The rhizome: A problematic metaphor for teaching and learning in a MOOC

Abstract

<p>Deleuze and Guattari’s principles of the rhizome were used to inform the design of a massive open online course (MOOC), <em>Rhizomatic Learning: The Community is the Curriculum</em>, which came to be known as Rhizo14. In a previous paper about learner experiences in this course our reported findings from a qualitative survey (which enabled anonymous responses) raised concerns about the ethics of using experimental pedagogies in designing MOOCs. In this paper, we continue this research and report learners’ understandings of the rhizome as applied in Rhizo14, from what participants have told us in email interviews and from our own reflections on participation in the course. Our findings reveal that many participants could relate to and welcomed the anti-authoritarian, anti-hierarchical characteristics of the rhizome, but that knowledge and understanding of Deleuze and Guattari’s conceptual principles of the rhizome was more difficult. Lack of engagement with theory and lack of appreciation of the incompleteness and complexities of the rhizome metaphor can result in negative consequences, such as imbalances in power relations and increased vulnerability for some learners.</p>

Heutagogy and digital media networks

“…Similar to heutagogy, rhizomatic learning is non-linear, with the student autonomously defining the learning path and attempting to acquire knowledge within chaos, while partly guided by the instructor. Application of rhizomatic learning to cMOOCs has also been researched, but with mixed outcomes, as learners must demonstrate a high level of autonomous, almost nomadic, behaviour; the necessity of reconsidering the distribution of power (for students, instructors, and administration) within the learning space can also be problematic in rhizomatic learning environments -characteristics also shared with heutagogy (Mackness, Bell, & Funes, 2016).…”

Learning Mechanism and Function Characteristics of MOOC in the Process of Higher Education

“…The mutation theory believes that a small disturbance in the system which is amplified by the nonlinear interaction between individuals will cause the mutation of individual attribute and behavior. The multiple individual uncertainty mutation which is amplified by individual interaction will cause the emergence phenomenon (Mackness et al, 2016). When system has the emergent phenomenon, complex systems will be changed from low equilibrium state to high equilibrium state, and the new process and structure will take the place of the old process and structure (Giddens, 2016;Parks-Stamm et al, 2017;Liu, 2017).…”

Participant association and emergent curriculum in a MOOC: can the community be the curriculum?

“…The survey data collection for the study allowed respondents to elect for anonymity. Full details of the survey and emails interviews have been fully reported in the first two papers Mackness, Bell, and Funes 2015), and the research process is shown in Figure 2.…”

“…In our first paper, we explored positive and negative experiences of learning in Rhizo14 and the possible reasons for these . In our second paper (Mackness, Bell, and Funes 2015), we discussed the implications of using the concept of the rhizome as a metaphor for designing an open online teaching and learning space. In this final paper, we focus on how a course designed on rhizomatic principles (see Figure 1) affects the formation of community and curriculum development.…”