Comparing Two MOOCs

Comparing two MOOCs on a similar topics in online education.


I am signed up for Wide World Ed's first MOOC on online learning. It's Online Instruction for Open Educators #WWEOpen13 and it starts in a week. Dave Cornier and Terry Anderson are the instructors. It's on the Desire2Learn Open Courses platform.


I am also signed into a MOOC on the deployment of learner analytics. This isn't from any educational organisation, but is presented by George Siemens a global expert on this topic. It's already started. It's on the Canvas network platform.


Looking at the marketing, welcome and sign-up experience:


Wide World's online instruction MOOC made the offer clear in terms of what I would gain from the MOOC


After fully completing the course you should have new skills to:


Lead online learning and facilitate a community of practice
Apply current adult and distance learning theory to your teaching strategies
Utilize a variety of online teaching tools, including open education resources
Design engaging and effective online practice activities
Begin to establish your reputation and brand as an experienced, open, online educator


The course description page also made the instructors visible so I got a good feel of their position.


George Siemens' MOOC on Learner Analytics had a shorter description, was more inward focussed, and less sense of personal contact


Full course description

In spite of growing interest in analytics in education, most states / provinces / countries have not yet developed a systemic approach to learning analytics. Small-scale analytics projects in learning settings are helpful in advancing learning research, but do not provide the value of a systemic and strategic focus. Many interventions, such as alert systems, recommender systems, or student success systems, require cross-departmental and system-wide approaches. This online learning analytics symposium (#LAS13) will review how various institutions and regions around the world are planning and preparing for integrated and systems-wide learning analytics deployment.



Both login procedures were smooth and instant. Immediate registration.

The stage of welcome and course start in the Learner Analytics MOOC is an email from George Siemens with the links to Week 1 reading. It offers a chance to reply to the mail - which turns out to be a tutorial on the messaging system of the platform.


The welcome on the Wide World Ed MOOC (scheduled a week behind the Learner Analytics MOOC) is a holding page until the course starts, with links to the platform, queries etc.


So far, so good