Open Learning ’19 has ended and I’d like to ask everyone to consider writing a blog post as a way to reflect on their experience in the cMOOC over the past few weeks. (Rebecca Clark has already done this, and wonderfully so–check out her post!)
For me, this was my first time serving as Hub Director and that was a pretty daunting task. I’m a pretty good meeting manager and project organizer, but like it’s predecessors, Open Learning ’19 has had many pieces and parts to juggle and is run completely by volunteers. It’s been a challenge to find time to give the cMOOC and the Hub the attention they deserve. But we pulled it off! People came, they learned something, and their networks expanded! At least one person’s education and career may have taken a different path because we were here!
What was new for me this time was taking a lead role in designing the experience. We intentionally pulled in not only established leaders in the field, but the emerging leaders as well. We highlighted new projects and new roles in the realm of open learning. We pared down the experience to what we thought might allow some to make it to the finish line (and some did!). As is common with MOOC experiences, we had folks dropping in and out, but there were some who were there on the first day and are still engaging with the experience in this final week. Any level of participation is valuable and I thank all of you who participated for contributing to the learning experience.
We had fun looking back on the previous iterations of the cMOOC and invited some past participants to rejoin us for interviews, annotations and the reunion Zoom. That was my crazy idea and it turned out to be more fun than even I imagined. Reconnecting in a connected learning experience is a wonderful feeling and I loved hearing about how people took their learning experience from the cMOOC into their work. It lives on through you! I am humbled to know that the Open Learning cMOOC in all its iterations and the Hub have continued to inspire you in the in between times. My hope is that the Hub will continue to do that and I am committed to finding ways to keep it fresh and alive. What struck me about the reflections on past iterations of the cMOOC was the lasting impact that this particular learning experience has had.
One thing you can do to help keep the Hub alive is to continue to use the hashtag #OpenLearningHub when you blog or tweet something that’s relevant to the community we’ve built around all the iterations of the cMOOC. Also consider using #openlearning as well to gain a further reach, but the #OpenLearningHub hashtag will ensure that your voice comes into the Open Learning Hub site for our community to see. This will syndicate your post to the Hub and so it will serve as a way to refresh the content there for all of us. Follow the hashtag to keep up with posts from our community.
I truly look forward to connecting with everyone in the years to come and I’m proud to have played a role in facilitating the Open Learning cMOOC experiences. May the Hub live on through all of us!
And a very special to Gardner Campbell who had the initial idea for the cMOOC and the Hub, encouraged me to move from novice to node to hub director, and hung in there with me through all of this latest iteration. There’s no one I’d rather hang with in my liminal space of learning. Yoda to my Skywalker, you are!
