TL;DR Version: Come join, lurk, connect, share, and learn in the Online Research & Media Skills MOOC. We'll be discussing ways to integrate the Mozilla Web Literacy Map into our classroom. And...yeap...we've got badges. Join here.

Come join us for the first official running of the Online Research & Media Skills (ORMS) moderated, open, online community (MOOC). The ORMS MOOC consists of a five module open educational resource. Each module lasts for two weeks. You are free to join, lurk, share, and interact. We will share effective ways to embed literacy and research skills in the technologically equipped classroom. The course is organized around five modules: Multimodal Tutorial, Online Collaborative Inquiry, Online Content Construction, Online Reading Comprehension, and Digital Identity.

What is the ORMS Model?

The ORMS model takes a closer look at ways to effectively integrate skills and strategies needed to support all literacies in the classroom. This will involve objectives deemed appropriate by Common Core Standards, but accelerated while focusing on the Mozilla Web Literacies. The model focuses on the nature of information on the Internet and its implications for how teachers think about reading comprehension, critical thinking, and learning in a digital information age. This course will explore how the Internet poses new challenges for learners that extend beyond traditional reading comprehension skills in order to encompass these new literacies as well as the higher level thinking skills associated with them.

The three cornerstones of the Online Research & Media Skills (ORMS) Model are embedded in the middle of the ORMS MOOC:

• Online Collaborative Inquiry – A group of local or global learners who arrive at a common outcome via multiple pathways of knowledge.
• Online Content Construction – A process by which students construct and redesign knowledge by actively encoding and decoding meaning through the use of ever shifting multimodal tools.
• Online Reading Comprehension – The skills, strategies, practices, and dispositions students need to locate, evaluate, and synthesize information during problem based inquiry tasks.

Who is running this?

I developed the ORMS model with Greg McVerry. The ORMS MOOC will be facilitated by students in the Instructional Technology & Digital Media Literacy (IT&DML) program. Each of the modules that lasts two weeks will be led by a different group of students in the program. They are acting as “instructional apprentices” as they lead discussions for the week. They are learning how to run an online discussion, and how to facilitate online learning…all in an open educational resource. Please be nice. 🙂

You’ve got badges?

Yes…we’ve got badges. There are a series of five badges…each badge representing work submitted for each module.

• Multimodal Tutorial Exemplar Badge
• Online Collaborative Inquiry Exemplar Badge
• Online Reading Comprehension Exemplar Badge
• Online Content Construction Exemplar Badge
• Digital Identity Exemplar Badge

After you complete all five of the badges, you can earn the Mentor badge. The Mentor badge indicates that you are a leader in the community..and pretty much know what’s happening. As a mentor, you can bring future learners through the MOOC and award badges.

• ORMS Community Mentor Badge

Now what?

Come and join us. Lurk, share, connect, communicate…or just borrow ideas. If you want the badges…you’ll need to share your ideas. The ORMS MOOC is available here. The Community where the discussions and connections will be held is here. The Google Group is where people will share their work after they earn badges…and that is located here. Come join us as we all learn together.