An overview of OERs and MOOCs for research, teaching and learning

By

Akpokodje, Vera N.Head, Systems UnitUniversity of Jos LibraryPMB 2084Jos, Plateau StateEmail: veraforlive@yahoo.com

A paper presented at the Library Seminar series on September 04, 2014

Outline

• Here we go!– Learning Objectives

• What are OERs?– The “4Rs “of Open Educational

Resources– Brief Background– How have OERs fared? – OERs @UNIJOS– OERs for teaching and research

• What is a MOOC?– Brief History of MOOCs– MOOCs Providers

– Who can participate in MOOCs?– Why MOOCs are significant– MOOCs dropouts!

• Implication of MOOCs to teaching and learning!– Is MOOC a treat to conventional

universities– Is it a treat to the existence of

the library?

• Conclusion

Learning Objectives

• To sensitize staff on the availability of Open Access electronic resources and Online Courses for teaching, learning and research

• To guide staff on how to effectively access and use these resources

• To guide staff on how to effectively enroll in lifelong learning

What is OERs?

The concept of Open Educational Resources (OERs) describes any educational resource (including curriculum maps, course materials, textbooks, streaming videos, multimedia applications, podcasts, and any other materials that have been designed for use in teaching and learning) that are openly available for use by educators and students, without an accompanying need to pay royalties or license fees.(Commonwealth of learning- Accessed August 30, 2014)

Can you see through this brain?

What is OERs contd.?

Shared

Shared freely and openly

Used

Improved

Redistributed

… used by anyone … adapt / repurpose/

improve under some type of license

… redistribute and share

again.

The “4 Rs” of Open Educational Resources

• Reuse: content can be reused in its unaltered form

• Revise: content can be adapted, modified or altered

• Remix: New content can be added to the original or revised content to create something new

• Redistribute: copies of the content can be shared with others in its original, revised or remixed forms

http://sparc.arl.org/issues/oer

Brief Background of OERs

The movement began fully in 2001 after Massachusetts

Institute of Technology (MIT) President Charles Vest

announced that MIT would establish a groundbreaking

and unprecedented new program, OpenCourseWare,

based on a proposal from members of MIT’s faculty.

How have OERs fared?

• Full Courses (MOOCs- free but no college credit given)• Open Textbooks• E-books• Lesson Plans• Videos• Music• Course materials• Games• Tests• Software• Anything that supports learning

Open Access Resources @UNIJOS

Institutional Repository: http://irepos.unijos.edu.ng/jspui

Open Resources for Teaching and Research

• OPEN COURSE LIBRARY – a collection of high quality, free-to-use courses that can be downloaded and used for teaching. Managed by the Washington State Board of Community http://opencourselibrary.org

Open Resources for Teaching and Research

• MERLOT II (Multimedia Educational Resources for Learning and Online Teaching): is a free and open peer reviewed collection of online teaching and learning materials. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/index.htm

Open Resources for Teaching and Research

• CONNEXIONS: contains all forms of educational resources in small chunks called modules that can be organized as courses, books, reports, etc. http://cnx.org

Open Resources for Teaching and Research

• KHAN ACADEMY: Primary, secondary and post-secondary content in math, science, economics and humanities. http://www.khanacademy.org/library

Open Resources for Teaching and Research

• OER COMMONS: huge collection of OERs of all types for both K-12 and college level courses. http://www.oercommons.org

More OERs!

• COLLEGE Open Textbooks– http://collegeopentextbooks.org/

• Academic Earth– http://academicearth.org/

• University of Cape Town open Access and Open Content– https://www.uct.ac.za/research/openaccess_cont

ent/

What is a MOOC?

• Massive Open Online Courses• A model for delivering learning content online

to virtually any person—with no limit on attendance—who wants to take the course

Aim:MOOCs aims at providing more learning opportunities as well as improve learning experience of students.

What is a MOOC contd.

• They are real courses• These courses are taught by variety of lecturers (which

are taped)- reading lists and exercises (some have fixed dates for delivering assignments while others don’t)

• They have concrete starting and end point, but within these limits allow students to study at their own pace

• Sometimes involved interactions between teachers and students and among students (peer assessment of exercises)

Characteristics of MO

OCs

Brief History of MOOCs

• Development of MOOCs started since 2008– In 2008, George Siemens and Stephen Downes

were the first to use the term MOOC. – They co-taught a class on a course called

“Connectivism and Connective Knowledge,”. – These course was presented to 25 tuition-paying

students at the University of Manitoba and offered at the same time to around 2,300 students from the general public who took the online class at no cost.

