University of Edinburgh

Capitalising on the hype:Opening minds and institutional change at Edinburgh

Amy WoodgateMOOCs Project Manager

www.coursera.org/edinburgh

• 6 courses (wave 1) + 8 courses (wave 2) + more (~30 by year end)• Broad subject areas – academic led and short in length (5-7 weeks)• Fully online, free to take, open resources – CC licenses • New as MOOCs, not f2f conversion – non-template approach

Academic proposes new

course idea

Team meeting with MOOC

support

Begin content production Course

liveCourses

end

Courses and the internal process

BoS + CSPC Course approval

Head of School approval sought

Form

al a

ppro

val

Confirm live date

Constant dialogue and review.Training. Community. Events.

Sign off video content

Standardised content uploaded

Content refresh for next iteration

• Never intended to be money making• Capacity building – online learning• Seen as knowledge exchange initiatives• Research project into new online delivery methods• Research project into new audiences -- who takes a MOOC? And why?• Logical progression of University strengths and interest -- keen to explore technology enhanced learning• It was new, it looked fun!

Why MOOCs?

Open-mindedness to “success”

Small amount of direct income to reinvest into MOOC dev. Capacity building – online learning Knowledge exchange, e.g. research outputs Development of new online delivery methods Research outputs -- better understanding of who takes our MOOCs and why Strengthened the University’s development areas -- enabled new-to-online-learning to explore in safe-space Tremendous fun!

What did we achieve?

All achieved and more!

Direct use of MOOCs Indirect + student input

Research Capacity

Materials

Pure Educational research

Creating data Testing boundariesRisk taking

Breaking norms

Data mining student projects – feed directly into body of research

True outreach first creation

Joint course creation

Uruguay Erasmus+ NMSOutreach for research

CollaborationExperiment and experience w/ online learning

Analysing the whole project, e.g. MBA project

New academics Sparked creativityEnthusiasmNew ODL programmes

Student involved in summer projects

Student surveys to understand MOOC experience and how it relates to UoE learning experience

Making content

Created short, structured courses

High quality components

Utilising own/other MOOCs, e.g. embedding videos or as textbooks

Feedback / feeding into course creation

Community outreachTutoring / learning hubs

OERs

Scripts = open

Sharing practice

Setting standardsleading example

ConsultancyExploring unknown spaces

Innovation

Virtual mobility Digital literacy

New processesNew services

Internal impactAgility

Visually mindful

Showcasing Design students for new content types

Academic course development• No imposed approach or template• Encouragement to choose an approach suitable for subject delivery and which

the team were comfortable with• Encouragement to experiment with platform

Community and transparency• Talking to peers and asking for feedback• Development of teams – not individuals• Sharing practice, good resources found

Recycle, repurpose, reuse• Use of creative commons as default• Encouragement to think about resources beyond MOOC space• Awareness raising of open content

Ensuring quality through transparency, ownership and support

Every course MUST be a

team

Every course MUST have an UoE academic

lead

Every team MUST be part of the community

… Lots of central guidance and resources along the way!

Open attitude to content creation

MOOCcontent

• Content designed to be accessible to a wide audience

• Created as a collaboration between academics and central support teams

• Peer community• Everyone is learning attitude

• Academic teams given online tutoring training to prepare for diverse engagement

• Prepared for tangents and community generated content

• Encouraged to embrace community

• Creative commons license applied wherever possible to encourage content reuse (enabling)

• OERs created as a by-product

• Education for all around ‘open’ content

MOOCcontent

Change for the future

Noticeable culture change – enthusiastically embracing learning and teaching at all levels– All academic Schools developing online learning provisions

Community-built attitude to course development – impact on future development of processes– acknowledgement broad spectrum of skills and support required

Reflection on Learning and Teaching future trajectory – vision for 2020 Edinburgh experience underway

Reflection on internal provision gaps– development of new IS Division (Learning Services & Web)

Senior Academic and Senior Management changes – Multiple Chairs in Online Learning around the University– New Head of School appointments with online learning explicitly in remit– Vice Principal online oversight changes

Where next?

...?MOOCs have been (and continue to be) a lot of fun but it has been incredibly fast!Now we need some slow time to mull over lessons learned

… at least until September