MOOCs:Reexamining our Assumptions

Larry CoopermanPast President, Open Education ConsortiumAssociate Dean for Open Education, University of California, Irvine

Prepared forEMMA Summer SchoolIschia, ItalyJuly 6, 2015

“The need to respond to the demands of massification has

caused the average qualification for academics in many

countries to decline.”

“Trends in Global Higher Education: Tracking an Academic Revolution,” UNESCO 2009 World Conference on Higher Education

Altbach, Reisberg and Rumbley

…about those lecture halls

Trow’s Conceptions of Elite, Mass and Universal Higher Education

Elite (0-15%) Mass (16-50%) Universal (over 50%)

i) Attitudes to access A privilege of birth ortalent or both

A right for those with certainqualifications

An obligation for the middle and upperclasses

ii) Functions of higher education

Shaping mind and character of ruling class; preparation forelite roles

Transmission of skills;preparation for broaderrange of technical andeconomic elite roles

Adaptation of ‘whole population’ to rapidsocial and technologicalchange

iii) Curriculum and forms of instruction

Highly structured in terms of academic orprofessional conceptions of knowledge

Modular, flexible andsemi-structured sequenceof courses

Boundaries andsequences break down;distinctions betweenlearning and life break down

vii) Academic standards Broadly shared and relatively high (in meritocratic phase)

Variable; system/institution‘become holdingcompanies for quite different kinds of academic enterprises’

Criterion shifts from‘standards’ to ‘valueadded’

Source: Trow, Martin, “Reflections on the Transition from Elite to Mass to Universal Access: Forms and Phases of Higher Education in Modern Societies since WWII. International Handbook of Higher Education: Part One: Global Themes and Contemporary Challenges. 2007. Springer. Dordrecht, Netherlands.

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

30.0%

35.0%

40.0%

45.0%

50.0%

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Gross Enrollment RatioColombia 2005-2013

Enrollment, Graduation, and Attainment

A New Iron Triangle?

Access

SuccessCost

Content Experience Certification

Noodlepiehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/noodlepie/2680175828/CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

trey.menefeehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/trey333/2185461746/CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Gadgetdudehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/gadgetdude/804190044/CC BY 3.0

Joe Hatfieldhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/jhat/80371024/CC BY-NC 3.0

University + The Internet = What?

?

Roy Whiddon - CC BY-NC-SA 3.0http://www.flickr.com/photos/rwhiddon/1338564499/

2015

What is (are) the right question(s) to ask?

What should we do now that the delivery of higher education is so highly digital (and

we have the Internet)?

MOOCs have forced a new conversation

MOOC

SCALE DATA

PEDAGOGY LEARNING

MOOCs

MOOCs took a step back from the open licensing critical to reusability MOC

MOOC

Scale

Communities of experts

Learning communitiesCurriculum

Scale

ScaleScale

Communitiesof Learners

Communitiesof Experts

Pedagogy

Hansch, Anna and Hillers, Lisa and McConachie, Katherine and Newman, Christopher and Schildhauer, Thomas and Schmidt, Philipp, Video and Online Learning: Critical Reflections and Findings from the Field (March 13, 2015). HIIG Discussion Paper Series No. 2015-02. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2577882 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2577882

Active Learning: Construction of Knowledge

Recommendation 1. Catalyze widespread adoption of empirically validated teaching practices.“Learning theory, empirical evidence about how people learn, and assessment of outcomes in STEM classrooms all point to a need to improve teaching methods to enhance learning and student persistence. Classroom approaches that engage students in “active learning” improve retention of information and critical thinking skills, compared with a sole reliance on lecturing, and increase persistence of students in STEM majors. STEM faculty need to adopt teaching methods supported by evidence derived from experimental learning research as well as from learning assessment in STEM courses. Evidencebased teaching methods have proven effective with a wide range of class sizes and increase learning outcomes even as enhancements of traditional lectures.”

