Stephen Downes, a Research Officer in the National Research Council of Canada, presented a session at Open Ed 2021 entitled “What Does It Mean To Enroll in a Course?” Downes began by mentioning a concern they have: how much information the Learning Management System wants when enrolling in a course. Downes asked: “why do they want it?” and “in open learning, do we need any of this?” I guess I never really thought about this. Downes explained that providing this information is a barrier: providing the information may expose some to more risk, there may be excluded based on gender or disability… Downes emphasized that “we still need to design for open” to “increase social inclusion… providing opportunities for students not only as consumers of a service but participants in the creation of knowledge.” Urging us to go beyond the provider-consumer model, Downes highlighted the open syllabus. One statement that resonated with me was “educating students about the benefits of openness” and “allowing them to contribute through open educational practices.” Downes used language that I appreciate: instead of “giving students…,” they mentioned “allowing students to participate in project-based learning.” Downes explained that for their online courses they have worked toward blocking their ability to track individual students in the course. Downes workers for a research agency and is able to do this without stirring up too much trouble, though he mentioned an “existential crisis” of teaching a course and feeling no one is there. Downes mentioned not knowing who was enrolled in the course and learning happens without “registration.” Downes shared an imperative:
Open learning should enable enrollment without the requirement that information be provided, hence enabling legitimate peripheral participation, with the option of greater engagement entirely at the discreation of the learner.
Stephen Downes, Open Ed 2021
This begs the question: why do we need enrollment? Downes describes their MOOC as a deliberate ongoing experiment in Open. The homepage of the course has a sign-up if someone wants to receive notifications. The alternative Downes provides is an RSS feed. Downes also shares the process of setting up the MOOC via a YouTube playlist. Downes shared the Grasshopper code openly and described this project as an ongoing research lab. Grasshopper allows the creation of interconnected modules. Downes designed MOOCs in which people have the option of sharing their creations or building them on their own website. Downes explained how they share slides, podcasts, and transcripts and make them available without login. Several examples of their MOOC were shared that highlight how one can share without some registration (and other) barriers. This session made me think about ways of sharing information without registration. This is one thing I really like about sharing using websites. Downes has intriguing thoughts, and I want to check out the MOOCs listed.
