In an earlier issue of ETR{&}D, the editors provided an hierarchical framework of components to support learning and instruction. That hierarchy included information objects, knowledge objects, learning objects, instructional objects, courses, programs and ongoing efforts, with each subsequent component building on the former components. For example, a course is a structured collected of instructional objects, which in turn are structured collections of learning objects with learning activities, feedback, and assessments (both formative and summative). Based on that hierarchical perspective, most of the current massive open online courses (MOOCs) are not actually courses. This article proposes taking what is good about the MOOC concept and transforming it into something that could be considered a course–-namely, a mini-MOOC.

Keywords

dynamic feedback · formative assessment · learning activities · mini-MOOC · MOOC · summative assessment