The EvoLLLution from Toronto to a Global MOOC

Introduction...This is my second MOOC-Related Post in Five Days:


Day One (June 13): Jarl Jonas Director of CourseSites by Blackboard reflects on first MOOC

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And now for today...
Day Two (June 14): The EvoLLLution from Toronto to a Global MOOC

Note: Later in the week, I will post these...
Day Three (June 15): Reusable MOOC: When massive sync is lasting async
Day Four (June 16): Twenty Thoughts on the Types, Targets, and Intents of MOOCs
Day Five (June 17): Unabridged Interview on MOOC for Chronicle of Higher Education


The Evolution of The EvoLLLution...
Whew, I just completed the fourth of a series of four interviews on my Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). Thinking back six months ago, I had not envisioned teaching 4,000 people in a MOOC. Sure, I had helped with the eduMOOC that my friend Ray Schroeder from the University of Illinois at Springfield had offered last summer with 2,700 people (see my blog interview of Ray at the time) and we discussed teaming up for a follow-up. But back then my brain was highly focused on NSF grantwriting and Christmas and birthday gifts that I might receive, not on some monster class to masses of participants around the planet. I already had a 54 page monster syllabus on emerging learning technologies. But that was for a dozen or so students, not thousands.

This story begins on December 15, 2011. It was on that day that I got an email about something else from a guy that I did not know who was from someplace on the planet but I was not really certain where, to be honest. It was all a mystery. His name was Amrit Ahluwalia. Perhaps he was from the Middle East, I thought to myself. Maybe he knew my friends in Dubai or Riyadh and they recommended that he contact me. Perhaps he was from right here in Indiana or wanted to come to IU for graduate school. International student applications were coming due. Or perhaps he was from???

And what did he want? No, he was not writing to wish me happy birthday remarks one day early. Nor was he congratulating me for getting all my fall course grading completed. And he did not send a Christmas jingle in his email or offer me a vacation cruise package deal either. Instead, Amrit wanted me to contribute a short excerpt from my World is Open book for a newly announced online publication called "The EvoLLLution." More writing? More work? Ug. Fortunately, all he asked for was something short and simple. I informed him, however, that it was supposed to be my winter break and I already was knee-deep in NSF Cyberlearning grant proposal writing; in fact, one grant had gone in the day before and the other one my team was just starting to work on. It was due in mid January. As a result, I said "maybe."

Like me, you might be asking yourself, who is this guy, Amrit Ahluwalia? And why would he want me to work harder than I already was during my holiday break. Well, Amrit Ahluwalia, it turns out, is the managing editor of The EvoLLLution. He and his team are based out of an office a few hundred miles north and east of me up in Toronto where, until global warming kicked into gear, winter lasted perhaps 6-8 months of the year. Hence, he probably did not really know that there was something called winter break.

What is this EvoLLLution?
You might also want to know more about The EvoLLLution. What is that all about? Well, the Website indicates that it is a grassroots community of higher education stakeholders that is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario (Canada). Amrit's initial email informed me that it was an "online newspaper, written exclusively by higher education stakeholders. Its contributors come together to form the only community, devoted exclusively exploring and improving non-traditional education." That sounded interesting to me. My mind and body are all about nontraditional learning of any kind (and, as many people are aware, my research is now devoted to informal and extreme learning). To further entice me, Amrit sent link to a video explaining more about the the role that "The EvoLLLution" would play in society in the coming years. Very cool video. I was hooked. This online newspaper would be situated in the fastest growing and perhaps least addressed area of education--the adult learner.

From what he has told me since that time, it is clear that The EvoLLLution is a unique organization whose time has come. It is an inclusive community comprised of thinkers such as university and college administrators, educators or all stripes, and, most importantly, nontraditional and lifelong learning students. Unlike many organizations in the field of education, it purposefully reaches out to employers, government officials, and other industry stakeholders, who are also adapting to the immense paradigm shift in higher education taking place today. In effect, Amrit and his colleagues have assembled a community of thought leaders who can raise awareness about nontraditional and lifelong learning. From what I can tell, the people at The EvoLLLution truly hope that the constant flow of ideas available through their online newspaper can inspire transformative changes in higher education that are needed today and in the decades to come. And with their input, they also hope that there will be broad scale societal recognition of the immense value of continuing and adult higher education. I hope so too.

So what did he want from e I wondered? According to Amrit, The EvoLLLution publishes "articles and interviews written by individuals who are on the ground looking at how higher education has changed and discussing ways to adapt the industry to today's realities." He also noted that they seek articles that discuss the business and management of modern-day higher education; an area of vast changes today. Additionaly, many of their articles explore tactical methods and strategies that can help alter or shift higher education in ways that personalize education according to the needs of today's students, and, as he put it, "the ever-changing and ever-advancing workforce." He then reminded me to watch the short video (1:50 minute). He also said that more details on The EvoLLLution could be found in the "About Us" section of their Website, including links to subscribe or contribute to it.

When I further inquired into his role, Amrit said the he was involved in establishing "relationships with our vast array of contributors from across the higher education and continuing education fields and assist them in generating content based on their ideas and opinions to be published on our online newspaper." Ok, I was fine with that. In fact, I was more than fine with it. But back to work on NSF grant proposal #2 I went. And my mind drifted off into thoughts about wikis, crowdsourced content, and learning environments that could be automically generated by computer code. Amrit and The EvoLLLution soon faded from my memory banks.

The Return of The EvoLLLution
A few weeks later, however, another email arrived from him. In it, Amrit kindly asked again for a short piece based on my World is Open book. I was still hard at work on my  2nd NSF grant proposal. And so he waited patiently for still another week or two. Soon, another email arrived with positive words of encouragement and hopes and dreams that I would contribute something in the coming weeks ("Extreme Learning Hopes and Dreams" was, in fact, the title of my first NSF grant).

And so, after finishing and submitting my 2nd NSF grant proposal of the month (This one titled SWALE or "Scholar Wiki Automated Learning Environments"), I sat in my hot tub and hoped that my fingers, back, neck, and brain could mend themselves quickly and that I could type up something up for him that would be worth reading. Luckily, it did not take too long for most of my body to heal (though my shoulders and back remain a problem for my chiropractor). Ten days later, I sent him a piece, "We All Learn," which appeared in digital form on February 16th. Amrit thanked me for it and we parted ways...or so I thought.

For a couple of months, I read articles appearing in The EvoLLLution but was thankful that he did not want me to produce anything else since the Spring 2012 semester was a difficult one filled with travel and committee work. But my new friend Amrit was not gone for long. In April, I received another email from him. This time he had heard about the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) that I was doing for CourseSites by Blackboard on Instructional Strategies and Technology Tools for Online Success. I think he had read my blog post on this and got excited about covering a unique and evolving story. He said that wanted to interview me as we were about to start the MOOC as well as during the course and after it ended. Ultimately, there would be four MOOC interviews.

The EvoLLLution MOOC Interviews
The course ran from the end of April to early June with 5 synchronous sessions in Collaborate (i.e., formerly Elluminuate) each Wednesday afternoon in May from 4-6 pm EST. The first interview I did alone with Amrit via my home landline near the end of April. My first synchronous session with 500+ people occcured a few days later on May 2nd. The second interview was 2-3 weeks later with help from five of the eight volunteer teaching assistants (TAs) that I had quickly assembled when enrollment was nearly double our expectations of roughly 2,000 participants to well over 3,500 signing up by the start of the course. That particular interview took place from my Indiana University office in the School of Education. It was deemed a "half-time report." As such, it focused on the problems and challenges that we faced or had resolved. The third interview Amrit conducted with Jarl Jonas, Director, and Sarah Bishop-Root, Marketing and Communications Manager, from CourseSites by Blackboard. They discussed the types of learners that had showed up in the MOOC as well as the expectations that Blackboard/CourseSites people had when planning it. And the final interview was conducted a week ago and appeared in The EvoLLLution yesterday. It was concerned with assessment and the credentialing side of a MOOC as well as the potential of MOOCs and their "evolution" in the future. Jarl, Sarah, and I all participated in that one. It was the longest of the four that we did and perhaps the best.

