Creating an online course should be something instructors can do on their own without needing to work through or with platform providers. They should be able to build, upload, and embed videos, quizzes, assignments, etc. themselves where they see fit, rather than in areas predesignated for them by the platform providers. We need a Dreamweaver-type site where instructors sign into their account, choose a template for their course, and start building. It’s also crucial that instructors are able to see real-time analytics for their course (e.g., the number of students enrolled, the number who attempted each exercise and who got them correct both in aggregate and over time, the number of minutes each student watched of each video and what percent of each video this equates to, etc.).
Well, I heard that Google has partnered with EdX to begin developing an open-source platform. Let’s see what they come up with!