How the community became more than the curriculum: participant experiences in #RHIZO14

Honeychurch, S. , Stewart, B., Bali, M., Hogue, R. J. and Cormier, D. (2016) How the community became more than the curriculum: participant experiences in #RHIZO14. Current Issues in Emerging eLearning, 3(1), 3.

Abstract

The paper outlines participant experiences in a rhizomatic MOOC, #rhizo14. We begin with a brief outline of the structure of the course before presenting our five participant narratives to illustrate our beliefs that, for us, the #rhizo14 community became more than the curriculum. We then discuss some of the common themes in our narratives: the role that the Facebook group held in fostering our feelings of community, how the diversity of voices in the course promoted learning and engagement of group members, the formation of sub-communities with diverse interests, and the flexibility of participation that the course encouraged. While acknowledging the partiality of our narratives, we conclude that the emphasis in #rhizo14 on contribution and creation rather than content mastery encouraged a sense of "eventedness" (shared experience), which allowed our community to thrive.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Honeychurch, Dr Sarah
• Authors: Honeychurch, S., Stewart, B., Bali, M., Hogue, R. J., and Cormier, D.
• College/School: University Services > Learning and Teaching Services Division
• Journal Name: Current Issues in Emerging eLearning
• Journal Abbr.: CIEE
• Publisher: University Massachusetts Boston
• ISSN: 2373-6089
• ISSN (Online): 2373-6089
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2016 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Current Issues in Emerging eLearning 3(1):article 3
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a creative commons license