Thomas P. Mackey

This article examines metaliteracy as a pedagogical model that leverages the assets of MOOC platforms to enhance self-regulated and self-empowered learning. Between 2013 and 2015, a collaborative teaching team within the State University of New York (SUNY) developed three MOOCs on three different platforms— connectivist, Coursera and Canvas—to engage with learners about metaliteracy. As a reframing of information literacy, metaliteracy envisions the learner as an active and metacognitive producer of digital information in online communities and social media environments (Mackey & Jacobson, 2011; 2014). This team of educators, which constitutes the core of the Metaliteracy Learning Collaborative, used metaliteracy as a lens for applied teaching and learning strategies in the development of a cMOOC and two xMOOCs. The metaliteracy MOOCs pushed against the dominant trends of lecture-based, automated MOOC design towards a more learner-centered pedagogy that aligns with key components of metaliteracy.

In the fall of 2013, SUNY Empire State
College and the University at Albany offered a collaborative massive open online course (MOOC) about metaliteracy (see http://metaliteracy. cdlprojects.com). This project emerged from the work of Tom Mackey and Trudi Jacobson to develop a metaliteracy model that promotes collaboration and participation in today’s interactive, mobile and social media environments. After considering other platforms for the MOOC such as Coursera and Canvas Network, this particular open environment was developed using the original connectivist format inspired by the early innovators of this movement including Dave Cormier, George Siemens and Stephen Downes. This collaborative essay is a connectivist dialogue among several key facilitators of Metaliteracy MOOC.

Abstract We examine an institutional assessment model for general education that effectively incorporates instructor-driven strategies. We argue that course-specific tools for assessing information literacy are integral to the process and must be used to enhance institutional efforts. This integrated strategy is applicable to a range of other courses and programs.

The purpose of this case study is to better understand the relationships between Web usability and students’ perceived learning in the design and implementation of Web-based multimedia (WBMM) tutorials in blended courses. Much of the current research in this area focuses on the use of multimedia as a replacement for classroom instruction rather than as a complement to teaching practices

This book aims to provide models of best practice for faculty-librarian collaboration in developing effective information skills instruction in the academic online environment. It is edited by a senior academic and a librarian at SUNY, with chapters co-written by faculty-librarian teams from a variety of academic settings, including the Open University and Manchester University, as well as a number of US institutions.

Participants in this course will be on a quest to earn a Digital Citizen badge! Accept the challenge and learn how to navigate an ever-evolving information landscape as both consumers and creators of information. Learn how to use and remix information ethically, and how to create and share an online social identity. Those who successfully complete a series of quests and challenges will earn a digital badge demonstrating their achievements as responsible and empowered digital citizens.

This presentation examines metaliteracy as a pedagogical model in the design of three Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and a competency based digital badging system (https://metaliteracybadges.org/). Metaliteracy is an empowering pedagogy that promotes metacognitive reflection and envisions the learner as critical consumer and creative producer in social media and collaborative communities (Mackey and Jacobson, 2011, 2014). The initial exploration of metaliteracy in the connectivist (Siemens, 2004) format informed the eventual design of related projects in the xMOOC platforms of Coursera and Canvas, including a recent on-demand version of the Coursera MOOC (https://www.coursera.org/learn/metaliteracy). As these projects emerged, a competency-based digital badging system was developed based on the metaliteracy learning goals and objectives that provided an interactive system with gamification components for learners to pursue quests and challenges leading to digital badges (http://www.metaliteracy.org). At a pivotal intersection of these open learning projects, the MOOC and badging platforms converged to inform a hybrid MOOC design. This reimagined strategy advanced metaliteracy through the original connectivist principles that initially inspired these innovative practices.

This panel presentation offers a unique perspective from a collaborative team of faculty, librarians, and administrators within SUNY that has experience co-developing four Metaliteracy MOOCs across three platforms. Our five-year iterative journey took us from our very first connectivist MOOC, to xMOOCs in the Coursera and Canvas platforms, and to the current on-demand version of our Coursera MOOC, entitled Metaliteracy: Empowering Yourself in a Connected World. We will present on the best practices gleaned from our experiences, which we have worked to adapt to the self-paced, on-demand environment.

Metaliteracy served as the content focus for each of the MOOCs, and also provided the guiding framework for our course design. Metaliteracy is an empowering reinvention of information literacy

that encourages metacognitive reflection and the production of digital information in social media and collaborative communities. In each of the MOOCs, our goal was to engage participants in a way that would encourage their development as empowered, metaliterate learners, as well as teaching them about metaliteracy.

MOOCs provide ample opportunities for learners to connect with and learn from a global classroom of peers. This connectedness is often lost, however, in exchange for more automated, lecture-centered content delivery. The open and circuitous format of our first connectivist MOOC allowed for a level of flexibility and interactivity that was difficult to replicate in our later xMOOC explorations in Coursera and Canvas. However, components in the xMOOCS such as the peer assessment functionalities and discussion forums provided support structures not present in the cMOOC environment that helped facilitate student engagement.

The pedagogical practices we aimed for and how they fared in each environment will be of interest to others who are creating MOOC-based courses, and who are interested in incorporating components that encourage deep engagement and connectedness, even in the self-paced xMOOC environment.

These projects were largely supported by SUNY Innovative Instruction Technology Grants (IITGs), which provided additional resources for continued collaboration between colleagues at The University at Albany and SUNY Empire State College, for these open learning and competency-based ventures.

Overall, we will describe what worked, as well as what did not, and look forward to engaging in conversation with those who have developed MOOCS themselves, or are contemplating doing so.

Even with a few challenges along the way, and the occasional differences in viewpoints, we kept the band together, and the metaliteracy movie never ends. It goes on and on, and on, and on.

Metaliteracy is a holistic model that emphasises information-related knowledge attainment whilst challenging individuals to take charge of their learning strategies and goals. It prepares learners to become informed consumers and responsible producers of information. Metacognition is a core concept in metaliteracy, just as it is in SDL and in methods of assessment appropriate to SDL, such as assessment as learning (AaL) and assessment for learning (AfL). This congruence provides clear avenues for using metaliteracy’s framework in ways that support SDL. The first part of the chapter explores metaliteracy and its connections with SDL and assessment. The remainder of the chapter provides two examples of how the intersection of metaliteracy, SDL and assessment might be addressed in practice. These case studies provide additional and practical connections that might suggest applications in other settings. The first section explores a comprehensive metaliteracy digital badging system that is designed to advance SDL, with a focus on how the self-directed unit from this system was adapted for use in an open textbook. The final section of the chapter provides an example of how an online undergraduate course intertwines metaliteracy, information literacy and editing on Wikipedia, exemplifying principles of SDL and providing examples of AaL and AfL.