Everything you ever wanted to know about MOOCs but were afraid to askLorna M. Campbell

What is Cetis?

• Centre for Education Technology, Interoperability

and Standards http://www.cetis.ac.uk/

• A national UK technology advisory centre

providing strategic, technical and pedagogical

advice on educational technology and standards

to funding bodies, standards agencies,

government, institutions and commercial

partners.

MOOC Hysteria by CogDogBlog, CC BY SA 3.0,http://cogdogblog.com/2012/07/17/mooc-hysertia/

Li Yuan, http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/cetisli/2013/06/25/moocs-and-higher-education-what-is-next/

© David Kernohan, https://twitter.com/dkernohan/status/250889990828089344/photo/1/large

Dave Cormier, http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3uimla

Stephen Downes

© Stephen Downes, George Siemens, Dave Cormier, Rita Kopp, CC BY NC SA.

Ds106, http://ds106.us/

© Andrew Allingham, http://blog.andrewallingham.info/2011/02/ds106-radio-design/

© Michael Branson Smith, http://www.michaelbransonsmith.net/blog/2012/02/18/a-purely-unapologetic-piece-of-ds106-branding/

Sebastian Thrun

Andrew Ng and Daphne Kollerhttp://i0.wp.com/allthingsd.com/files/2012/04/Coursera.jpg

Fast Company, http://www.fastcompany.com/3021473/udacity-sebastian-thrun-uphill-climb

© Mick Pope, http://natural-philosopher.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/human-learners-in-less-than-human-world.html

eLearning and Digital Cultures, https://www.coursera.org/course/edc

MOOCS and Open Education: Implications for Higher Education

http://publications.cetis.ac.uk/2013/667

The Maturing of the MOOC

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/massive-open-online-courses-and-online-distance-learning-review

Futurelearn, https://www.futurelearn.com/

OLDSMOOC, http://www.olds.ac.uk/

ocTEL, http://octel.alt.ac.uk/

#Phonar, http://phonar.covmedia.co.uk/

Key Issues

• Completion rates

• Accreditation

• Openness

• Relation to open distance learning providers

• Demographics

• Business models and disruptive innovation

• Pedagogy

Completion Rates

MOOC Completion Rates: The Datahttp://www.katyjordan.com/MOOCproject.html

MOOC Completion Rates: University of Edinburghhttp://www.katyjordan.com/MOOCproject.html

Accreditation

Udacity Blog, http://blog.udacity.com/2012/06/udacity-in-partnership-with-pearson-vue.html

Badges? Certificates? What counts as success in MOOCs?http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/sheilamacneill/2013/03/25/badges-certificates-what-counts-as-succeeding-in-moocs/

“…because they are offering ‘courses’ to the masses but they would never actually accept these courses as credit at said elite universities– in other words, there’s no way the University of Michigan is going to accept a certificate or badge of completion as credit toward one of its degrees, even if students pay for the privilege.”

- Steven KrauseUdacity joins Pearson in skipping this whole pesky “education” thing (and more complaining about MOOCs) http://stevendkrause.com/2012/06/04/udacity-joins-pearson-in-skipping-this-whole-pesky-education-thing-and-more-complaining-about-moocs/

“I believe that radical innovations in higher education must be accompanied by particularly robust frameworks of accreditation and credentialing in order to reassure the public. It’s all very well for evangelists to promote do-it-yourself accreditation from the personal safety of CVs replete with reputable qualifications, but ordinary people want the ‘beef’ of proper recognition too.”

- Sir John Daniel

OERu Launches Worldwidehttp://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40361

How open is open?

© Ann Aguirre, http://www.annaguirre.com/archives/2009/07/07/can-of-worms-redux/

“All of the issues around creating or using OER, of getting faculty towards supporting open access, of implementing inter-institutional open source software communities – all collapse before the MOOC.”

- Bryan Alexander

MOOCs instead of open education by Bryan Alexanderhttp://bryanalexander.org/2013/02/13/moocs-instead-of-open-education/

OpenupEd, http://www.openuped.eu/

OER University, http://oeruniversity.org/

Relation to Online Distance Learning

Providers

“There is a delusion that MOOCs will decrease the costs of education for disadvantaged communities, this is not true as disadvantaged students need all the additional support provided by quality open and distance learning. MOOCs can result in massive rates of failure and disempowerment, for many, resulting in the experience of HE becoming a negative one.”

- Yoram KalmanBusiness Models MOOCs and Disruptive Innovation by Yoram Kalmanhttp://lornamcampbell.wordpress.com/2013/11/01/business-models-moocs-and-disruptive-innovation/

OpenupEd, http://www.openuped.eu/

Demographics

SciDevNet, http://www.scidev.net/global/education/news/survey-suggests-moocs-are-failing-to-educate-the-poor.html

The MOOC Phenomenon: Who Takes Massive Open Online Courses and Why? http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2350964

The Coursera student population tends to be young, male, and employed, with a majority from developed countries.”