All four sessions lasted around 15-25 minutes. They are listed below. I hope you can learn something from one or more of them. To help your learning, each was audiotaped. It is important to point out that the audio files are always longer than the article. If you read the article as well as listen to the interview, you will see that Amrit did a marvelous job of condensing the sometimes rambling and resource-filled phone discussions into each article.

What's Your MOOC Pleasure--Text or Audio?
1. Massive Open Online Courses: Taking Learning to a New Level. Interview of Curt Bonk by Amrit Ahluwalia, April 30, 2012, The Evolllution. (Article; Audio).

2. The MOOC Halftime Report. Interview of Curt Bonk and MOOC TAs by Amrit Ahluwalia, May 22, 2012. The Evolllution. (Article, Audio).

3. MOOCs Making Waves with Nontraditional Students. Interview of Jarl Jonas and Sarah Bishop Root by Amrit Ahluwalia, June 7, 2012, The Evolllution. (Article, Audio).

4. The Potential for MOOCS. Interview of Jarl Jonas, Sarah Bishop Root, and Curt Bonk by Amrit Ahluwalia, The Evolllution. June 13, 2012. (Article, Audio).

If anyone wants a PDF document of these articles, send me an email. There is much to reflect on and discuss from all four of these interviews. Each person reading or listening to them will have different goals and associated takeaways. In the end, I must thank my friend Amrit Ahluwalia and The EvoLLLution for their interest in the MOOC we did last month on Instructional Ideas and Technology Tools for Online Success. These were fun discussions and reflections.

Note that the Course Registration, Information, and Introductory Video all remain open. We have over 4,000 people enrolled now. The world is truly open for learning. Enjoy it. Live it. Share it. Be it.

Jarl Jonas Director of CourseSites by Blackboard reflects on first MOOC

Introduction...The Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) that I did with Blackboard people using CourseSites officially ended a week or 2 ago. It now has over 4,000 participants. Registration will remain open. So, now it is time to do some reflections on it in my blog (TravelinEdMan) as well as on MOOCs in general. Mixed in is an interview of Jarl Jonas, the Director of CourseSites, as well as the full (i.e., unabridged) version of the interview that Jeffrey Young of the Chronicle of Higher Education did with me that appeared back on June 11th (briefer Chronicle version). Those interviews start and end this sequence of blog postings.

Below is MOOC blog Post #1. The first of 5 such posts:
Day One (June 13): Jarl Jonas Director of CourseSites by Blackboard reflects on first MOOC
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And here are the posts that I made later in the week...
Day Two (June 14): The EvoLLLution from Toronto to a Global MOOC
Day Three (June 15): Reusable MOOC: When massive sync is lasting async
Day Four (June 16): Twenty Thoughts on the Types, Targets, and Intents of MOOCs
Day Five (June 17): Unabridged Interview on MOOC for Chronicle of Higher Education
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"Reflections on Blackboard, CourseSites, and the MOOC"

An Interview with Jarl Jonas Director for CourseSites by Blackboard, by Curtis J. Bonk, Professor, Indiana University, USA

This past weekend, I had an email conversation Jarl Jonas about the Massive Open Online Class (MOOC) I helped with last month, “Instructional Ideas and Technology Tools for Online Success.” While I say "helped," as noted in a post in the Chronicle of Higher Education this week, I was the instructor of record. But that is really all anyone can do in a MOOC. You help or assist in the learning process. I had much assistance from others. Jarl was among those providing the help. For that, I am quite thankful.

The course, which I have discussed in many previous posts, has now attracted over 4,000 participants; as of today, there are 4,010 people enrolled in it and it keeps growing despite the fact that the synchronous sessions ended two weeks ago and my role is winding down. People can still go in and register and then learn from the content and forums and so on. As noted below, those that do can earn a badge. If interested in the course or in a badge, Jarl Jonas, or his assistant, Sarah Bishop Root, can help.

Who is Jarl Jonas you ask? Well, Jarl is Director for CourseSites by Blackboard, a free, hosted online course creation and facilitation service for individual instructors. Jarl is also an adjust faculty member for Excelsior College teaching Business Communications and am a former Secondary Language Arts teacher. Perhaps more importantly, he is an educator and life-long learner excited about the use of technology to enhance student engagement and achievement.

Amazing, he responded to my questions from 30,000 feet on my way to Austin (by way of Dallas). Below are my questions and his responses. You can also find his reflections on the MOOC in a blog post he made last month.

Curt Q1: What is CourseSites? How long has it existed? Why was it created? In what ways is its mission different from the more profit-oriented side of Blackboard? And how is it part of the mission?

Jarl: CourseSites is a free, hosted online course creation and facilitation service that empowers individual K–12 teachers, college and university instructors and community educators to add a Web–based component to their courses, or even host an entire course on the Internet. The service is powered by Blackboard’s latest learning management, mobile, SMS, and synchronous communication technology and is intended to help teachers establish what we like to call ‘one learning landscape.’ Many instructors are sending students to multiple sites to obtain information, interact, and complete assignments, which can cause confusion, frustration, and disengagement. With CourseSites, we provide most, if not all tools necessary to support all aspects of instruction.

CourseSites has existed since 1999, but it’s taken on a few different forms. In February of 2011, we launched the current free version to support Blackboard’s mission of “Everyone Educated.” By providing CourseSites, we remove a common barrier of access to technology and offer educators and their students a space to experiment with and/or use technology to enhance the teaching and learning process. To ensure the experience is successful and that the technology does not hinder learning, we include training and support for instructors and students. As well, with this updated, no cost service, we hope to establish a community of e-Learning practitioners who can help one another and discuss best practices, ideas, and challenges of teaching in this realm. This community includes Blackboard, and as such, CourseSites serves as a wonderful vehicle for students and instructors to voice their positive and constructive opinions about the software and experience that we can feed back to the Blackboard Product Development team with the intent of continuous improvement.

Curt Q2: Personally, I see CourseSites as sort of a goodwill arm or effort of Blackboard. If I am correct, can you describe other such goodwill efforts underway within Blackboard? For instance, I heard that there were some mobile learning initiatives for third world or developing countries in which Blackboard is involved. In fact, my son, Alex Bonk, has gone on two trips with Paul Kim from Seeds of Empowerment to help with literacy training in remote southern Tanzania and with indigenous youth in northern Argentina. He also did the documentaries and photography (see Facebook). In both cases, representatives from Blackboard also were part of the team. Did you know about this? Is Blackboard reaching out with CourseSites and other ways that people might not be aware of?

Jarl: One of the things I like most about working at Blackboard is the caliber of my colleagues and the ideas they have to help advance education around the world.  As you describe, the Seeds of Empowerment project has had a profound impact on many individuals at different levels and is a working example of the passion that Blackboard has for improving the quality of life for all. You can read a bit more about some of the results here.

CourseSites is a wonderful resource in itself, but for my colleagues and I, that is not enough. Last Fall, we worked closely with Creative Commons to provide instructors with a way to publish their course as an Open Educational Resource (OER.) to their instructor homepage. Course packages become available in Common Cartridge and Blackboard format and get tagged with a CC-BY license for all to consume, remix, and reuse. Then, this Spring, we announced our open enrollment feature, along with our CourseSites Open Course Series: Empowering Learning Through Community. The open enrollment features enable instructors to offer open courses of any kind to any number of students. To lead by example, we launched the open course series with your first course on Instructional Ideas and Technology Tools for Online Success. Thank you for helping to launch the series and make such an impact!

