What you will learn
- Map significant milestones in the emergence of social media
- Identify how different users are impacted by digital in/accessibility
- Extrapolate current social trends online and map possible directions in social media
- Understand how people interpret robots and bots as communicating, social, even emotional, others
Program Overview
Online communication and digital technologies dominate our everyday lives, extend our abilities, and change the way we communicate with each other. This series brings together three Internet Studies MOOCS:
- NET1x will increase learners’ understandings of social media by looking at the ways networked connectivity let users become ‘social’
- NET2x further explores the way digital technologies and social media channels impact our daily routines and transform how we live, using people with disability as a case study. Learners will be introduced to the social model of disability and the ways negative attitudes affect digital accessibility and representation.
- Continuing the theme of human reliance on technologies, NET3x explores how people communicate with robots and bots in everyday life, both now and into the future.
Courses in this program
1Social Media: How Media Got Social
Course Details
1
Discover where social media came from, how it became integral to our everyday lives, and how that has changed the way we communicate.
2Disability and Digital Media: Accessibility, Representation and Inclusion
Course Details
2
In Disability and Digital Media: Accessibility, Representation and Inclusion , we will explore the relationship between digital technologies and disability in the Internet age.
3Communicating with Robots and Bots
Course Details
3
Robots and bots are being developed to populate our homes, workplaces and social spaces, as well as the online spaces we frequent. How do people communicate with robots and bots? What does the future hold for human-robot communication and collaboration
Meet your instructors
Gwyneth Peaty
Gwyneth is a sessional academic in Internet Studies at Curtin University. She completed a PhD exploring the grotesque in popular culture, and her wider research interests include monstrosity, post-humanism, horror and the Gothic.
Eleanor Sandry
Eleanor is a Senior Lecturer in Internet Studies at Curtin University. Her first degree was in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University. More recently, she completed a Masters in Communication Studies followed by a PhD in Communication and Cultural Studies at the University of Western Australia. Her research uses a range of communication theories and philosophies of technology to drive analyses of human-technology interactions and relations. She is particularly interested in the ways human-robot communication, where robots need not be humanlike in form, behaviour or intelligence, can support collaboration between humans and robots to complete joint tasks in the home, at work or in social spaces.
Tama Leaver
Tama Leaver is an Associate Professor of Internet Studies at Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia and a frequent expert media commentator. His research interests include online identity, social media, digital death, infancy online, mobile gaming and the changing landscape of media distribution. He has published in a number of journals including Popular Communication, Media International Australia, First Monday, Comparative Literature Studies, Social Media and Society, Communication Research and Practice and the Fibreculture journal. He is also the author of 'Artificial Culture: Identity, Technology and Bodies' (Routledge, 2012); co-editor of 'An Education in Facebook? Higher Education and the World’s Largest Social Network' (Routledge, 2014) with Mike Kent; and 'Social, Casual and Mobile Games: The Changing Gaming Landscape' (Bloomsbury Academic, 2016) with Michele Willson. Tama has received teaching awards from the University of Western Australia, Curtin University, and in 2012 received a national Australian Award for Teaching Excellence in the Humanities and the Arts.
Katie Ellis
Mike Kent
Program Overview
Course Creator Series Plus provides edX partners with the training required to build an online course for the edX platform. There are no prerequisites for this series, just access to the edx.org platform and enthusiasm for online learning!
While this series is open to the public, it is designed specifically for edX partners to learn how to create courses to be run in the edX environment.
These courses cover a wide variety of interests in online learning. In edX101, you will learn the process of building a course on the edX platform. In StudioX you’ll get hands-on instruction and learn how to use the course authoring software. Studio Advanced expands on StudioX with more in-depth course design and building skills. VideoX instructs on media best practices and BlendedX shows you how to design courses that combine classroom-based and online learning instruction.
All the courses draw upon real-world examples and pedagogical principles to help ensure you will learn what it takes to develop high-quality online courses.
What you will learn
- Design, develop, and run an online course on the edX platform following best practices.
- Build an online course in Studio, edX’s course authoring software.
- Use the edX platform to support a blended learning model.
- Implement a production process to design and build media for your courses.
Program Class List
1edX101: Overview of Creating an edX Course
Course Details
1
A quick course designed to help you explore all of the different steps that go into planning and building an edX course. Perfect for instructors or institutional leadership interested in building a MOOC on edX.
