ALPHA MOOCALICIOUS is a bit like Google Course Builder (GCB) for smartphones. It isn't nearly as robust -- the home page warns "don't use this for a live course just yet." But when you consider that today three times as many mobile users access the internet via smartphone as did three years ago, creating MOOCS-to-go appears to be a wise choice (anecdotally, take a look around the next time you're in an eerily quiet line of 18-35 year-olds).
Putting the alpha-like user experience aside, we're excited about the mobile-only features like SMS and voice calls. And because Moocalicious is desktop-friendly, there's no love lost when using other content resources like Flickr, YouTube, iTunes Store, podcasts, Twitter, Facebook, and RSS.
The biggest challenge for Moocalicious and GCB remains content creation. Good curriculum design is already difficult in a physical space and structured learning block. Insert an intimidating technical interface and asynchronous interaction between distributed, on-the-go learners, and best practices get thrown out the window. Brave and inquiring minds can start by enrolling in Paul Kim's Designing New Learning Environments offered this spring through Stanford's VentureLab. Moocalicious creator and CS whiz, Tony Hursch, also runs an edtech Google Hangout every Thursday at 8PM CST.