Aside from these initiatives, Blackboard supports volunteerism and community service. We often participate in local service days to help give back to the communities in which we work and are provided 8 hours to volunteer with a charity of our choice.

Curt Q3: What are the most interesting and rewarding aspects of your job?

Jarl: My biggest passion in life is helping others to reach their full potential. The next is a thirst for knowledge. I can fulfill these passions in many ways, but being a part of CourseSites enables me to fulfill these on a much larger scale, all while broadening my perspective. I get to interact daily with individuals from around the world and hear how about their challenges and successes. I am able to give them a voice in our development to help them overcome certain obstacles and increase their student achievement.

As you know, the realm of instructional systems technology is ever-changing. This is both exciting and frustrating for all of us. I am a constant student in this job which helps keep me on my toes! I like to see what’s happening ‘out there’ and see what I can do to bring that to our users through functionality, or perhaps through educational programs. I work with equally passionate individuals and we have a lot of fun. I look forward to providing more and more opportunities for learning, experimentation, and advancement with CourseSites users and beyond for years to come!

Curt Q4: Why did Blackboard/CourseSites decide to offer this course? What interested you in doing this project?

Jarl: As former high school teacher, faculty development coordinator, online course developer, and Blackboard consultant, and as a current online instructor at Excelsior College, I’ve personally struggled and have seen many other educators wrestle with how to engage students — with or without technology. An enormous tool chest now awaits educators and designers to help motivate students to learn and achieve, but many are still overwhelmed and have little access to professional development resources, or someone who can help them make some sense of the theories and tools. Knowing that this need exists, among many, my colleagues and I began to think how we could leverage CourseSites to not only provide free and open access to some of these tools, but to educate teachers and instructors on how to use these and many others effectively – at no cost. Undoubtedly, there is a host of information that instructors can access on their own, but our experience also tells us that some professionals like a ‘structured’ learning experience. This is evidenced by the response and participation levels we saw.

Curt Q5: Was there anything else?

Jarl: We also wanted to try and see how an open course might work in an environment like CourseSites, as a place to start the conversation. We didn’t aim to mimic the MOOCs provided to date, but wanted to create an open opportunity for individuals to learn how they want (i.e., readings vs. live class), interact with whom they want, and choose the tools with which they were most comfortable (i.e., blogs/wikis/discussions.) We also created some opportunities for networking and were very pleased to see the number of groups and discussions established. Many have continued to interact even after the course has ended which could give rise to an ongoing community of practice.

Curt Q6: How supportive have Blackboard (the for profit company) been of this free online course and new venture? Do you have any examples of support that you can share? What benefits does a MOOC like this reap for Blackboard and CourseSites? Did anyone high up the food chain at Blackboard express any doubts or concerns about such a course or initiative? Are people up the food chain even aware of it? Stated another way, what has been the response internally at Blackboard HQ in DC?

Jarl: Blackboard and its’ executives are very supportive of CourseSites and the open course series. As I mentioned earlier, these initiatives help us to fulfill our mission of Everyone Educated, and provide fun, innovative opportunities to learn more individually and as a company. Many were very excited about the course launch and followed its progress closely including our CEO, Michael Chasen and President of Academic Platforms and CTO, Ray Henderson. Since joining Blackboard, Ray has been vocal proponent of advancing Blackboard openness initiatives and recognized our open enrollment capability and open course as further opportunities to accomplish that.

Curt Q7: What’s it like so far? Has it met your expectations and vision?  

Jarl: The course has now ‘officially’ ended, but is still open for anyone to enroll or return to access, review, and download learning resources. Looking back, I would say the course well exceeded our expectations. We had nearly 4,000 participants signed up. Over half of these participated in the discussion boards, blogs, and/or wikis contributing to the 6,000+ interactions with these tools. In our live sessions, we had over 500 in the first session, and then over 300 on average in subsequent sessions. For this time of year, at least in the US with terms ending and holidays beginning, I was very pleased with the turn-out and engagement. Additionally, individuals have formed over 20 groups on their own to network and connect about the course material within certain subjects or contexts and thus have formed their own community of practice. We were really hoping for this type of organic experience. I recently looked at our survey results for the course and over 90% agreed that they would take a course with us again. We will work hard to improve that percentage next time, but feel that is a good indicator of our success, along with the response that we’ve been getting such as:

“I'd like to express my gratitude to Mr. Bonk and everyone who paid lots of time and efforts to make it work. It was a great chance to learn from each other and grow professionally. I had an opportunity to participate in different MOOCs, but this one was the best I ever experienced to join. The platform and scheduling as well as the manner of running the Course was unbelievably great and well prepared. I enjoyed all the webinars run by Dr Bonk, though the time didn't fit me, as it was always after midnight. Anyway, the opportunity to watch the recording makes it even better.” Nina Lyulkun, Associate Professor, Business Foreign Languages Department, Khmelnitsky National University, Khmelnitsky, Ukraine (May 31, 2012)

Curt Q8: You and Sarah Bishop-Root have helped me out a lot in this course. Can you describe a typical “day” of online teaching in this MOOC-like experience? What do you tend to do?

Jarl: Initially, Sarah and I built the asynchronous environment we used to support the learning experience. The live sessions were meant to be the centerpiece, and we designed the CourseSites environment to provide alternative and supplemental resources, suggested reflective activities, and networking opportunities. Once the course began, Sarah and I split duty and had the assistance of our intern Nina Uqdah and your TAs. Sarah helped to monitor the course Twitter feed and I helped to monitor questions inside the course about the use of the platform, course structure, the badge, etc. As needed, we reached out to you for content-specific questions, and collected questions for the live session’s Q&A portion. Once we added the TAs, they assisted you with responding to participants regarding the content and questions that they may have had regarding application.

While we attempted to design each week in advance prior to launch, we were updating each week with further resources, such as adding the live session recordings and discussion/blog/wiki/chat summaries. As well, early on we ran a few tests with you to ensure that the live sessions would run smoothly and worked with our Blackboard Collaborate group to make adjustments as necessary. This surely became our main focus for six weeks, but we planned that accordingly amidst other ongoing job obligations at Blackboard. Sarah and I were also trying to be students in the course as well. Admittedly, we learned on many levels, but I need to go back to review the live session and resources to focus on the content as we were mainly focused on the experience for participants first and foremost.

Curt Q9: Did you ever imagine in school teaching days ever imagine a world or a course such as this?

Jarl: Instead of describing again, you might read or listen to the interview that Sarah Bishop Root and I did a couple of weeks ago with Amrit Ahluwalia that appeared in the Evolllution. MOOCs Making Waves with Nontraditional Students, June 2012 (longer audio file).

You might also read the one that came out earlier today that you and Sarah joined in on. The Potential for MOOCS, by Amrit Ahluwalia, The Evolllution. June 13, 2012 (longer audio file). (Note: This was the fourth and perhaps final interview that Amrit did on our MOOC.)

Curt Q10: What were your goals coming into this? Did you have any success factors in mind?

Jarl: Our main goal was to connect educators with information and other professionals that could help them increase student motivation, engagement, and achievement. We expected about 2,000 to enroll and participate and received double that. Along the way we expected and facilitated ways for participants to interact with one another so they could continue the dialogue well beyond the course environment and timeline. The aforementioned numbers are a good indicator of the initial interest, and the continued participation has been better than expected. All this has been happening at a crucial time during the typical US-based term (finals, graduation) and we’ve still seen good numbers.

Curt Q11: How is learning evident or indicated in the MOOC? What about connections?

Jarl: Participant learning has been evident by the conversations we’ve seen in the discussions and blogs, along with the resources and ideas shared in the wikis. Connections, on the other hand, are evident by the self-formed groups, along with the dialogue outside of the course in individual blogs and other social media. Some of the blog posts have been phenomenal in terms of how they have applied the examples and models presented.

