November proved to be a busy and fruitful month for NIDL, with many members being involved in multiple activities throughout the duration of the month. The number of MOOC leaners and courses continues to rise at an impressive rate across Europe, and this was recognised in the organisation of the second MOOC conference as part of the HOME project in Rome on November 30th. The event, which proved to be a big success, consisted of a ten member programme committee, two of which were NIDL members, Director Mark Brown and the programme chair for the BSc programmes, Dr Eamon Costello. The event featured numerous speakers across the day, covering a wide array of topics related to the field of MOOC’s.
Two of the topic areas were chaired by Eamon and Mark. Eamon oversaw the section ‘Role media exposure on MOOC development’. This section featured two fifteen minute presentations, the second of which was presented by Mark. Mark’s presentation, Hold the Front Page: The Story of MOOCs in the Irish Media, proved to be one of the more interesting presentations of the day. Examining the traditional media coverage of MOOC’s since 2011, the information and data analysis clearly highlights their growing influence, with news coverage rising sharply in 2014. Following this section of the event, the following section, titled ‘Supporting the Selection of MOOC platforms’, was chaired by Mark.
Digital Learning Dispatches 