#hyperlibMOOC: Profile of Learning Guide Jolene Finn

http://ischool.sjsu.edu/people/community-profile/jolene-finn

Student Jolene Finn serves as a “participatory learning guide” in the first massive open online course (MOOC) offered by SJSU SLIS. Finn is one of 11 guides who act as liaisons between the 400 MOOC participants and its instructors.

The Hyperlinked Library MOOC (#hyperlibMOOC on Twitter), which started on September 3, is taught by Assistant Professor Michael Stephens and Lecturer Kyle Jones. It parallels much of the content in Stephens’ LIBR 287 Hyperlinked Library course, offered to students enrolled in the school’s Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) program. Intended for professional development, the MOOC is offered free to the public. MOOC students can earn a certificate of completion at the end of the course, but no college credit.

Finn took Stephens’ Hyperlinked Library course in spring 2013, and with her background as a technology instructor and school librarian, she was drawn to the opportunity to help out with the MOOC. It’s not a paid position, but she will earn course credit for LIBR 298 Special Studies.

Each MOOC guide is responsible for a group of about 35 participants. Guides don’t grade assignments, but do respond to questions about them and let the instructors know when participants have completed assignments.

The guides started preparing for the MOOC before the fall 2013 term began. They met in web conferencing sessions, and Stephens and Jones set up a blog so the guides could more easily communicate with one another, sharing their questions, problems and successes.

Finn said she is “really enjoying the sense of community” that Stephens and Jones created for the guides. “We feel like we’re all here for a purpose and everyone works together as a team. I see the interaction between the guides, teachers and MOOC participants as overwhelmingly positive.”

Click the link above to read the whole profile.

Thanks to Jolene and ALL of the Participatory Learning Guides who worked so hard during #hyperlibMOOC