Professional Development Through MOOCS

MOOCS? Sounds weird. A Massive Open Online Course (MOOC /muːk/) is an online course aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the web. The key words here being open access. The first MOOCs emerged from the open educational resources (OER) movement. Free resources and free education for all! It’s a great concept, but the truly free aspect didn’t quite pan out for degree seeking students. But for people like us seeking an opportunity for professional development, it’s a great mechanism for learning new things for free. 

The two biggest MOOC sites are Coursera and EdX. Both are highly touted as offering free education from elite universities. EdX was founded by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University. So you can finally get an education from Harvard if you want. Even Canvas offers MOOCs. Our own Matthew Bloom from SCC is teaching a MOOC on Canvas. Making the Transition to Open: The Easy Way to Create, License, and Share Free Materials. Sign up.

Although most of the courses are free, some sites also offer students the opportunity to “pursue a Verified Certificate to highlight the knowledge and skills you gain.”This, of course, has a fee attached. The fee varies anywhere from $50 to $200. But if the knowledge is all you’re looking for, that’s completely free.

To give you a few suggestions of things you might want to learn, take a look at the courses that are being offered right now and peruse the catalogs at EdX, Coursera and Canvas Network. See more suggestions below.

• Photography Basics and Beyond: From Smartphone to DSLR Specialization

  Whether your camera is a Smartphone or DSLR, a Compact or Mirrorless model, you will learn to gain control of exposure and understand fundamentals of composition, while exploring documentary and creative concepts to make the kinds of photographs you have always wanted.

  Classroom Strategies for Inquiry-Based Learning

  Learn inquiry-based classroom practices to engage students in education through exploration.

  Analytics for the Classroom Teacher

  This course is ideal for school teachers who want to improve their teaching through valuable data-driven insights.

  Design and Development of Educational Technology

  This project-based course explores educational technologies and the theories underlying their development through interviews with experts in the field.

  Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects This course gives you easy access to the invaluable learning techniques used by experts in art, music, literature, math, science, sports, and many other disciplines. We’ll learn about the how the brain uses two very different learning modes and how it encapsulates (“chunks”) information. We’ll also cover illusions of learning, memory techniques, dealing with procrastination, and best practices shown by research to be most effective in helping you master tough subjects.