There are many other signs of success. For instance, we have received much positive feedback from participants. This feedback is found in many forms of social media, including Facebook and Twitter posts, email, and much more. One of the most recent notes that caught our attention was from Professor June Klees from Bay College in Escanaba, Michigan. She said:

“I’ve greatly enjoyed participating in this class as part of my continuing professional development in online teaching! It's been the exact type of refresher that I've been craving, with the added bonus that it has very much validated my work as an online educator. I think what I will use the most is the videos as anchors and review, which will be incorporated more in my online, on-campus, and blended (to be created) classes. I highly recommend that all online educators, seasoned or newbie, join in the learning fun!”

And about halfway through the course, Lana Hiasat, Instructor at Dubai Men’s College in the UAE sent you a note that matched our hopes for the course:

“I am really enjoying your Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). It is so well structured and I’m getting so many ideas out of it to implement next semester. I will be trying wikibooks in the next few weeks.”

And after the course, she sent this update:
"I would like to thank you again for a very positive experience. After we finished the course I went on to plan my next year’s course design to include many of the tools that I have learned from your course. I think the main success of your course was that you managed to keep me--a quite busy teacher--motivated to do the weekly readings and listen to your presentations. It is very difficult to keep online learners engaged and interested in keeping up with the workload and you did that. Thanks again!”

Curt Q12: Has anything surprised you about the “students” who signed up for and participated in the course e.g., location, title, educational sector, etc.)?

Jarl: We knew that a wide variety of participants would sign up in terms of levels of experience with online learning, but I’m not sure we expected the varying levels of professionals (IDs, teachers, VP, Provosts). This shows us there is still much ground to cover at every level to ensure we are providing the best educational experiences for students at all levels and ages.

Also, we are tallying the exact number of countries represented now, but had some great response from around the world! Participants mainly came from the US, but we had many students from the Ukraine, UAE, France, South Africa, Belgium, Ecuador, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Mexico, the UK, and Saudi Arabia.

Curt Q13: Do you have any concerns going into the course -- about format, implications for universities, or any other aspect of this unusual venture?

Jarl: Despite all of the hoopla about MOOCs recently, I think we are far away from moving beyond our current higher education structure. That’s not to say what we have is optimal, but open education has many open questions and areas for exploration and maturity. Opportunities such as this open course help to augment over-burdened faculty development staff and provide some context and structure to the volume of research being published about learning in this paradigm.

Curt Q14: What are the motivators from this course? What is working in that regard?

Jarl: Badges are in their infancy, but quickly becoming somewhat of an accepted achievement indicator. As such, we decided to offer a Bonk Open Course badge to help encourage enrollees to participate in the suggested reflective activities and interact beyond the live sessions. As well, we are providing a way for users to store their achievement in the Mozilla Open Badge Backpack. Mozilla is leading the way regarding badge standardization and display. Otherwise, the participants can display this badge proudly on their blog or personal site as way of letting others know they met the stated requirements of the course and have acquired new skills to motivate and engage students in online and hybrid courses.

Curt Q15: So, time for a final question...what might you do next and when in terms of another MOOC-like experience from you guys? What might we be looking for from CourseSites and Blackboard in the not-too-distance future?

Jarl: Well, as I mentioned, your course was the first in the open course series so you can expect more learning experiences to be provided this year. During the live session in the past course we polled participants on some areas of interest. Universal Design and Accessibility were topics of interest. We are exploring how to address that need, along with other open education topics. We’d also love to have you offer another course after you’ve had some well deserved rest!

In the immediate future, we’ve partnered with the National Repository for Online Courses and are offering a webinar on their design framework this week. Anyone interested can learn more and register here.

Announcing Webinar: Designing Effective Resources for Online Learning
Date: June 14th
Time: 2 p.m. ET
Session Presenter: Ruth Rominger, Director of Learning Design - National Repository of Online Courses (NROC)

There's a whole lot of MOOC'en going on! (or: "The Multimedia MOOC")

There's a whole lot of MOOC'en going on!

Seems much is happening in the MOOC (i.e., Massive Open Online Course) world and in open education in general. The field is brimming with VC announcements and partnerships. As these appear, there are juicy debates about what the field is and what it should enable people to do. Of course, some of the debate is coming from those who have had a MOOC-like experience in the past and have concerns about how it is being portrayed today.

Suffice to say, that the field, whatever its name, is hot. Sizzle. Sizzle. Zap. Zap. If you don't watch out, you're gonna get your fingers burned (or so says the Alan Parsons Project a long time ago). Much about open education has been in the news the past week or two, including the announcement of edX. "MIT and Harvard have committed to a combined $60 million ($30 million each) in institutional support, grants and philanthropy to launch the collaboration." Did I hear $60 million? Yes, I did. Of course, edX comes after all the fanfare of other ventures like Udacity, Coursera, etc.

What is interesting or different here from previous news announcements and press releases is that the goal is not just delivery of online courses to the masses or the joint coordination of technologies to offer these online events. In addition to that, MIT and Harvard people also want to conduct research on human learning and the benefits, impact, and delivery methods of online instruction as well. Such "new" research directions and added attention definitely bodes well for those of us in instructional technology, distance learning, educational psychology, and learning sciences; especially those of us in the online learning trenches for the past couple of decades. Perhaps someone will actually read through some of it.

The Multimedia MOOC: Part 1 (News from Cyberspace)
So much to read, watch, and listen to since this month began. Yikes! As I stated in my previous blog post, it is getting extremely difficult to stay abreast of every news item, blog post, or seemingly major announcement. But attempt to keep up, we must.

There are many ways to try to keep up. I list a few of them below. You might notice that in parallel with the edX research focus, they address many senses or ways to learn. Let's start with the obvious area of text on the Web.

#1. Read: First, for those who relish text, there is plenty of that as well. There are articles in Huffington Post, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and the NY Times all covering the same event. The Washington Post's article on this story on May 2nd was titled "Harvard, MIT announce new partnership that will offer free online classes." They all pretty much say the same thing--there is a transformation happening in higher education today from all this online and open education material. I am not sure that is the case, or that it is so sudden. However, it is wonderful to see the awareness of open education rise among the general populace.

As the days pass by, op-ed pieces like one by David Brooks in the NY Times appear, The Campus Tsunami. And of course, there is debate about all the press; especially such op-ed pieces. Just read Joshua Kim's response in Inside Higher Education, "David Brooks Confuses MOOCs with Online Learning" which appeared yesterday morning. A few hours later, Wired magazine was commenting about the importance of the research componet in the edX announcement in a blog post, "Harvard-MIT’s edX Brings Research Focus to Cloud Ed." And the comments sections of each article add fuel to the virtual debate and conversation.

#2. Watch: For visual learners, well, there are many YouTube and other videos of this announcement, both long (37:35) and short (2:23). Engaget offers both text and that same short video (MIT and Harvard announce edX web education platform, make online learning cheap and easy, by Michael Gorman, May 2, 2012).

#3. Listen: For those who prefer to earbud learning, there is a piece in NPR on "All Tech Considered" from May 2, 2012: Explosion In Free Online Classes May Change Course Of Higher Education. (Note: In a small update to my original blog post, on May 10, 2012, Inside Higher Education posted an article, "MOOCs and Machines" by Steve Kolowich. Steve also conducted an interesting and informative interview with Candace Thille, director of the Open Learning Initiative at Carnegie Mellon University and a leading advocate of intelligent teaching software. This interview is now available in a 19:49 minute podcast about "massive open online courses, data, and what we may soon know about how students learn.")

