how are moocs disrupting the educational landscape?

CENTRE FOR INNOVATIONIN TECHNOLOGIES & EDUCATION

How are MOOCs Disrupting the Educational Landscape?

April 2014

Hugh Davis @HughDavisProfessor of Learning TechnologiesDirector of EducationDirector of CITEDirector of PDU

CSEDU. Barclelona 2014

Founded 1862, Charter 1952

25,000 StudentsRussell Group

Top 20 UKWUN

Excellence in:(Opto) ElectronicsComputer Science

OceanographyEngineering (esp. Nautical and Aero)

Acoustics

2012 - FutureLearn

FutureLearn today


5@HughDavisCSEDU 2014

A quick tour of MOOCs

Criticisms of MOOCs

Current HE Context

Why are Universities making MOOCs? - Business models

What can we gain from MOOCs?

Addressing the criticisms

Challenges for HE

This Talk

A Quick Tour of MOOCs

(and a comparison with OERS and on-line courses)

6



Massive - some have 10,000s registered.

Open = free

anyone can register

Online although many have a parallel blended incarnation

Course - that runs at a given time with a given cohort

(but not necessarily accredited for anything)

-

What is a MOOC?

Short (often 4-8 weeks, 3 hrs /week)No formal assessment and feedback

Rely on Social Learning



MOOC Timeline

Florida Institute of Technologyhttp://libguides.lib.fit.edu/HistoryofMOOCs



xMOOCs –

• Defined based on learning outcomes

• Well defined journey through learning

• Instructor led – “broadcast” mode

• Learning can be assessed and certified

cMOOCs

• Based on educational theories of connectivism – which hold that knowledge resides in the network and that learning is about making connections. See:- http://bit.ly/lyNmGX

Types of MOOCs



MIT OpenCourseware Openlearn (OU)

Courses but not MOOCs



What to share? The course or the content?



Udacity the first “democratizing education”but still for profit. Started at Stanford.

Coursera for profitbusiness model emerging Easily the largest

EdX not for profitMIT, Harvard, Berkeley

Miríada X Iberian platformSponsored by Banco Santander and Telefónica - 2012Largest European platform

FutureLearn for profit – UK CentricWholly owned by UK OU - launched Oct 2013

MOOC Providers



Most MOOCs consist of:

• Many short videos• Some talking heads• Some “worked examples”• Some experiments etc.

• On-line papers etc.

• On-line activities

• Links to external resources

• Discussions on platform

• Off platform activity

What are MOOCs made of?



Assessment (and feedback) will need to be

• Objective (multiple choice etc.)

• Peer review

• Self evaluation

The emphasis must be on the student as a self-motivated learner.

No “Conversational Framework” here!

Assessment and Feedback?

15

Criticisms?



Cultural Imperialism?



Demographics of Edinburgh’s MOOCs

(MOOCs @ Edinburgh 2013 - Report #1)



The literature quotes figures of 7 – 13%

(See Katy Jordan’s Blog - http://moocmoocher.wordpress.com/)

An interesting observationis the drop off with time.

Completion Rates

But is completionthe correct measure of

satisfaction or learning?

http://moocmoocher.wordpress.com/

http://moocmoocher.wordpress.com/


@HughDavisCSEDU 2014

Pedagogy

Learning Unit 1 Learning

Unit 2 Learning Unit 3 Learning

Unit 4 Learning Unit 5 Learning

Unit 6 Up to 10

Learning Unit n

Weekly Learning Units: , 2- 6 hours study timeMeaningful title, clear learning goals, end-of-unit assessment

1 2 3 Each with 2 or 3 self-contained Learning Blocks

Learning Block

Video Text Discuss Quiz

Learning BlocksSequence of elements(This is just one example)

19

Its not exactly the leading edge

of online pedagogy

There is no real interaction between

educators and learners

20

Current HE Context

“The Avalanche Report”Barber, M. Donnelly, K & Rizvi, S. (March 2013). An Avalanche is Coming; Higher Education and the Revolution Ahead. Institute for Public Policy Research.

