#FLMobiGame: Download Begin Programming MOOC's Videos

Edit Oct 2014 -The FutureLearn Platform has been upgraded and the blog on newer instructions can be found here

Begin Programming: Build Your First Mobile Game MOOC offered by University of Reading went live yesterday. We had lots of comments from our participants. Many of them felt it would be useful to download our videos, especially with slow internet connections it can be very frustrating to watch videos online.

We requested FutureLearn and they have given us the functionality already. So in this blog I am going to explain how you can download videos from our MOOC.

In order to do this you must be logged into your account with FutureLearn.

Step1:
Go to the video you want to download. In this example I am using the first video in activity 1.1 - Welcome to Week 1.

Step 2:
Select 'Download this video' link to download it. If you want to save it, right click and select 'save as'.

Now your connection speed will determine how quickly you can download the video :)

Story Behind My Engagement with University of Reading MOOC

In one of my previous Blogs I talked about Planning and Creating a MOOC. The first MOOC offered by University of Reading is Begin Programming: build your first mobile game. Despite wanting to blog about our MOOC I had to be abide by an embargo on publicizing too much information before the launch event. Since the FutureLearn launch event was held 18th September now I am free to blog about our MOOC, Begin Programming: build your first mobile game.
We had submitted our MOOC Systematic Review to IRRODL and shared it within the University among our colleagues. Actually it was Prof. Shirley Williams who initiated this sharing and discussion. At the same time the University was interested in MOOCs and because everyone now knew that we had an interest on MOOCs we got the chance to get closely involved in the University's MOOC work. Several departments/schools within the University were interested in offering MOOCs but with strong leadership of Prof. Williams the School of Systems Engineering team got the chance to go ahead with the first MOOC.

Then came the painful task of creating content, which I along with Dr. Karsten, who is the lead lecturer in our Begin Programming MOOC did. We had various templates to fill in, create content, get involved in the quality assurance process and so on. We met at least twice a month, I think, to monitor the progress and the back stage content was developed. All the time Shirley was there with us providing guidance. Then we started the video shooting. Luckily for us Luke Micallef in the Digital Development team at the University came to our aid. With the University venturing into MOOCs, he became the dedicated Open Online Course Developer at the University and we got lot of help from him. Karsten was great in front of the camera and you can see that from this course trailer. Almost all the scenes were videoed in front of a green screen as you can see here. Luke did all the nice graphics etc to make these videos.

So this is our MOOC team from the left it is Prof. Shirley Williams, Luke Micallef, Myself and Dr. Karsten Lundqvist.

(Official Group Photograph: UoR Begin Programming MOOC team)

FutureLearn is still in its Beta stage. Since launching MOOC on 18th September within a day our Begin Programming MOOC has hit the target and now the we are offering registration for 2014 to people who could not get registered in for 2013 run. Now we are looking forward to meeting our MOOC participants and facilitating their learning from 28th October 2013.

Planning and Creating a MOOC

I have taken part in 3 Massive Open Online Courses so far and have been thinking how much of an effort would the course creators have had to put into the course to get all the resources prepared for running a MOOC.

I am lucky to be in one of the teams at the University of Reading creating MOOCs to be offered under the FutureLearn partnership. At the School of Systems Engineering - University of Reading I am working in Prof. Shirley Williams’ team along with Dr. Karsten Lundqvist and Luke Micallef (from the University’s Digital Development team) to create a MOOC.

It has taken us a lot of time to plan this course.  We recently recorded the first video for our MOOC and I managed to capture a few moments on my iPhone.

This recording was done in the state-of-the-art filming studio owned by the University’s Department of Film, Theatre & Television. I was more than impressed by the facility but had little idea how to operate any of the equipment. Luke did all the technical stuff while Karsten was the ‘star’ in the video.