Monthly Archives: October 2013

Is completion necessary for MOOC participants?

I really am not sure that it matters that a lot of the participants in MOOCs do not officially “complete”. Yet a lot of the furore around MOOCs centres on the fact that only a small proportion of the students actually complete the course. I’d like to argue that it isn’t necessary for students to complete the MOOC to get something out of it.

Legitimate peripheral participation (lurking!) is a phenomenon that has been studied in traditional online courses and communities and is particularly relevant in MOOCs. Someone like myself may well join a MOOC and take from it what I need and have time to get, and be perfectly satisfied with the learning I have achieved, yet perhaps not have completed very many assessment activities or indeed any at all.

Blogging

Cleaning and cooking oil

Coping with cooking oil is something I am always pondering. It’s not supposed to go down the drain so how do you dispose of it? Hubby keeps broken cups by the sink and lets the fat cool and set before throwing it out, but I don’t like the constant messy look, as there always seems to be one or two around.

A couple of recent tips I read about:

Pour grease into egg shells and dispose of them when set
Reuse oil where possible – it can be filtered with kitchen paper or coffee filters.

Always worth a reminder of places one might forget in the cleaning schedule:

Keyboard
Mouse
Phone screen
Light switches
Remote controls
Doorhandles
Toilet handles
Rubbish bins (especially the kitchen bin)

And remember to replace:

Pillows
Toothbrush / toothbrush head