#4 Reflect: Article after article after article to skim or read more diligently. Video after video to watch and share with friends. Now mix in the NPR tidbit and other podcasts or blog posts and you have a corpus of knowledge and ideas that is bound to start people discussing,  debating, and generally conversing. And debate and converse they are. This is a true multimedia type of experience--so much text, so much video, and an array of audio commentary, interviews, and speeches. If Harvard or MIT officials really wanted to study human learning, they might start measuring the recall from their various announcements and press releases.

As I told my dean, Dr. Gerardo Gonzalez, this afternoon, "Everyone seems to be weighing in on this. If we are simply reifying the lecture on a more massive scale and giving it the blessing of both MIT and Harvard presidents as well as Stanford, well then, we may be in for a protracted debate. On the other hand, billions of people have no educational option at present. So the comparison of what we offer now to our present select set of graduate and undergraduate students may be an ill-conceived comparison, or, at least, a highly limited one."

Then I added, "For some, a MOOC, and open educational resources of many types, will be the first sign of access to education. For others, it will be a unique chance for professional development in one’s limited schedule. For still others, it will be an opportunity to experience a global community of co-learners. And yet for others, they will use these contents as a means to find new interests, hobbies, and careers. They might go to college after sampling these educational materials. Too many people are focused on the past and on what is happening today. They do not realize yet that we are in the learning century; and, hence, the types and forms of learning are being extended as well as transformed. Most focus on the transformation part and not on the extension part. I prefer to start with a focus on new opportunities and ways to extend learning in unique ways and to enable the billions of people on this planet who previously did not have access to education a chance to learn."

Dean Gonzalez here in the IU School of Education informed me University Business is offering a discount on their UB Tech 2012 conference at the Mirage in Las Vegas next month (Note: This conference used to be called "EduComm"). More specifically, a discount of $200 will be given to anyone who enters their online competition, "Will edX Improve Higher Education?" They are collecting responses to one question (300 words max) on or before May 11th. They also note that: "One grand prize winner will be selected from all responses to win free airfare to UBTech 2012 (up to a $400 value) and 3 nights lodging at the Mirage in Las Vegas." I think you all should enter! Why not...?

So, they ask: "What’s your opinion? Do you believe edX will truly improve education for everyone?" Do you agree that "Everything we know about higher education is being changed by technology?" If you have an opinion, you might give it a stab at it. The Mirage is fabulous. Great pools of cool water and plenty of sun outside to escape any gambling inclinations inside. More importantly, the Beatles Love show is still playing (now celebrating its 5 year anniversary). It's my favorite Vegas show. And UB Tech 2012 looks to have some great speakers, including Temple Grandin who "has been the subject of numerous profiles, books, magazines and radio and television specials." See above link and read why she is so famous and popular. I can also recommend this conference since I keynoted it two years ago when at the Mirage and had a grand time in a lovely corner suite. EduComm (i.e., UB Tech) people know how to run a conference packed with information as well as entertainment.

The Multimedia MOOC: Part 2 (My Personal Contribution)
As I started reflecting on the events for the past week or 2, I realized that I have been contributing to the Multimedia Mooc monster. No, not just with with my 54 page monster emerging learning technologies syllabus, but with various interviews and videos. There are articles to read, videos to watch, and audio files to listen to.

#1 Read. For instance, I told my dean that there are many benefits to all this open education stuff. In fact, back in 2009, I wrote an article for eLearn Magazine with 30 reasons why it is an interesting and important trend, "The World is Open for a Reason: Make that 30 Reasons!." (see also PDF of that article). Among the 30 are 10 reasons why colleges and universities would get involved in open education; 10 reasons why instructors or instructional designers would; and 10 reasons why students or potential learners would use it.

I also informed Dean Gonzalez about the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) that I am doing for Blackboard/CourseSites people now. I thought he might like to know why I am still very much in teaching mode despite our spring term grades being turned in yesterday. And I am not just teaching a few students hanging around for the summer. Nope. This course, "Instructional Ideas and Technology Tools for Online Success," now has over 3,600 enrolled. Dean Gonzalez is Catholic and I think he is saying a prayer for me the next time he goes over to St. Paul's. I hope so anyway given that over 500 people attended the first of five synchronous sessions last week Wednesday. We will have 4 more synchronous sessions during the month of May, each at 4 pm to 6 pm EST. This week, we talk about addressing learning diversity and learner preferences or styles. My Read, Reflect, Display, and Do (R2D2) model is among the focal points for that discussion. There will be dozens of examples shared.

#2 Watch: If interested, anyone can still register for the MOOC. If not sure, perhaps watch my video introduction to the MOOC. Still not sure? Why then, perhaps enroll and watch session #1 from last week in Blackboard Collaborate/Elluminate and see if anything is interesting. That session addressed online motivation and retention with my TEC-VARIETY model. Need more incentive? Well, if you enroll, you will find three free chapters from my upcoming book on online motivation and retention in the MOOC with 30 ideas or activities for online motivation and retention. There are no requirements. Your learning, your interactions, your selection of resources, and your attendance is totally up to you.

#3 Listen (or read): Many people might be wondering what a MOOC really is. Others might wonder why I agreed to do this one. Well, you can listen to an interview, “Audio/Massive Open Online Courses: Taking Learning to a New Level” that I gave a few days ago to Amrit Ahluwalia who is a writer for The Evolllution. If you want the condensed version of that phone interview, you can simply read the 2 page article that Amrit generated from it or flip through The Evolllution.

#4. Reflect: Seems much is happening in this space. Many people are contributing to it. To understand my perspective on MOOCs, you might listen to the longer audio file above or read the shorter article (see link above). You might scroll further up and watch the video introduction I did to help you gain some insights into the MOOC I am doing with Blackboard/CourseSites people. in contrast to some MOOCs that might be aimed at understanding a particular theory or technology trend, this one is more of a professional development experience in how to teach online. You might also read my article with 30 reasons for the emergence of this open education movement. In fact, as I recommended to Dean Gonzalez, you might use some or all of these 30 reasons as a starting point or as talking points for conversations about online courses and programs or strategic planning meetings for this world of openness and sharing. Or perhaps take a look at the free stuff we have posted at my World is Open book Website.

So much happening all over the world. Multimedia can help us learn--text to read, videos to watch, and audio files to listen to. Seems a few short years ago, this was definitely not the norm. But today with bandwidth widening, storage capacity going up while storage costs plummet, and accessibility increasing, there are many learners demanding such multimedia access. Some want animations, some simulations, some audio with their text, and others just want to see it in video format.

We can also access content when hiking, when on a boat, when out on polar ice, or when simply walking down the street or running the Rails for Trails here in lovely Bloomington, Indiana. You can get content when flying above the earth at 30,000+ feet. For instance, you might check out the May issue of Delta Sky Miles Magazine.

Special Issue: The Virtual Classroom: What’s new—and what’s next—in the brave new world of online higher education and corporate training.

Article: "Learning Revolution: The gurus of online higher education make the case for distance learning and weigh on where it’s headed, "by Steve Calechman. (single page view).

I was fortunate to be interviewed for it (see page 101). There were a slew of my colleagues and friends are in this article as well. These e-learning gurus or heavyweights include: Larry Ragan from the Penn State World Campus, Chris Dede from Harvard, Margaret Riel from Pepperdine University, Mark Milliron from Western Governors University (WGU) Texas, Joel Hartmann from the University of Central Florida, and many others. Many of these people have contributed to the online learning world for a decade or two or even longer. To have us all assembled in one issue sure is cool to see. Equally cool is that they included a picture of each of us. It is certainly great to reconnect with all these thoughtful and warm people, even if just in print or in a cyberspace article.