2StudioX: Creating a Course with edX Studio
Course Details
2
Learn the fundamentals of creating courses on the edX platform using edX Studio.
3Studio Advanced: Expanded Course Creation Techniques
Course Details
3
Learn to build better courses in edX Studio
4VideoX: Creating Video for the edX Platform
Course Details
4
Learn the best and most efficient ways to create video content for the edX platform.
5BlendedX: Blended Learning with edX
Course Details
5
Explore ways to blend educational technology with traditional classroom learning to improve educational outcomes. Perfect for instructors or institutional leadership interested in creating blended learning experiences with edX.
Meet your instructors
Ben Piscopo
About Me
Ben is a senior learning designer at edX. He has over 10 years of experience in both academia and industry, building a diverse resume that includes lecturing at international colleges, authoring a series of innovative phonetic textbooks, and consulting for the British Council on a high-stakes English exam. Ben has an advanced degree in Learning and Knowledge Management Systems from the Rochester Institute of Technology. When he isn't dreaming up new learning experiences, he is planning his next trip to Asia, or enjoying a steaming cup of high-mountain tea.
Amy Woodgate
About Me
Amy Woodgate is an Instructional Designer and Online Learning consultant, specialising in digital strategy and learning at scale. She is Director and founder of Woodgate Consulting - an education strategy and production company, which leads design and creation of MOOCs and online courses across all leading digital platforms.
Mark Rudnick
About Me
Mark was a Director of Partner Success at edX, and has worked directly with a number of edX partner institutions and course teams to guide them in building excellent courses for the edX platform. A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, he spent four years working in higher education in South Korea and Australia before joining edX. He has experience as an educator, content developer, and consultant for both residential and online learning systems. Mark has been particularly interested in leveraging the global reach of edX and its partners to bring innovation to education around the world.
Ildi Morris
About Me
Ildi Morris is a Senior Manager of Training and Partner Enablement at edX. She has held various positions in learning consulting, instructional design and program management at companies including Digital Think, Education Development Center, and WGBH Boston. Ildi has an M.Ed. from Harvard University in Technology in Education, and a B.A. from Boston University in European history. When she is not at work, she is doing something outdoorsy with her husband and two daughters in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
James Donald
About Me
James Donald is a Video Producer at edX. James has produced course video content for MIT and Wellesley College, as well as course announcement videos and other pieces of edX media. James also helps to instruct edX Partners on best practices for video creation. Previous to edX, James had a 17-year career in documentary filmmaking, producing award-winning television programs for PBS, National Geographic Television and other clients. James' other passions include movies, his three children, dogs, and home-brewed ice coffee.
Erik Brown
About Me
As a Producer on the edX media team, Erik has edited, filmed, and crewed for various edX productions, from course introduction videos to labs to lectures. Erik aspires to help edX make education as inviting as it is accessible. Erik enjoys all things indie art. He received his Masters of Fine Arts in Filmmaking from Kingston University, London.
Nina Huntemann
About Me
Nina Huntemann is Vice President of Learning at edX. In this role, Nina drives edX’s instructional and pedagogical strategy to maximize the capabilities of the edX platform to improve learner outcomes. Nina has over 15 years of college-level teaching, program administration, and faculty development experience. Prior to joining edX, she was an associate professor in the Department of Communication and Journalism at Suffolk University in Boston where she taught courses and published research in digital media studies. Nina received her Ph.D. in communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Outside of work, Nina enjoys cycling, baking, and hiking with her Welsh terrier, Penny.
Jeff Jorge
About Me
Jeff Jorge has worked with a number of our Open edX partners who strive to help underserved populations gain access to quality educational opportunities. He received his M.Ed. in International Education Policy and Management from Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College. Jeff also enjoys finding pick-up soccer games around the world.
Emily Watson
About Me
Emily has worked with edX partners to help them design and produce their courses on edX. She received her Masters in Technology, Innovation, and Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Outside of edX, Emily enjoys live music events, strong coffee, and planning her next travel adventure.
Colin Fredericks
About Me
Dr. Fredericks is a Senior Project Lead at HarvardX, specializing in instructional technology. He has helped to build multiple edX courses, including Super-Earths and Life , Energy Within Environmental Constraints , The Health Effects of Climate Change , and more. In his off time he writes roleplaying games and participates in science advocacy.
