Leiden MOOCs zoekt enthousiaste studenten als Community Moderators

Community Moderator @ Leiden MOOCs

Leiden University is participating as a partner in Coursera , a platform for Massive Online Open Courseware (MOOC), a highly innovative development in higher education, offering online education for free to the world.

So far Leiden has offered the MOOCs “The Law of the European Union: an introduction” (46,000 students) and “Terrorism & Counterterrorism: theory and practice” (26,000 students).  We are scheduling reruns for these MOOCs in 2014 as well as adding new courses in such diverse subjects as “Linguistic: Exploring the Diversity of Languages in the World” , “Configuring the World” (social/economic history) and “Science, Scholarship and Integrity” from some of the top professors of Leiden University.

The community of a MOOC consists of the professor,  their staff and tens of thousands, potentially even hundreds of thousands students. Students come from all over the world with a very diverse background.  While the teaching of those students, the content of the MOOC, is in the hands of the professor and their team, there is another aspect to such a massive diverse classroom, which is the running of the community itself, ensuring that behavior of students is guided and regulated. This is its own area of expertise of both technical and social skills called Community Management.

The Centre of Innovation is looking for a wide group of student volunteers with a broad interest in very diverse subjects, with an international outlook, who are willing to become:

Community Forum Moderators

The first MOOC that will be run is the rerun of Terrorism & Counterterrorism. However, knowledge of this subject is not required to take up this unique opportunity.

What it is

A community forum moderator together with the rest of  team is responsible for maintaining a positive, dedicated online community at the forums of the MOOC during the running of the course by

  • Greeting newcomers and helping them familiarize with the MOOC
  • Answer basic practical, technical or social questions
  • Encourage students to participate in activities
  • Promote events (such as possible chats) and help host them
  • Evaluate content in cooperation with the teaching staff by selecting high quality content, as well as marking inappropriate content for possible removal
  • Help upload content to the wiki
  • Participate in the staff forum to request changes or upgrades, give feedback etc.
  • Attend meetings, including evaluating the course

What we ask

  • Fluency in written English
  • A commitment of 8-12 hours a week in the period 6th of January till 28th of February. (this may include evening & weekend hours), plus availability for a 1 day training session on
  • An interest in the subjects of (some of the) MOOC courses offered in 2014
  • Online experience, preferably in moderating forums and/or wiki’s. Experience with Social Media is also a plus.
  • An understanding of what it means to represent Leiden University on a global forum.

What we offer

  • A training on the skills of forum moderation
  • A signed testimonial or “getuigschrift” for your work as Leiden community moderator in this MOOC after the course has closed
  • Participate in a highly innovative educational project, with opportunities for extra contributions
  • Be part of an enthusiastic inspiring team
  • After proven suitability you’ll be included in the Leiden Moderator pool with a chance to be part of future MOOCs as well.

Apply

https://www.jotform3.leidenuniv.nl/form/33292538411