Saturday 4 May 2013

Exploring Irish Identity - A Free Online Course

After completing my Degree some years ago now, I vowed & declared I’d not be doing any more study that involved long assignments & stressful exams.  However, this week my new Irish friend Em, posted a blog on her website Emeralds that caught my attention.

Hibernia College, Dublin in association with The Gathering initiative is launching an 8 week  MOOC [short for ‘massive open online course] exploring the theme of Irish Identity.  Participants will be provided with a broad overview of Irish History, Literature, Culture, Traditions, Art, Film, Theatre, Sport, Music & Dance , Language, Poetry, Religion, Geography & Landscape.  
The course will be delivered entirely online, completely free of charge & accessible from anywhere in the world at anytime, day or night.

Why not I thought!  It’s a great opportunity to learn with people all around the world who share a common interest in their Irish Identity.  So without giving too much more thought to it, I signed up.
It starts on May 27 & I already have a 'study buddy' because Em has signed up too.      
So, go on, why don’t you join us?

If you need a little more convincing, check out this promotional video
To enrol, submit your e-address here before May 27th
MORE ABOUT MOOC’s

As mentioned above, MOOC stands for Massive Open Online Course & was first introduced as a way of learning, around 2008.   It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of people sign up to this form of online learning EACH WEEK! & in the not too distant future, could possibly transform the way we learn.
Not knowing very much about what MOOC’s were all about, I found two easy to understand videos on You Tube, written & narrated by Dave Cormier, the guy who actually coined the term MOOC's.

A short video by Dave Cormier answers my burning question... What is a MOOC?

One of the key points about MOOC’s is that they are "an EVENT, around which people who care about a topic, can get together & work & talk about it in a structured way”

In this next video Dave Cormier talks about the  5 steps that will help us to succeed in a MOOC

For those of us who have never participated in the learning environment of a MOOC before, there's no doubting, we're in for a treat.

This new method of learning is going to be a learning curve for me, but over the next few months, I hope to post occasional reflections, share resources & conversations which relate to the course.

Please feel free to leave a comment if, like me, you've decided to give this MOOC on "Exploring Irish Identity, a go... the more study buddies we have, the better.

J


 

1 comment:

  1. Congrats! It is a very good opportunity. I think free online courses like Irish History is really interesting. I wish I could have too. Good luck to you.

    ReplyDelete