Unlike the MOOC stuff above, there is just text to read--though in both virtual and physical formats. Someday soon, such articles will have QR codes for an augmented reality experience. Taking your iPod, iPhone, Droid, or some other mobile device, you might hover above one of our pics and get an audio file to listen to or a video or animation to watch. Such technology already exists and is finding increasing applications in educational settings. For instance Craig Kapp from NYU often showcases augmented reality with children's books with his company ZooBurst (video). You might also look at the Aurasma Demo for the learning possibilties. Those interested in museum learning, might watch this piece from the BBC last week, "Top Gear presenter James May meets his virtual self."

Anyway, it was great to see Delta becoming aware of the importance and impact of online learning. If you look at the ads on the side, they are not losing any money on this one. After a dozen or so not so great experiences flying Delta and United last year (including times when they could not find the runway), I can now finally say, "Thanks Delta Airlines!"

Unfortunately, I am not flying in May. Please let me know if you see the article when in the air. Happy readings, listenings, and watchings. As you do, you will see that "There's a whole lot of MOOC'en going on!" Yes, there's a whole lot of open ed going on...The world is truly becoming open for learning.

Open-access articles on the "Digital Campus" about open access

Are you interested in open education and alternative learning routes? Are you concerned about the regimentation of schools and academic programs? I know that I am. I always have been. I never really liked traditional schools and schooling. Fortunately, emerging learning technologies often provide options for learning. Audiotapes, TV, satellite, radio, CDs, etc. As many people know by now, TV and correspondence courses saved my sanity back when I was a highly bored corporate controller and CPA back in the early to mid 1980s. And today the Web is saving countless lives.

However, it is getting harder and harder to keep up with the news in learning technology and open education. I am not sure how anyone can be an expert in online learning or open education. What is interesting is that today this is a hot topic and front page news. Back in 1984, it was not. And now with venture capital pouring in, this space will be expanding even more. More open access articles will be published about open access. And finance people (I used to be one) and marketing people will begin to take center stage. Is it, "exit stage right" for academics and researchers...? I think not. There is so much to research here. My team is asking many open educational resource (OER) questions.

But each day there is something pressing to read from Education Week, the NY Times, the Washington Post, the USA Today, Time, eSchool News or eCampus News, Chief Learning Officer, Wired, or the Chronicle of Higher Education. Well, now there is a special issue in the Chronicle of Higher Education on the Digital Campus. This issue came out online on April 29, 2012 and the paper edition was in my mailbox this afternoon. The articles within it are definitely emphasizing this wave of open education. The world is open for learning as we all know by now. Don't agree? Read on. And on and on and on. There are so many examples today of how one can learn online in extreme and not so extreme ways. As the previous link indicates, my research is now in extreme learning.

There is one article by Katherine Mangan in this special edition that immediately caught my attention. It gives anyone reading it a sense of wonder about where, when, and how learning can occur. The title is "Open Education's Wide World of Possibilities" (Note: you may need a password for this article now. Earlier today, you did not. If you cannot access it from the link above, try here (Note: this is an alternative link from the Chronicle of HE) or try here instead (for a blogger post of the article)). Three sources for this article? Well, actually, I found about 20. This is just another example of the open learning world.

When reading this intriguing article, you will "discover" that learning can now take place from Tibet while herding yaks, from the northern tip of Canada while collecting scientific data, from soup kitchens and orphanages in Mongolia, and so on. Dentists in rural parts of Afghanistan are upgrading their skills from shared online videos from the School of Dentistry at the University of Michigan. College kids are passing classes in which they were initially "floundering" after finding open educational resources which helped them learn. Former accountants (like me) are teaching science and winning awards after "plowing through" online lectures and Khan Academy materials. MITx, Udacity, iTunes U, Peer 2 Peer University, Saylor.org, and many other resources are springing up to change the learning possibilities for the people of this planet.

These are exciting times indeed. How do the different open-access courses compare? What do you get? Videotaped lectures? Guest experts? Access to the instructor? Online study groups to learn with?Asynchronous discussions? Syllabi? Audio files? You can read more about what is offered in different free online courses in a chart comparing their content. That article is called: Open-Access Courses: How They Compare.

What exciting times these are! I wrote about some of this in a newsletter piece for the Association for Learning Technology (ALT) Online Newsletter back in October 2009 (The Wide Open Learning World: Sea, Land, and Ice Views) as well as in my World is Open book. Today anyone can learn anything from anyone else at any time.

You can read about John Boyer's fascinating class at Virginia Tech with more than 2,600 students. The course is in geography and is called "World Regions." Read this one and you will hear about a professor who is truly loved by his students. He goes all out to help his students learn. And learn they do. Boyer brings in guest experts from around the world. And he uses many types of free and open access technologies like Ustream, Facebook, Twitter, shared online videos, and Skype to help them learn. In effect, Boyer is a role model for this open educational world that we are now in. The article is called "Supersizing the College Classroom: How One Instructor Teaches 2,670 Students."

Speaking of which, my MOOC for Blackboard that starts later today at 4 pm EST (and is every Wednesday in the month of May at that time) now has over 3,200 people in it. Wow. Hope you can join in. The course will remain open for registration during the month of May. No worries if you sign up late.

Here are a couple of other articles in the special issue (or from that day) that might be of interest:
1. The Imperfect Art of Designing Online Courses, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Dan Berrett, April 29, 2012.

2. Social Networks for Academics Proliferate, Despite Some Doubts, Chronicle of Higher Education, Katherine Mangan, April 29, 2012.

There are many more articles in this special issue. That is enough for now. You can find them from the first link in this blog post.

When you are done browsing and reading them, you might consider signing up for the MOOC. Hope to see some of you in the Blackboard/CourseSites MOOC or beyond. We will try to address all this confusion with a couple of simple frameworks or models for making sense of it. That is the hope anyway. And perhaps the ideas discussed or presented in it can help a life or 2 (or more). Fingers crossed

Video Intro for Upcoming MOOC and IU Press on the Event

With 2,800 people already signed up for the Blackboard MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) that starts this Wednesday at 4 pm EST, I was asked to do a video intro (see below). It is a little over 12 minutes long. It was the longest of the 5 or 6 takes we made last week Thursday afternoon. I try to explain the upcoming events in the MOOC. We will meet every Wednesday in May at the same time.
Video Intro to Blackboard/CourseSites MOOC. Dr. Curt Bonk: Instructional Ideas and Technology Tools for Online Success, 12:25, April 27, 2012.

I had a ton of support from people in the Instructional Consulting (IC) office within the School of Education at IU. Thanks Peter. Thanks Karen. Thank Eulho. Thanks Miguel. Thanks everyone.

The registration for the MOOC will remain open during the course.

As I said, IU has been highly supportive. Last week, there is a university press release (IU School of Education professor Bonk to deliver free online course on online teaching) as well as an article in the student newspaper (the Indiana Daily Student or IDS; i.e.,

"IU Professor to offer online teaching course"). And my instructional systems technology (IST) department had a short online news story as well (i.e., Open Web Course Launching in May, April 26, 2012).

This is the largest class I have ever done. There might be more people enrolled in this one class than all my combined classes during my 23 years of teaching in higher education since my doctorate. It will be a fun experiment. My blog post from April 19th has most of the relevant information in it.

I look forward to meeting some of you in a couple of days. And, of course, I definitely cannot wait to see a few old friends and former students around the planet. The focus of this MOOC will be pedagogy or instructional strategies for teaching online, though it will also include much information on emerging learning technologies. Time for bed.

Here's My Spin on "Chronicle Spring"

Chronicle Spring: Anyone out there flipping through the online or "wired" version of the Chronicle of Higher Education lately? It is filled with advice columns each week (and sometimes daily). The weekly paper version is too. Articles can be found on completing dissertations, writing and modifying resumes, applying for jobs, job interviewing techniques, midcareer mentoring, when and how to give notice that one is leaving for another place, departing or retiring from academic life, and so on. There is so much advice out there, my head is spinning.

