Moodle.org introduce their first MOOC

LearnMoodleThis is just a quick annoucement about a project that may be of interest to teachers who are new to Moodle.

Moodle for teachers: An introduction is a 4 week introductory course with a recommended total of 8-12 hours participation time. Registration opens on 19th August 2013 and the course starts on 1st September 2013. There are no fees for taking the course and successful participants will be awarded a Mozilla Open Badges course completion badge that they can add to their Open Badges backpack.

From the course outline, it looks like it will be of most interest to teachers who have never used Moodle before, are curious about it, and only want to make a minimal commitment. Experienced Moodle teachers are also invited to participate as helpers and may be awarded a “helper badge.” I also suspect this is a experimental pilot project and that the intention is to provide a proof of concept for using Moodle for MOOCs and perhaps to investigate the possiblity of offering accredited Moodle training and professional development programmes in the MOOC course format. Moodle partners have already been offering Moodle Course Creator Certification courses (for between $200 and $800 AUD) since at least 2007 (Originally called the Moodle Teacher Certificate).

For more details and enrolment see: http://learn.moodle.net/

BTW, Moodle was informally used by some learners in the original MOOC courses, ChangeMOOC: Connectivism and Connective Knowledge, started in 2008 at the University of Manitoba and run by Stephen Downes (National Research Council of Canada) and George Siemens (Athabasca University), in which I participated.