Small Open Online Communities

slide-1-638I had an opportunity to present some ideas about a cSOOC at the #ucsaffire Festival.
Shortly after presenting, I had a brief conversation with Danny Munnerley about the capital C in SOOC. Danny made the excellent point that C stands for Community rather than Course.
I am going to act on this excellent suggestion and think about longer-term aspects of open online opportunities. A few days earlier, Susan Blum wrote:

If our ultimate goal is to educate human beings, then we must focus not only on knowledge and information, discipline and surveillance as measured by tests, but also on non-academic pleasures, motivations, skills, and the full array of human engagement that sustains attention and meaning.

Whilst I was presenting, Paul Perkins, a friend facilitating the Introduction to Box’Tag cSOOC was welcoming another participant in the community:

On this SOOC: An Introduction to Box’Tag we have a number of experienced and exceptional coaches including, Professor Keith Lyons, Professor Allan Hahn – Keith and Allan have many years of experience working with elite athletes across a range of sports. Losh Mathews and Joe Leahy – Both have a wealth of experience in coaching boxing at the development stage and club level. Lewis Kiddy, who has just started as a coach and is coaching a junior program designed to improve agility, coordination, balance, while introducing young athletes to exploring skills and assisting with their overall personal development.
One of Australia’s best-ever athlete/boxer, Paul Miller – who won numerous National Championships and a Gold Medal at the 2002 Commonwealth Games is also on this course and it’s interesting to hear his thoughts on this emerging sport. We have Doctor Jason Berry, who is a skill acquisition specialist, David Briggs, a strength and conditioning coach who has worked in the pre-elite and elite level for a variety of sporting program and Sid Burgees – A fantastic coach with over 20 years of experience in rugby league and rugby union.
As for myself I have been fortunate to coach at every level of the sport of boxing, from club level through to International competition.
Apart from this course there a many other coaches who would like to be connected to learn and share their experiences, all it takes is a coming together of like-minded people who share a similar belief.

There are 103 participants in the online Box’Tag community at the moment. Following a brief conversation with Dean Groom at #ucsaffire, I am hopeful that this community might grow to include new members.
The OpenLearning platform for the cSOOC will continue to be available as a touchstone of and for the community.

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