The past 6 or 7 weeks have given us all ample stuff to read about life as an academic in between grading papers, serving on committees, and conducting research. Given that we had "Arab Spring" last year (see this interactive timeline of Arab spring from the Guardian), I think we should name the spring of 2012, "Chronicle Spring." There sure is a plethora of career advice and mentoring articles coming from the online Chronicle of Higher Education the past month or two to support that notion. Listed below are a few such articles; most of these are from the past couple of weeks, but all are less than two months old.

Ten Sample "Chronicle Spring" Articles:
1. My Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Dissertation, April 8, 2012, Rachel Herrmann, The Chronicle of Higher Education.

(Note: The essence of the above article--get done! Few people write dissertations that change the world. As I said, get done! I tell my students the same thing. Sure, 1 or 2 doc students in 10 (at most...more like 1 in 20 or 1 in 100) will come up with a fantastic new model, theory, instrument, research method, etc. But the vast majority will not. Most of them, however, will provide useful insights into some topic area and nudge their chosen field ahead a bit, but their work will not be of the earth-shattering variety that is reported in Time, Nature, or Washington Post.)

2. Midcareer Mentoring, Part 1, March 19, 2012, Female Science Professor, The Chronicle of Higher Education.

3. Midcareer Mentoring, Part 2, April 16, 2012, Female Science Professor, The Chronicle of Higher Education.

(Note: During the past week or two, I have shared the above two articles on "midcareer mentoring" with many friends and colleagues who recently obtained tenure and many of them quickly returned notes of thanks. Apparently, this article about strikes a chord with people as they think about whether it is time to leave their current institution or organization or perhaps to stay and perhaps retool with a sabbatical.)

4. Why I Tossed Your Résumé, April 17, 2012, Brent Miller, The Chronicle of Higher Education.

(Note: This article has some quick comments on why your resume may be tossed from the pile of applications into the nearest bin as well as an insight or two or how to get one's resume/CV noticed and perhaps get the job. It is personally funny and touching in parts since I have experienced many of the things mentioned when on search committees in the past.)

5. Graduate Schools Need to Improve Career Counseling, Report Says, April 19, 2012, By Stacey Patton, The Chronicle of Higher Education.

(Note: According to this article, "the number of jobs requiring a master's degree will increase by 22 percent over the next eight years, and the number of jobs requiring a doctorate or professional degree will increase by 20 percent." However, there is limited career counseling for graduate students about their respective job options. This lack of help on career pathways and options could be a reason that these advice and mentoring articles in the Chronicle of Higher Education are so popular today.)

6. The End of the Affair (about the pain of turning down a job offer), April 18, 2012, George David Clark, The Chronicle of Higher Education.

(Note: This is a short article that has also struck a chord with friends of mine who had difficulty accepting one offer over another.)

7. You Will Not Reject Me. I Will Reject Me, April 17, 2012, Allison M. Vaillancourt, The Chronicle of Highe Education.

(Note: The essence of this one is that many brilliant people lack the personal confidence to apply for jobs for which they are interested and are highly qualified. Very sad I think. As such, it is an important article to quickly skim through and reflect upon. Is that you?)

8. A Few Thoughts on a Graceful Exit, April 20, 2012, Gene C. Fant Jr., The Chronicle of Higher Education.

(Note: Clearly, you should be fair to those around you when you have a job offer that you are likely taking or indeed have taken. If you have hired the movers and scheduled a pick-up time for your furniture and put your house on the market, you better tell someone you are leaving and need to be replaced on the fall or spring teaching schedule.)

9. Work-Life Balance Is Out of Reach for Many Male and Female Scientists, March 8, 2012, By Audrey Williams June, The Chronicle of Higher Education.

(Note: this article uses a recent survey data report to foster a discussion of better ways to foster a work-life balance; especially in STEM fields. According to this survey of over 4,200 scientists and researchers around the planet, 48 percent of women were not pleased with the way work and personal life mesh, whereas that drops to 39 percent for men. Both figures are way too high.)

10. In the midst of all of these advice articles, of course, there are discussions about salaries. And there are charts and tables to lend support to such discussions. For instance:

Professors Seek to Reframe Salary Debate, April 8, 2012, by Audrey Williams June, The Chronicle of Higher Education. Along with that article is an interactive Table of salaries and detailed data on the different colleges profiled.

(Note: Definitely worth playing with the interactive data chart. It is eye opening to see where my university ranks when compared to other places around the USA.)

Ten Causes of Chronicle Spring:
Had enough of all these articles? Me too. I have enjoyed each one but my brain is going a tad mushy with all the advice, recommendations, and data points. I think there are many reasons for the increase in all the advice and guidance columns and increasing need for career mentoring. Here are ten such reasons (as you can see, I do like the number 10).

1. Spring, Spring, Spring: It is springtime and people are getting interviews for new positions and pondering whether to leave their current institution or organization or not. In addition, spring is a time for renewal and reflection. Summer is around the corner, and if you do not teach at that time, it can be a time for much writing productivity and advancement of one's research. These advisory types of articles can help one plan for summer.

2. Jobs, Jobs, Jobs: The job market is clearly picking up. Seems nearly all my current and former students on the job market are getting interviews and some of them have multiple job offers. That was not the case a year or two ago. Part of the reason is retirements. Of course, all is not rosy for those getting positions today since, at many institutions, the faculty replacement policy is 1 person being hired for every 2 or 3 retirements. As such, mentoring and advice is needed on whether to take such a position.

In my current discipline, instructional and educational technology, things are really heating up. The Chronicle of Higher Education, in fact, has been documenting some of the current explosion in venture capital for learning technology companies (see list of start-ups at the bottom of this article on Piazza; there are others as well; 3 Start-Up Announcements From the Education Innovation Summit and Online-Education Start-Up Teams With Top-Ranked Universities to Offer Free Courses). As you pan through such articles, it is clear that there are many job opportunities out there for those who want to work outside of academia.

In addition, nearly all college and university campuses and government agencies now need instructional design and distance or e-learning learning support for their online and blended courses. Those seeking a job in instructional technology, educational technology, or e-learning on a college campus or in a government, corporate, or military setting (or even in a school district), might see the jobs portal from my department (Instructional Systems Technology (IST)) at Indiana University or my personal portal of over 30 job Website portals. And there's always the jobs database from the Chronicle of Higher Education to peruse through.

3. Mistakes, Mistakes, Mistakes: Because we are coming out of a recession, no one wants to make a mistake and pick the wrong place to move to or make a bad decision of any kind. At the same time, most people do not want to wait too long to make a move. It is a nerve-wracking situation for many. They need advice and mentoring.

4. Information, Information, Information: So many articles to read and learn from in order to stay abreast of what is happening today. So much to consider in terms of one's career. How can anyone keep track of it all? I know lately I have seen a surge of people seeking advice about their careers, whether they be graduate students, assistant professors, or associate professors. Some want advice on writing their resumes or CVs. Others want to know about interview questions that they might be asked (see my blog post on that). And others want to know whether they should focus their careers in a couple specific areas; and if so, how. That is just a small sample of the questions I am getting the past few weeks.

5. Flow, Flow, Flow: Some people are seeking happiness and flow. They want to have a richer, better, and more meaningful life. And they seek out advice columns and personal mentoring for such. It is hard to balance a career and family life; especially, after surviving a system with so many hoops and hurdles like getting a master's degree or a(n) Ed.D. or Ph.D. We are conditioned to be working all the time and to be competing with others around us (either implicitly or explicitly). Stop! Stop! Stop! I recommend people enjoy the journey and help as many people around them as they can. There is something to be said for going with the flow. There is something to be said for having a high quality of life. Just focus on your own flow state and ignore the stuff happening around you (or don't focus on flow...just exist within it). Do that, and all will be well.

