Thursday 20 October 2011

Read #MobiMOOC team's best #paper award for #mLearning research



What a thrill it has been. At the beginning of 2011 I got the idea of organizing a mLearning course, simply because there was no open and free course available. Taking up the Massive Open Online Course format to design the couse felt logical. The course was entitled MobiMOOC and ... off it went. After the six weeks course there was a certain inspiring dynamic, so I wondered if anyone would be willing to co-author a paper and six other people immediately stepped to the plate, and of course these are all fabulous people.

So we are now seven members in the MobiMOOC research them (alphabetical order): Sean C. Abajian, Michael Sean Gallagher, Rebecca Hogue, Nilgün Özdamar Keskin, Apostolos Koutropoulos, Osvaldo Rodriguez and myself Inge de Waard.

Writing the paper was a very dynamic process. After various iterations, where all of our combined ideas were put into the paper, we came to a consensus and ... the work and friendly, inspiring collaboration payed off. The team got 'Best Paper Award at the academically prestigious mLearn conference in Beijing. We all feel this is a true honor, as the paper came out of a thorough peer review process. I have uploaded the conference paper to academia, you can also download the conference paper here.

The wonderful thing about the MobiMOOC research team is that it is an informally build group. We just got together and started collaborating on a joint interest: MOOCs and mobile learning. It was uncharted territory. The international dimension of the group adds to the diverse perspectives and - at least for me - it has been enlightening.

The great thing is, the mLearn conference full papers also get published in a peer reviewed mLearning journal iJIM, so ... we are all excited!

Michael Sean Gallagher, Rebecca Hogue and Nilgün Özdamar Keskin were at mLearn2001 and they gave the presentation accompanying the paper. I gladly share their presentation here.


7 comments:

  1. Dear Ignatia,

    CONGRATULATIONS! Is it possible to get some copy of the article?

    Regards,
    Monika
    (just about doing some research in "Social Media in HE")

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  2. Hi Monika, thank you for the congrats! Just got it uploaded in an additional space:
    http://www.itg.be/tempupload/uploadfolder/Inge/profile/deWaardetal_mLearn2011.doc
    Best wishes,
    inge

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  3. Dear Ignatia,

    The work you are doing with MobiMOOC looks interesting. I am particularly interested in the survey you conducted and any information you can provide on how it was implemented (e.g., respondent rate, piloting process, challenges, etc.). The reason I ask is that I am in the process of designing a survey as part of a doctoral study, researching how EFL/ESL educators use PLNs to further professional learning. Any information you can provide is greatly appreciated!

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  4. Congratulations and any chance you run the course again? Ania

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  5. Congratulations Ignatia. MobiMOOC was fantastic.

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  6. Thank you Geração!

    @Ania, the course will rerun- but in a revised version later in 2012. With a clear focus on implementing mLearning.

    Hi Benjamin, happy to share the survey. As the research emerged as the course went along, there was not much of a piloting process. The challenges of the course were ample - like with any MOOC, but these were in part addressed in the paper (further research).

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