MOOCs: Open Online Courses as Levers for Change in Higher Education

George Siemens, PhDJuly 31, 2012

EDUCAUSE NGLC

“I think this could be big the way Google was”

Image source: Noah Berger for The Chronicle

But the deals Coursera announced Tuesday may well prove to be an inflection point for online education, a sector that has traditionally been dominated by for-profit colleges known mostly for their noxious recruitment practices and poor results.

http://www.hybridpedagogy.com/Journal/files/MOOC_MOOC.html

“Especially disturbing is that none of the major MOOC providers have hired anyone trained in instructional design, the learning sciences, educational technology, course design, or other educational specialties to help with the design of their courses. They are hiring a lot of programmers…”

http://edtechdev.wordpress.com/2012/05/04/whats-the-problem-with-moocs/

Defining MOOCs

Massive (maybe)Open (sort of)Online (yep)Course (sort of)

A bit of (recent) history:

2007: - David Wiley: open wiki-based course- Alec Couros: Social media and Open Education2008: - CCK08- Slew of other open courses2011:- Stanford AI births Coursera and Udacity

Phil Hill, 2012

Questions? Comments?

Let’s start with CCK08

Motivation for CCK08

Do for teaching what open courseware initiatives did for content

Provide learners with experience in social networked learning (connectivism)

Format

Structured weekly topicsLive sessions (Elluminate) and guest speakersMoodle forumWherever learners wanted to learn/shareCourse tagDelicious (now using Diigo) for resource sharingThe Daily (aggregated blog posts, resources)Archive

Our Learning Design

1. Starting point: readings, short videos, topic introductions

2. Unleash the learners: peer-learning, resource sharing, etc.

Content is fragmented (not confined to a course)Knowledge is generativeCoherence is learner-formed, instructor guidedDistributed, multi-spaced interactionsFoster autonomous, self-regulated learners

What did participants do?

Created new spaces (SecondLife, Google Groups, etc.)

Arranged F2F meetingsTranslated the course into different languagesSelf-organizedCreated artifactsSub-network formation

2008, 2009, 2011

And then the Romans came to Greece…

The rather poor level of innovation, need more MOOC models

This is an unusual course. It does not consist of a body of content you are supposed to remember. Rather, the learning in the course results from the activities you undertake, and will be different for each person.

In addition, this course is not conducted in a single place or environment. It is distributed across the web. We will provide some facilities. But we expect your activities to take place all over the internet. We will ask you to visit other people's web pages, and even to create some of your own.

The course objectives are rather straightforward:

* Develop skills in using technology as a tool for networking, sharing, narrating, and creative self-expression* Frame a digital identity wherein you become both a practitioner in and interrogator of various new modes of networking* Critically examine the digital landscape of communication technologies as emergent narrative forms and genres

Coursera is committed to making the best education in the world freely available to any person who seeks it. We envision people throughout the world, in both developed and developing countries, using our platform to get access to world-leading education that has so far been available only to a tiny few. We see them using this education to improve their lives, the lives of their families, and the communities they live in.

Coursera, edX:Formal (traditional) course structure and flow

DS106/EC&I831/CCK: Content as a starting point, learners expected to create/extend

Coursera/edX: Traditional relationship between teacher/learner

Formal, structured teaching/content provision.

Learners expected to duplicate/master what they are taught

Ongoing presence

Live Weekly Lectures/Discussion sessions

CCK-style MOOCs: Changed relationship between teacher/learner

Distributed, chaotic, emergent.

Learners expected to create, grow, expand domain and share personal sensemaking through artifact-creation

Coursera/edX: Centralized discussion forum support

CCK/DS106: Distributed, often blog-based, learner-created forums and spaces

Learners generally complete some level of activity for formative and summative evaluation (quizzes, assignments, papers, create artifacts) in open online courses.

Evaluation is either automated (Coursera), instructor graded (DS106/CCK), or peer-commented (to some degree, all open courses)

MOOCs as a platform, fostering an ecosystem of innovation

But what do MOOCs actually change?

Recognition of online learningRethinking course modelReflection on university structure (integrated, comprehensive)Heavy investment in technology/new toolsThreat to publishersFaculty role?

http://edfuture.net/

October 8-November 16, 2012

gsiemens @gmailTwitterSkypeFBWherever

www.elearnspace.org

www.connectivism.ca

www.learninganalytics.net