6. Models, Mentors, Maintaining Meaningful Relationships: Many graduate students and faculty members lack a personal mentor, coach, or guide around them who cares about their personal growth and is willing to devote significant amounts of time to help them reach their full potential. Such meaningful relationships take time to build, nurture, and maintain. Open access articles found online can be a short-term solution. But, we certainly need both.

7. Who Knew? Too New!: Many of the people I talk to are new to all of this stuff. Some have never interviewed for an academic position before. Others are in their first academic post and it is going so-so or perhaps it is highly frustrating. Still others are doing great and love their job and institution but want to excel at an even higher level or nonetheless want to explore options. All want to read these articles found in Chronicle Spring.

8. Options, Options, Options: Part of the reason for the spike in these mentoring and advice as well as the rising number of career related inquiries that people like myself are getting lately is that there more options for someone graduating today that there were 23 years ago when I graduated from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. One area where those options are particularly obvious is in teaching. Today, one can teach online fulltime or part-time. One can teach blended. And you can alternate between online, blended, and face-to-face teaching. Such online teaching opportunities will only increase in the coming decades.

9. The Digital Scholar: As part of the movement to online environments for teaching and learning, the Web also offers many news ways to be a scholar or should I say, to be a digital scholar. You can also build a career with your podcasted interviews, wiki-generated books, blog postings, open access research articles and conference papers, Twitter posts, and Webcasted lectures. As I mentioned in my blog post a few days ago (A Close Up Look at an Upcoming May MOOC), during the month of May, I will be doing a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) for CourseSites people who are part of Blackboard. In just a little over a week, over 1,000 people have expressed interest in this course. Keep in mind that the official sign up is not until tomorrow. A MOOC was never part of my teaching or career plans when I graduated from Wisconsin back in 1989. Those teaching in a MOOC or open teaching type of situation are clearly going to require extensive advice and a bit of handholding. And so will their department chairs and deans.

10. Preparation and Confidence: If you know your colleagues and others in your field are reading these advice columns, then there is a feeling that you must as well. Reading as much as you can and discussing with others your perspectives and insights from these articles will help one feel better mentally about the current situation or possible places to apply or target. The more you are prepared, the better you will be. Four years ago, I blog posted about the types of questions one might be asked at an face-to-face, phone, or Skype interview as well as the types of questions that the interviewee might ask (it had 30 of each; Bonk's 30-30 Rule: Questions for Higher Education Faculty Job Interviews). I also wrote a series of blog posts with writing tips (a particularly popular one was on Writing Tips for Starting an Academic Career).

Final Thoughts:There are assorted other reasons for this rise in the need for career mentoring, advice, and support. Nearly everyone seeks a high quality of life. Nearly everyone I know in academia seeks to perform at the highest level possible. Nearly everyone has questions about their next move as well as their long term personal and professional life plans. Getting advice from online articles (such as the 10 from Chronicle Spring posted above) or from a personal coach or mentor can help one find a potential path to success. What will be your path? What will you be reading during the final month or two of spring and on into the summer? And who will you be talking to about what you read or heard about?

Enjoy spring 2012--i.e., "Chronicle Spring." As part of it, I hope to see some of you at the May MOOC. I will try to show what is now possible in this open educational world. The world is now wide open for learning, teaching, mentoring, coaching, etc. Eventually, we might call this Massive Open Online Mentoring (MOOM). I hope to see that day.

Barack Obama Visits Bloomington--Links to Open Learning World

Sorry...I was fixing my blog this afternoon and this post from late April 2008 got reissued by mistake. It said draft and so I said publish. You can ignore it. Sorry about that. I almost deleted it. But I think it is still relevant four years later. Some of this was written but never used) for my World is Open book a couple of years ago.

The World is Open to Politicians
It is the last day of April 2008. I have just returned home from attending a speech from Senator Barack Obama at Assembly Hall at IU. His speech ended a mere 20 short minutes ago but feels so long ago now. Seems every politician and their immediate family is showing up in cornfields of Indiana these days. I heard Bill Clinton give one of his patented stellar speeches in the same room a few weeks earlier on behalf of his wife and her election bid. Hillary Clinton spoke in there just five days before her opponent and daughter, Chelsea Clinton, was here exactly one month before her mother on March 25th. They have all paraded before us one-by-one. Why? Well, the democratic nomination remains up for grabs and Indiana is one of the key remaining states yet to vote. Our turn is May 6th. And the two democratic candidates each firmly believe that they will be the one who wins in November and brings us some positive change.

Obama gave a thoughtful, humorous, and highly engaging speech for more than an hour tonight in our basketball stadium, which, in effect, is hallowed ground. An exhilarating level of energy was felt for two full hours before he arrived. And the room was packed with what I guess was more than 10,000 people. Much more than Bill Clinton drew. As I alluded to, Obama is running on a platform of change and the continual chanting of “Yes, we can.” When addressing the issue of why he is running at what some consider a young age of 46, he referenced Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 1964 book, “Why We Can’t Wait,” and said “we cannot wait and that is why I am running right now for president.” When it came to education, what he said was telling. Obama detailed many social, political, and economic problems facing us and a few gut wrenching stories of those he has visited in Indiana who lacked jobs or health insurance. He then argued that it is an excellent educational system on which our future depends. Education underlies any economic might.

I am a former accountant and corporate controller so I have had one foot firmly planted in the business world. However, what I have come to realize is that there is no chance for innovation and creativity, cooperative teamwork, insightful problem solving, and intense competition for the best products without high quality education. Obama had it right. He explicitly stated that the U.S. needed high standards to be able to compete with the kids growing up today in China, India, and other countries. When Thomas Friedman discusses the 10 flatteners of the world, these are mainly economic ones. We need to open the world of education before we can think about flattening the world economically including the normal corporate hierarchies.

Like Bill Clinton said 16 years before, Obama was fighting and struggling for a better life for young people. It gave him a purpose. But the learning avenues today are much different than they were in 1992 when Clinton first ran for the White House. While he did not mention the Web of Learning once during his talk, Obama did argue for the need for increased broadband access. With access kids today can quickly obtain information from online dictionaries, thesauruses, and encyclopedias. They can also find a wealth of resources in online portals with information wars, species of animals, chemistry experiments, diseases, and famous poets. You name it, there is likely free educational content on it. They might also listen to an expert discuss a topic of interest in a podcast or online audio file. Expert comments and ideas can also be found in a blog posting. At the same time, online video lectures or Webcasts might be available from other experts presenting additional information or different viewpoints. There might also be free online books or documents from these experts that were posted to the Web. And the accumulated knowledge from these learning quests might be posted to a class wiki project site.

Young children are not the only ones impacted by open educational resources and other online tools and resources. Take adults voting in this education. Their learning vehicles are much different from 1992 when we elected Bill Clinton to the White House for the first time. Back then people like me had to rely on newspaper and magazine articles as well as books to find out about the candidates. Powerful stuff indeed, but today there are so many more options. I can now write an email to someone from the Obama campaign with my questions or perhaps Obama himself and get a quick reply from his hotel room laptop or mobile device. I can watch online videos of Barack Obama giving similar speeches in other cities and perhaps see how his ideas shifted during the long months of this campaign. I might download articles he has authored or reviews of his two books. Or I might browse his early life and career, personal life, educational background, presidential campaign, and books in his Wikipedia page. When done, I can scan the Web for PDF documents of his work or podcasts that I might listen to from his supporters and detractors. I can even read blog posts related to his ideas. And if the Web is down that day, I can simply read his books.

I am just scratching the surface. My point is that the educational system of a decade or two ago was much different from what we have today. Today we can no longer look at school buildings or physical locations as places for improving learning. Today much of our learning is online and it is open and free. The world is much more open, not just a bit flatter. Will anyone recognize it? Will anyone do anything about it?