Engage to Excel: Producing One Million Additional College Graduates with Degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Report to the President of the United States. President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Retrieved from https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/pcast-engage-to-excel-final_feb.pdf on June 25, 2015.

Peer Learning

Preszler, R. W. (2009). Replacing Lecture with Peer-led Workshops Improves Student Learning. CBE Life Sciences Education, 8(3), 182-192. Retrieved February 20, 2015

What is the best predictor of

4th year grades?

Data

First SemesterGrades

Final SemesterGrades

Data

The Research Problem

"It's messy, and it's always going to be messy, and those sort of clean lines are not even something we should strive for.“

-Dave Cormier, http://chronicle.com/article/George-Siemens-Gets-Connected/143959/

When Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology last week released student data collected by edX, some higher education consultants remarked that the data provided "no insight into learner patterns of behavior over time.”

-http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/06/10/after-grappling-data-mooc-research-initiative-participants-release-results#sthash.56Dy3gyD.Y5Lq2gJS.dpbs

Research

70.3%

13.2%16.5%

Tertiary Degree Holder

Currently Enrolled in

College

Other

Primary 0.3%Secondary 2.8%Completed Secondary 9.7%Some additional training 3.8%

Undergraduate 30.1%Graduate 40.2%

“It surprised us that so many of our learners appeared to be very well educated despite the undergraduate entry-level of five of the MOOCs.”

Source: OCs at Edinburgh 2013 – Report #1. May 10, 2013. Retrieved at http://www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/1842/6683/Edinburgh_MOOCs_Report2013_no1.pdf?sequence=1 on June 25, 2015.

“What Do We Know About MOOC Students So Far?: A Look at Recent User Data” Retrievedfrom http://moocnewsandreviews.com/what-do-we-know-about-mooc-students-so-far/

Jordan, K. (2015). Massive open online course completion rates revisited: Assessment, length and attrition. The International Review Of Research In Open And Distributed Learning, 16(3). Retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/2112

Learning

“Not only has it become evident recently that students require socialization in MOOCs through different forms (of self-organization) such as local meet-ups (Coughlan, 2014) and that social factors contribute to attribution [sic] in MOOCs (Rose et al., 2014), but educational research is also very clear about numerous educational benefits of socialization. The Vygotskian approach…”

- Siemens, G., Gašević, D., & Dawson, S. (2015). Preparing for the digital university: a review of the history and current state of distance, blended, and online learning. Retrieved from http://linkresearchlab.org/PreparingDigitalUniversity.pdf

Learning in Peer-led Study Groups

• Higher mean final course grades

• Higher course completion rates

• Better reenrollment and graduation rates.

• Greater effectiveness for underrepresented minorities and women.

-Dawson, P., van der Meer, J., Skalicky, J., and Cowley, K. (2014). On the Effectiveness of Supplemental Instruction: A Systematic Review of Supplemental Instruction and Peer-Assisted Study Sessions Literature Between 2001 and 2010. Review of Educational Research. December 2014, Vol. 84, No.4, pp. 609-639. doi: 10.3102/003465431450007.

REVIEW OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH December 2014 vol. 84 no. 4 609-639 REVIEW OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH December 2014 vol. 84 no. 4 609-639

Learning Creative Learning MOOC

Emergent concepts

• Community over course• Projects• Peers• Passion• PlayBy Julie Donders. Retrieved from

http://reports.p2pu.org/learning-creative-learning/. More information at http://learn.media.mit.edu/lcl/

Enrollment, Graduation, and Attainment

Universal Post-Secondary Education

Lifelong, flexible, adaptable learners

Thank You

Larry.Cooperman@unx.uci.eduLarry.Cooperman@openedconsortium.org@openeducatorhttp://ocw.uci.eduhttp://www.oeconsortium.orghttp://www.avu.org

Larry CoopermanPast President, Open Education ConsortiumBoard of Directors, African Virtual UniversityAssociate Dean for Open Education, University of California, Irvine