The MOOC

[adamadaman]

For those of you that are not familiar with the concept, an MOOC stands for Massive Online Open Course.  Basically, its an online course where many people can interact at the same time, giving feedback to the instructor, that then changes the direction of the lecture.  The philosophy behind these courses is that information should be democratized and people given access to it for free.  The pioneers of this have started putting lectures from Harvard and Stanford University professors online for everyone to view on various topics.

I was thinking to myself, why not have something like this for Yoga, or even just eastern philosophy in general?  I currently work in IT, so I am familiar with the technology to put something like that together, I am having trouble finding people willing to put the time and effort into developing a curriculum however.

Is there, or does anybody know anyone that would be interested in this?

[Parallax]

Hi Adamadaman!

I think what you are describing sounds like essentially what AYP has been doing for a number of years. Taking lesson on Yoga (see the link to the main lessons) and putting it on the web for free. AYP takes a tremendous amount of information on practices and is providing it to the masses for everyone to utilize and benefit from. Much of the information on practices used to only be doled out either directly from guru to chosen students, or by signing up and paying for lessons that are generally kept as closely guarded secrets.

The feedback loop for AYP is the open online forums, as well as the many lessons which are derived directly from the questions of practitioners, and some of the adjustments to the system (ie alternate mantra enhancements and lessons on over or under-sensitive meditators) are the result of the experiences and feedback of the many individuals who are practicing the AYP system.

So from my perspective, what you are describing is to a large extent what AYP is all about.

And I so I think you will find many here on the forums who are *very* interested in this

Candles lighting candles until all candles are lit

Much love to you adamadaman

[yogani]

Hi Adamadaman:

Thanks for bringing this up. It is a subject near and dear to the hearts of many here. As Parallax pointed out, AYP has been developing gradually along similar lines -- nearly 10 years online now.

Online education is a fast-growing phenomenon in the university world, largely because of the skyrocketing cost of attending universities and the vast demand for quality online education, which can be delivered at a much lower cost. This was written up in USA's Time Magazine a few months ago, an indication that it is going mainstream with universities.

The logistics are going to continue to evolve over time, and for university degree programs (for tuition) it is likely to be a combination of pre-recorded lectures, live online interaction and written communications. This will be for smaller numbers of students per class, modeled after the traditional university curriculum and class structure. As you no doubt know, online universities have been around for quite some time. The large "brick and mortar" universities are getting into it much more now.

But for "massive online open courses" (MOOC) like you are talking about, it will likely have to be lectures (or lessons) followed by mainly written interactions, along the lines we have been doing here at AYP. Otherwise, the speed and volume of interactions will be overwhelming and tend toward chaos if large online learning venues are truly open with hundreds or thousands of people participating. So add good moderation of interactions to MOOC, because it will be essential. AYP has a strong moderation team working behind the scenes to keep forum communications running smoothly and effectively.

The AYP forum community has gone pretty far up the learning curve in these matters over the years, and we have gotten to a place that is a fairly good balance, able to serve tens of thousands of people at many levels of participation in the sharing of practical yogic and spiritual knowledge. Believe it or not, the AYP website and forums see over 20,000 unique visitors every month, and will have nearly 200,000 unique visitors this year. No problem.

You are absolutely right about one thing:
It is the "democratization of knowledge" that makes the logistics  of mass online learning possible, and it is a primary benefit as well. With that, it does not have to all fall on one or a few people -- impossible when there are many thousands of people participating in an "open format" venue. So the democratization of knowledge is the key to the success of MOOC, both logistically, and in benefits derived by the participants.  

Like Parallax wrote above, it is "candles lighting candles until all candles are lit." It works. Maybe for the individual not quite as efficiently as hands-on instruction in a university setting or in any traditional field of learning, including the spiritual traditions. The trade-off is that a great many more can have access for little or no cost through mass online instructional and support systems. It is what the internet is about, and my hope is that AYP will continue to evolve toward increasingly effective methods for the online transmission and practical application of yogic and spiritual knowledge.

So we are all for MOOC here. It is the wave of the future, and the future is here and now.  

Wishing you all the best on your path. Practice wisely, and enjoy!

The guru is in you.


PS: There have been discussions over the years for developing and presenting more structured AYP online training, generally following the sequence of the 11 small Enlightenment Series books, which constitute a full-scope yoga curriculum. Perhaps that is where AYP is going to go eventually in the MOOC world. Time will tell.
 

