Making MOOC’s sustainable through the reduction of production costs

Rita Day, Brian Mulligan, Centre for Online Learning, IT SligoHEIT Conference, 2015.

What’s a MOOC• Massive Open Online Course – A model for delivery learning content online to any person who

wants to learn more about a topic• No limit on attendees• Geographically diverse• Free or reduced cost• Variability in structure, content and instruction• 1000’s of participants• Between specified dates• xMOOC

– Short videos– Third party materials– Quizzes– Peer graded assignments

History of the MOOC• 2008 – Connectivism and Connectivity Knowledge developed by Stephen Downes and George Siemens• 2011 – 3 courses through Stanford160,000 students in 190 countries• 2013 – 150+ Universities, 1000+ Instructors and 8million+ students• 2015 – Stanford 1.45 million enrolments per month – offers exploration teaching, not a revenue stream, extension of brand and footprint

Current Providers• Udacity• Coursera• EdX• Canvas• Stanford• MITX• Yale• Futurelearn• IT Sligo

Emerging Student Patterns

Advantages and DisadvantagesAdvantages• Free or reduced costs• Global access-richer /wider

community• Global networking• Self challenging• Avoids instructor bottle neck• Non passive unlike video only

courses

Disadvantages• Lack of quality across courses• Lack of individual instruction• Cost to produce (financial

sustainability)• Course variability • Motivation and self learning of

individuals• Accreditation via assessment often

added for a fee• Verification issues

Intel Project• Higher Education• Hobbies• Transition Year• Minority Subjects• Augmented classes – home school• Flipped classroom• New Junior Leaving certificate• College readiness• Careers/Professional development• Advanced placement /• Transferable academic credit

Opportunities and Threats• Opportunities • Threats

• Could they make higher education irrelevant if people can learn what they want for free

• Could it undermine the current cost model in higher education?

Marketing Sharing courses between institutionsblended/flipped learningImproving learning qualityResearch data.

Costs to Develop• Instructors develop their own courses• Course development 100+hours• Course management 8-10hours per week

• Provider services• $250,000+ per course• $50,000+ every time the course is taught

• Free to participants

"Could it be cheaper? - IT Sligo Research" – Free platforms– Low cost recording tools– Open Education Resources– Instructional branding– Quality and standardisation

• LoCoMoTion Project moocs4all.eu– How to build low-cost MOOCs – MOOC starting June 2015– IT Sligo, Technical U. of Delft, U. of Girona, Fachhochschule Bielefeld,

Bath Spa University

Hobbies (e.g. Nutrition and Fitness for athletes)

Minority subjects (e.g. Economics, Applied Maths)

Augment classes (revision etc.)

• Workshops• Seminars• Reflection• Reaffirming learning• Learning gaps

“Flipped classroom” (specified by teachers)

The prevalence of coding and programming has been exemplified through embedding coding in the new junior leaving certificate.

College readiness (e.g. Study skills IT Sligo, Feb 2016)

• CV and job applications• Career exploration• Fill in a skills gap• Employers look to search MOOC database• Getting working employability course – Get Working MOOC• Project at IT Sligo to build aMOOC for college leavers toGet them ready for college

Careers (choosing a course)

• Life long learning – 40 years plus college• Information on available courses and applicable to a specific career• Value proposition through MOOC completion• Active learning in the classroom• Blended learning outperforms face to face• MOOCs as a mechanism for risk free exploration• Explore topics and levels of difficulty• Value recognition through certificate of completion

“Advanced Placement” (College courses)

• Leverage contacts• Students are taking a college course before

they arrive as type of course foundation or skills gap

• Language development pre-college course

Intel Ireland MOOC Project

• Funded by Intel Ireland• Objective:

– To develop (4) free online courses in coding for young people– Leverage the amount of data in this field– Measuring value– Quality at low cost

• Led by IT Sligo– Project Manager, Rita Day,

Project Leader, Brian Mulligan

• Partners– DIFE, DIT, CoderDojo,

FIT, SW College

– September 2015

Web Page Development• Jessica Matthews, DIFE Drogheda Institute of

Further Education• Currently piloting HTML, CSS• Available Autumn 2015

Roboslam• Frank Duignan, Dublin Institute of Technology• https://roboslam.wordpress.com/• Currently piloting• Available Autumn 2015• Electronic fundamentals, C programming• Requires ordering a kit (€250 / 10 kits)

Multiplayer Online Game Development• Noel King, Coder Dojo• Javascript, Server programming, Clientside

programming, networking, social• Currently piloting• Available Autumn, 2015

Mobile Game Development• Mark Taylor, Fast-track to IT (www.fit.ie) • MIT AppInventor• Pilot starts 13th April, 2015• Available Autumn, 2015

Southwest College - Zambia• Further Education – online meets the needs • Free education in Africa (MOOC)

Any Questions?

www.itsligo.ie/online