https://akimbo.com/themarketingseminar
Last year I took Seth Godin’s Marketing Seminar. For those who don’t know, he is a well known and well regarded expert on marketing and new trends in the new economy. He writes books, appears on YouTube, has a blog and podcast and offers other online courses such as the “Alt MBA”.
One of the themes that stands out for me about his courses is the idea of asynchronous and synchronous, self-determined, independent learning. Much like taking a free and open course from MIT for the sake of learning, when you take one of Seth Godin’s courses, you are engaging with learning for your own purposes, regardless of getting a credential or diploma from a formal institution. This would fall under the category of “Open Learning”. His content is presented in a mobile friendly format and is suitable as a mobile learning tool. His course consists of 60 video lessons, with a case study, provocation and group discussion for each video. Learning how to effectively market a product or service by “finding the others” is taken outside of the realm of “formal education” in a frictionless, open and mobile format.
Similar to Lyndsay Barrett’s post on Crowdcast, participants in the Marketing Seminar are learning from other participants in the class as much as they are learning from the videos and case studies provided by Seth Godin, the instructor. In this way, this is an example of cognitive apprenticeship as well as collaborative learning and informal learning. As well, learning is social, which again is a feature of “open learning”.
I feel this is a good example of mobile, open, social, collaborative, self-determined learning that exists outside of formal education.
I have taken several LinkedIn Learning courses (video and quiz). While I have found them to be relatively well done, I will agree that as a life learner they lack the ability to put what you learn into practice or learn from the experiences of others. The idea of incorporating case studies and group discussion adds what I think is the missing link. This type of program could be designed and utilized for corporate training to allow for employees to have the opportunity to work with others outside of their company or if the company is sufficiently large enough, across all divisions and locations.
Hi Toby,
I am currently researching MOOCs for the Moveable Fest A3 project. I noticed that the description you provide of Seth Godin’s course closely aligns with the description of both cMOOCs (Connectivist) which provide space for self-organized learning which are more learner centred. Also, I noticed elements of xMOOCs (Extension) which typically follow the standard behaviorist model of learning with video lectures or lessons and e-assessments. The merger of elements of both types of MOOCs is referred to as yet another type of MOOC: aMOOCs or alphaMOOCs.