MOOD: From Bucket Based Learning to Socially Mediated, Highly Contextual Learning Experiences

AbstractA flurry of online universities has emerged in the last decade [7,8,9,10,11,12]. Unfortunately, most of the e-learning platforms empowering these universities are best described as “buckets of features” [13,14,15,16]. In these platforms, the interaction model follows from the technological infrastructure needed to build the system rather than a direct response to the student’s needs. At UNext, we have designed MOOD, an interaction model based on socio-constructivist frameworks such as [1,2,3] and inspired in its interface design by [3,4,5]. We present the four key design elements behind MOOD and illustrate their instantiation in Ellis College’s course platform.