Building a MOOC, Part 5 - uReddit

The main problems with a MOOC concern that push/pull issue about privacy. People want anonymity on the Internet, but if it's a CLASS, you have to know who is who. There's no accountability otherwise, and without accountability, there's usually a lot less learning.

So you need a system that recognizes users, lets them take tests, and tracks the results. This calls for a Learning Management System (LMS) like Blackboard or Canvas. But those are proprietary, and you can't just let outsiders use them. Plus you don't know who they are.

I think we'll see MOOC-friendly LMSs arrive on the market soon, but in the meantime we're in the realm of workarounds. If we join a Consortium (EdX, Coursera, Udacity, Canvas.net) they provide the LMS, but my university isn't there yet. So it's third-party stuff only for me. I've previously talked about some options for the LMS, and the limitations of each.

Recently I saw a presentation by a fellow faculty member who used University of Reddit (uReddit.com) as a MOOC LMS. This is not owned by Reddit, but they are allowed to use the Reddit name and logo.

Advantages:

• Users get tracked and can sign up with their own names/handles of their choosing
• Content can be hosted right here
• Discussion boards (or something similar to that) can be created via sub-Reddits

Disadvantages:

• There is no gradebook, and no quiz function. So you have to go third-party for that, too.

I'll keep you posted about what works, and what doesn't.