs encourage learner independence, intermingling, co-existing ideas, and the creation of educational networks, xMOOCs take a different approach.


 * The first xMOOC (a behaviorist/instructionalist approach) was created by Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig from Stanford University in 2011. They opened up enrollment for their Artificial Intelligence course to the world, and to their surprise, 160,000 students registered (Morrison, 2013)! Due to such an enormous response, Thrun started Udacity, a platform for MOOCs. Shortly afterwards, Coursera and edX (Harvard and MIT collaborating together) launched. Since then, multiple MOOCs offered on university-based platforms have been created.


 * These are typically created similarly to traditional courses, using lectures (commonly in the form of videos) and quiz assessments. The funding to create and make xMOOCs possible comes from the educational institutions themselves or private contributors. While most xMOOCs remain free of charge, there are some offering certain services for relatively small fees.


 * Learners can travel to one of several xMOOC platform websites to browse a plethora of different available classes. xMOOCs also differ from cMOOCs in that students’ work is not typically shared with all parties involved to comment or provide feedback on. The goal of completing an xMOOC is more focused on learning from the expert than learning from each other (cMOOCs). Like traditional courses, xMOOCs attract students with more similar educational background when compared to cMOOCs.

Comparison Chart

 * **Characteristic ** || **cMOOC ** ||= **xMOOC ** ||
 * Connectivist approach? || Yes || No ||
 * Behaviorist / instructionalist approach? || No || Yes ||
 * Always free? || Yes || No ||
 * Fee for certain services? || No || Yes ||
 * Typically University based? || No || Yes ||
 * Network-learning goal? || Yes || No ||
 * All work shared? || Yes || No ||
 * Work distributed? || Yes || No ||
 * Social media enhanced? || Yes || No ||

Examples
cMOOCs **GamesMOOC:** http://gamesmooc.shivtr.com/ Read the main page to find several typical cMOOC characteristics such as network-learning, based on connectivism, and completely free of charge. At the bottom of the main page, click “getting started” to see more characteristics such as social media enhancement, distributed work. What other MOOC characteristics do you notice?

//The following are the example MOOCs from the above PPT. View them now if you didn’t view them before. //

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">**Digital Storytelling (ds106**) at @http://ds106.us is a unique MOOC where participants can choose their level of participation. The course runs simultaneously with credit and "MOOC" credit students.

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">xMOOCs <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">**Introduction to Nanoelectronics:** This xMOOC offered by Purdue via Nanohub.org.@https://nanohub.org/groups/u Click on Self-paced courses for free. Under 101: Fundamentals of Nanoelectronics, Part I, click on “Tell me more about the course and instructor.” While viewing it, notice a few characteristics common to xMOOCs such as behaviorist/instructionalist approach, there is an option to take a “live short course” for $30 where the learner can interact with the professors, it’s university based, it is not network-learning, work is not shared or distributed, and it is not enhanced by social media.

Practice
Sort the characteristics of xMOOCs and cMOOCs into their respective buckets - Sorting Activity

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