MOOCs Providers

MOOCs Providers contd.• Coursera: a profiting making social entrepreneurship company that partners with the top

universities in the world. It was established by two Stanford professors and has contracts with 33 universities. http://coursera.org

• edX: non-profit ventures established and governed by Harvard and MIT. It offers MITx and Berkeleyx classes for now. http://www.edx.org

• Udemy: is a portal that facilitates online courses, mainly in the area of entrepreneurship, IT, software use, design, arts and sports. It invites learners to develop personal and professional skills in a cost efficient, flexible and more interesting way than traditional study courses. http://www.udemy.com/about

• Udacity: is a for-profit company that has been cofounded by a Stanford professor, who started to offer information science courses online in 2012. According to the website, it is a “digital university on a mission to democratize education”, i.e. to offer high education at a lower price to more people. Courses are free, but fees may be charged for certification. http://www.udacity.com/

• Futurelearn, etc.

Course list

Who can participate?

• Working class professionals• Students• Researchers• School pupils• Unemployed • Anybody interested in change!

Why is MOOC significant?

• MOOCS are paving ways for new means of knowledge dissemination

• MOOCs are providing flexible learning that enables learners to choose where, when, what and how they learn as well as the pace at which they will learn

• A MOOC throws open the doors of a course and invites anyone to enter, resulting in a new learning dynamic, that offers remarkable collaborative and conversational opportunities for students to gather and discuss the course content

Why is MOOC significant contd.?

• MOOCs are providing access to multiple learning pathways, social inclusion, intercultural collaboration, digital literacy development, and potentially immersion in a practice that may result in a lifelong learning network

Implication of MOOCs to teaching and learning

• Presents new opportunities of being part of a learning community (lifelong learning)

• Proves that learning happens beyond traditional school-age years

• Provide opportunities to those who may not be able to afford more traditional college education

• Provide opportunities for working class people to learn• MOOCs alters the relationship between learner and

instructor and between academia and wider community (Educause, 2011)

What are the downsides?

• The dynamic of a MOOC will likely make some students uneasy. Frequently presenting students with multiple data streams from discussion board, Twitter, Google+, Ning, etc can be very tasking, energetic and non-linear.

• Geography and access: the digital gap between the developed and developing world is a problem– Bandwidth– Infrastructure

Dropout rates for MOOCs is high!

2011 Coursera online class on”Machine-learning”(Rosanna Tamburri, 2012)

10400046000

20000

13000

Dropout!

EnrolmentSubmitters of as-signmentsCompletedPassed

No of students Percentage

Enrolment 104000 100

Submitters of assignments 46000 44

Completed 20000 19

Passed 13000 12.5

Are MOOCs threat to the existence of conventional Universities?

“Not all US colleges and universities will disappear as a result of new technologies, but clearly some will. If higher education institutions embrace the status quo, they will no longer be in control of their own fate. To survive, they must change their existing business models.”(Henry C. Lucas)

How about libraries in the Time of MOOCs?

• MOOCs give librarians new opportunities to help shape the conversation about changes in higher education and to guide administrators, faculty, and students through these changes. To assume this role, librarians must understand the MOOCs landscape.

MOOCs compliant Universities (Coursera)

1. Berklee College of Music2. Brown University3. California Institute of Technology4. Columbia University5. Duke University6. École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne7. Emory University8. Georgia Institute of Technology9. Hebrew University of Jerusalem10. Johns Hopkins University11. Mount Sinai School of Medicine12. Ohio State University13. Princeton University14. Rice University15. Stanford University16. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology17. The University of British Columbia

18. University of California, Irvine19. University of California, San Francisco20. University of Edinburgh21. University of Florida22. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign23. University of London International Programmes24. University of Maryland, College Park25. University of Melbourne26. University of Michigan27. University of Pennsylvania28. University of Pittsburgh29. University of Toronto30. University of Virginia31. University of Washington32. Vanderbilt University33. Wesleyan University

Listed by European University Association

How about Generation Rwanda?

• Starting a university based entirely on MOOCs.• Goal:• To have a 400-person university in Rwanda with

MOOCs providing the content and with teaching fellows handling discussions and tutoring students.

• Non-profit organization dedicated to assisting orphans and vulnerable young people in Rwanda to receive a university education.

Most people resist change because it is full of uncertainty and risk

Change!

Conclusion!

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References

• Butcher, Neil. A basic guide to Open Educational Resources (OERs). Commonwealth of Learning and UNESCO