There are different ways of using the online tools when it comes to education, and one of this weeks questions concerns if a MOOC is the way to move forward. In this sense for me movining forward means letting the LMS go and work more openly. Is see MOOCs as a big opportunity, but at the same time some questions arises. A central issue is knowing who is attending the course and also working with boundaries, like when a course starts and when it finishes. This becomes even more significant when it comes to rewarding credits, or just getting a course certificate. I can also, still, prefer to know who my course participants are and see that they are active and do their assignments as some just drop out if the teacher or course manager is not communicating with them. But, there is quite a big but in this, that I very much can see myself. If you take an online course, is it not your own responsibility to do the assignments to fulfill the course requirements? Or is it a part of the job as a teacher to inspire and coach the participants through the course? Quite often I can see myself contacting participants who seem to be dropping out, and most of the time they react positively as they have ”been seen” and confirmed. I think one can get a feeling of being forgotten if the courses have no learning activities based on interactivity. But, of course, I’ve also in vain contacted participants who fail and I just feel that I can’t be bothered. The main question here is if I should be bothered? At the same time you want a receipt that the course is functioning, and that is often a bit easier when you on a daily, or weekly, basis meet your participants. You have no context, and by this I mean a traditional context. Maybe, being online is a satisfactory context for digital natives.

If using MOOC is developing I think, to quote one of my group members, that the role of the teacher is even more important than ever. Not least as the learning more and more leans on a co-creation of knowledge that still needs to be scrutinized and sustainable.  This takes participants who are mature enough to take a responsibility for their own and other participants learnings. As a teacher you somehow have to supervise this and know where your teaching is heading, even if you have a good digital tool. I’d like to finish with a quotation from a European conference on police research, where digital solutions were discussed. Entirely relying on the digital solution was harshly questioned by one participant who meant that ”a fool with a tool is still a fool”. I recall that not everyone found that amusing. Anyhow, the question of who is in charge must not be neglected and teaching will always need its professionalism.