Taking part in two Open Online Courses (MOOC #change11 and P2PU) demands a lot of attention and effort. Sometimes it may feel like you have to carry a big backpack or rucksack as we in Germany call it.
Does anybody feel the same??
I have to come up with a learning plan and I have to cover some of the recent stuff on the MOOC #change11. Receiving feedback from other people increases my motivation.
I also try to provide feedback to other contributions. And I am experimenting with various social media tools but on the other hand they are time-consuming. Although you can utilize RSS feeds to scan blogs quickly but if you have a big list of blogs than the scanning itself takes some time.But I think all these tools have value for particular purposes which will evolve as you use them.
So I am confident for the next week but still want to know:
What are you strategies to overcome feelings of being overloaded?
I feel totally the same way. I am trying to participate and engage with others as one strategy to get my head inside the weeks topic. Whilst the experience is great it seems to be all consuming. I am thinking I need to adjust my expectations and try to limit the amount of content I am trying to get my head inside. My backpack is just stuffed with all sorts of fragments of learning which are all disconnected!
The organisers of the mooc repeatedly stress that you cannot hope to digest every contribution to a MOOC, and this can present a challenge for anyone more comfortable with traditional learning approaches
For my own participation, my main frustration is repetition: separating out those posts which merely amplify an idea from those which build and integrate it. This is especially difficult when following posts as they are occuring (as opposed to coming to a body of ideas some days or week after they have been presented).
Three strategies which I think work are first, to be clear of your goals – for example you may be interested in collective learning, but if your own context is school learning, then focus on other’s wh ate trying to relate the ideas to formal education (without entirely disregarding ideas in other contexts – try to acheive the right balance). Secondly, find others in your network with whom you can share ideas and build understanding. If you don’t have anyone suitable, then try to extend your network by engaging with others whose views interest or stumulate you. Third, try and contribute as well as consume – actually writing a blog post responding to ideas will help you clarify your views and develop your thinking.
Hope the rucksack hasn’t broken your back!