Get Interactive: The Value of a MOOC for Continuing Professional Learning and Development

Abstract

AbstractGet Interactive: Practical Teaching with Technology is a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), which was launched in 2017. The course, for anyone who teaches online in higher education, has actively engaged over 21,000 participants worldwide. This chapter explores the multifaceted value that MOOCs such as Get Interactive offer participants and institutions as a form of Continuing Professional Learning and Development. In contrast to dominant forms of MOOCs as scaled-up online versions of undergraduate courses featuring talking-head videos with limited participant engagement, Get Interactive was designed to model and promote social and collaborative learning with technology. Supported by the Bloomsbury Learning Exchange (BLE), the MOOC aimed to create a cross-institutional community of practice of online teachers in Higher Education. Drawing on Laurillard’s (Teaching as a design science. Routledge, 2012) approach to teaching as a design science and Wenger et al. (Promoting and assessing value creation in communities and networks: A conceptual framework Rapport 18. Heerlen, 2011) value creation framework for assessing professional learning in networks and communities, the chapter considers the extent to which we can evidence immediate, potential, applied, realized and reframing value for MOOC participants. Data from participant reviews and engagement with collaborative activities are examined in relation to these five values. Finally, the chapter reflects on the value for institutions of low-cost, high-impact MOOCs like Get Interactive.KeywordsContinuing Professional Learning and DevelopmentOnline teachingHigher educationGet Interactive MOOCBloomsbury learning exchangeCommunity of practice