- Christensen, et al

The MOOC Phenomenon: Who Takes Massive Open Online Courses and Why? http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2350964

I think it’s a challenge that [MOOC providers] are going to face, to overcome cultural and societal norms that are restricting technology and education access. If we want MOOCs to empower open access, we have to figure out how we can get more women and girls to access them,”

- Gayle Christensen

SciDevNet, http://www.scidev.net/global/education/news/survey-suggests-moocs-are-failing-to-educate-the-poor.html

Business Models and Disruptive

Innovation

Edakashun is brocken tumblr, http://brokeneducation.tumblr.com/

Dinosaur Comics by Ryan North, http://www.qwantz.com/index.phpFollowers of the Apocalypse by David Kernohan, http://followersoftheapocalyp.se/education_is_broken/

The Avalanche is Coming: Higher Education and the Revolution Ahead

http://www.ippr.org/publication/55/10432/an-avalanche-is-coming-higher-education-and-the-revolution-ahead

“We hope it’s enough money to get us to profitability. We haven’t really focused yet on when that might be."

- Daphne Koller

The New York Times, http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/10/coursera-an-online-education-company-raises-another-43-million/?_r=0

Pedagogy

“Moocs as they were originally conceived…were the locus of learning activities and interaction, but as deployed by commercial providers they resemble television shows or digital textbooks with – at best – an online quiz component,”

- Stephen Downes

Times Higher Education, http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/mooc-creators-criticise-courses-lack-of-creativity/2008180.fullarticle

“[Connectivism is] a somewhat flaky utopian idea, a technological metaphor more than a practical method, but it works with the strengths of digital technology, rather than against it—and MOOC designers should try to hew closely to the original model as much as possible.”

- Michael Burnam-Fink

Slate, http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/09/moocs_need_to_go_back_to_their_roots.html

Learner Experience

Sheila MacNeill’s Cetis Blog: http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/sheilamacneill/category/moocs/

How Sheila Sees IT: http://howsheilaseesit.wordpress.com/

Further Reading

Barber, M., Donnelly, K and Rizvi, S, (2013), The Avalanche is Coming, Institute for Public Policy Research, http://www.ippr.org/images/media/files/publication/2013/04/avalanche-is-coming_Mar2013_10432.pdf

 

Burnam-Fink, M., (2013), MOOCs Need to Go Back to Their Roots, Slate, http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/09/moocs_need_to_go_back_to_their_roots.html

 

Chafkin, M., (2013), Udacity’s Sebastian Thrun, Godfather of Free Online Education, Changed Course, Fast Company Tech Forecast, http://www.fastcompany.com/3021473/udacity-sebastian-thrun-uphill-climb

 

Christensen, G, Stienmetz, A., Alcom, B., Bennett, A., Woods, D., Emanual, E., J., (2013), The MOOC Phenomenon: Who Takes Massive Open Online Courses and Why?, Social Science Research Network, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2350964

Further Reading

Department for Business Innovation and Skills, (2013), The Maturing of the MOOC, BIS Research Paper Number 130, https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/240193/13-1173-maturing-of-the-mooc.pdf

 

Kalman, Y., (2013), Business models, MOOCs and disruptive innovation, Open World, http://lornamcampbell.wordpress.com/2013/11/01/business-models-moocs-and-disruptive-innovation/

 

Kruase, S., (2013), Udacity joins Pearson in skipping this whole pesky “education” thing (and more complaining about MOOCs), stevendkrause.com, http://stevendkrause.com/2012/06/04/udacity-joins-pearson-in-skipping-this-whole-pesky-education-thing-and-more-complaining-about-moocs/

 

MOOCs@Edinburgh Group, MOOCs @ Edinburgh 2013: Report #1, Edinburgh Research Archive, https://www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/6683

Further Reading

Parr, C., (2013), Mooc creators criticise courses’ lack of creativity, Time Higher Education, http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/mooc-creators-criticise-courses-lack-of-creativity/2008180.fullarticle  

Watters, A., (2013), Top Ed-Tech Trends of 2013: MOOCs and Anti-MOOCs, Hack Education, http://hackeducation.com/2013/11/29/top-ed-tech-trends-2013-moocs/ Yuan, L. and Powell, S., (2012), MOOCs and Open Education: Implications for Higher Education, Jisc Cetis Whitepaper, http://publications.cetis.ac.uk/2013/667

Blogs

• Alan Levine, CogDogBlog, http://cogdogblog.com/

• Audrey Watters, Hack Education, http://hackeducation.com/

• Bryan Alexander, bryanalexander.org, http://bryanalexander.org/

• Dave Cormier, Dave’s Educational Blog, http://davecormier.com/

• David Kernohan, Followers of the Apocalypse, http://followersoftheapocalyp.se/

• George Siemens, ELearningSpace, http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/

• Martin Hawksey, MASHe, http://mashe.hawksey.info/

• Martin Weller, The Ed Techie, http://nogoodreason.typepad.co.uk/

• Sheila MacNeill, Sheila MacNeill’s Cetis Blog, http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/sheilamacneill/category/moocs/

• Stephen Downes, Stephen’s Web, http://www.downes.ca/

• Steven Krause, stevendkrause.com, http://stevendkrause.com/

Licence

Open Scotland: Policies and strategies for opening up education in Scotland

by Lorna M Campbell, lorna.m.campbell@icloud.com of Cetis http://www.cetis.ac.uk is licensed under the

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/