[adamadaman]

Thank you Yogani and Parralax for your input.  AYP was more or less the inspiration for this idea.  I have emailed several professors of philosophy at major universities, and so far I have gotten mixed to negative feedback.  I think this may be the wrong approach.  Perhaps going to the Yogic community itself to find willing teachers is the best idea.

Yogani, you bring up a lot of good points on support forums.  This brings up the question of what advantage does an MOOC have over a regular bulletin board format?  I think there needs enough people willing to interact simultaneously to make it work.

[yogani]

Hi Adamadaman:

The main difference between what we are doing in AYP now and doing MOOC would be a structured curriculum involving online video presentations and some kind of moderated communications that can manage hundreds or thousands of people. The second part we can do. It is the first part that is yet to be developed. We have plenty of raw material to work with for curriculum development in the AYP writings, the Enlightenment Series books in particular, which were written with incremental (course) learning and sequencing (curriculum) in mind.

If we scale it down to the level of standard online training with small groups of students, then it is not MOOC anymore, but still a viable option, as mentioned in my PS above -- probably a starting point before expanding to MOOC. There are several yoga teachers who have been looking at doing standard online training using AYP, but nothing has crystalized so far, and nothing on the scale of a MOOC yet.

I think MOOC for yoga/spirituality is a great idea, and AYP is one of the few existing online communities that could facilitate implementation of it. And, yes, it will more likely happen through yoga experts who are inclined toward online transmission and training, rather than through academics, who might be leery about online teaching in the first place, which is a divergence from the traditional teaching model. Perhaps you are contacting the wrong academics -- how about those who are already involved in running courses and seminars online? Or non-academics who are doing the same? There are many possibilities.

Btw, online training, and also MOOC, could be a living for those who get involved in planning and implementing it. AYP would welcome partners in such endeavors. Lots of opportunity there for enterprising yogis and yoginis.

The guru is in you.

[adamadaman]

I think what you are suggesting is the best course of action, Yogani.  I think people want some sort of proof of concept before the sign on to it.  A visual representation gives users an idea of what to expect.  If you are willing to give some things a try, I will do some research into the technology aspect of it to see what it might take.

[yogani]

Hi Adamadaman:

The technology and infrastucture for offering courses online is readily available these days. Organizing and presenting is the challenging part. In my case, doing videos is not an option, since my anonymity is a cornerstone of the AYP approach, and there are no plans for that to change. So it is more a question of who will be inspired to teach online using the AYP approach as a baseline than what the technology will be.

Thanks for bringing this up. We revisit online training every so often, and it always boils down to the who more-so than the how.

The MOOC concept is an interesting one, running very large open courses. That is something AYP could support by merging our existing large online community administration capabilities with a structured online training program. The latter is yet to come, but it will at some point.

All the best!  

The guru is in you.

[adamadaman]

After doing some extra research,  I think it is possible to convert one of the Enlightenment Series books into an online demo course using a free hosting site.  I think each book could be broken down into the basic practices using drawings with voice overs and animations.  The hardest part would be putting time and dedication into production.

Anyone out there interested in collaborating on getting a proof of concept video together?  I would be willing to do much of the technical work together, but Iack experience in doing animations and diagrams.

[Darianne]

Adamadaman, Are you getting any offers of help?  After reading this thread and seeing Thomas Friedman's article about MOOCs in the New York Times yesterday, I am interested in seeing this happen also.  Yogani has given us all such a gift, it would be great if it could reach more people: people who are only interested in one topic, people who have started and backslid, people whose primary focus is in a different system. Basically, you are asking how to parse it into a manageable Adult Education Curriculum.

[adamadaman]

Hello Darianne,

I have not had any offers to help yet.  I am asking how to parse things out into a manageable curriculum and how to produce some online videos.  

Yogani's teachings have worked the best so far for me in my years of Yoga Sadhana, and I think they would work great in that type of forum.  It also seems advantageous for that promotes the sharing of effective technique.

Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

[Darianne]

Adamadaman, I a director of communications in my pesky-day-job.  That gives me certain strengths and weakness for a project like this.  I totally agree with you when you say "Yogani's teachings have worked the best so far for me in my years of Yoga Sadhana." Could you email me at darianne324@yahoo.com ? I am not sure if I have a good understanding of what you are trying to accomplish and (it's the communication thing!) for whom.  I will help, but this seems like a big project that has to be broken into smaller chunks.

[adamadaman]

Darianne, did you get my last email?

[MoocView]

Here's a complete list of MOOC's including curricula, prerequisites, starting/ending times, etc.: http://moocview.com