21

Time

Perf

orm

ance

/In

com

e Traditional Business

NewTechnology

The Napster moment

Disruptive Technologies



Fees going up faster than value of degree (in most of the developed world)

Increased demand for flexibility of study (particularly CPD)

Challenge from alternative educational providers (particularly for MSc’s/CPD) becoming real

All these things imply a greater engagement with on-line

Changing Business model for higher education

Need for universities to globalize or specialize

MOOCs are the vanguard for on-line programmes

HE Context

End of the campus...?

Clicks not bricks?

24

Business Models



The Fremium Model

You get added value if you pay e.g. • Statements of participation, or

attainment – or actual credits?• Tutoring – the eBay model

Sponsored MOOCs• Someone pays me to make the

MOOC I want (for their marketing purposes)

• Someone pays me to make the MOOC they want – but I can use too.

Access to student data

How do MOOCs make money?

But this is all money for the Platform Provider.Why do Universities

and Academics do this?



Southampton is runningWeb Science and Oceanography based MOOCs as its first offerings..

Enhancing our Reputation and Brand



New Markets (1)

Informal Learning

YouTube,iTunesU

Non Formal Learning

MOOCsOERs

Formal Learning

Modules

Formal Learning

WholeProgrammes

Pulling Students through from the Informal to the Formal



“When employers accept on-line certification then things will really change”

There can be many other options than “boarding school” degrees

New markets (2)

HE for non-traditional students, students from developing countries and CPD



Provide a public service

http://iberry.com/cms/OER.htm

Democratising Education

30

What can we gain from MOOCs?



MOOCs in campus based learning

External non-paying MOOCers

MOOC

Paying Students

The Embedded MOOC



Berkley Scratch Course- shows F2F and MOOC version of course

http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs10/fa12/



The flipped MOOC / flipped classroom

End of the lecture?

From http://www.washington.edu/teaching/teaching-resources/flipping-the-classroom/



MOOCs are the vanguard of online degrees

Lots of $$$$ looking for brands willing to go online

Their belief is that there are are new markets waiting for online opportunities• Cheaper Course fees• No boarding fees or travel• Any time, and place• Flexible (CPD)• International markets

lacking provision

Online Degrees

34



Venture Capitalists

Publishers

Education-business start-ups

Online Programmes in partnership (for profit)



Articulated Degrees

F2F Module

MOOC at

Stanford

OUModule

MOOC at Soton

CapstoneProject

Degree Programme



Fully accredited programmes offered as MOOCs



Marketing people are happy to get email listsBut much more than that….

The massive cohorts give us new opportunities for experimenting in and understanding learning and assessment

• Adaptive feedback• Adaptive learning paths• Adaptive Content• Gameification• Peer Review• Self Review

Big Data

Mike Wheatley http://siliconangle.com

39

Addressing the Criticisms


40

Criticisms

Pedagogically Simplistic

No support and feedback

Poor Completion rates

No accreditation

This is going to kill Universities

Observation

Really? Worse than the lecture?-and innovations in social learning

There could be: You’d have to pay

Retention is not the aim – satisfaction is. We are not dealing with paying students.

There could be. You would have to pay for it.

Only those that are not agile and responsive to new business models – but expect some unbundling

Addressing the Criticisms



There are three major cohorts in the learners

• Lifelong learners 25-65 years old (almost always with at least 1 degree)

• People looking to acquire skills (CPD)

• International learners with poor access to HE

(a much smaller 4th cohort is those investigating university learning)

Who is doing MOOCs?



Patterns of engagement

Auditing: Just interested. Not looking for credit.

Completing: Looking for credit – either passive or actively engaged with discussions etc.

Sampling: Looking for interesting material

43

Concluding

MOOCs = more choice & flexibility

We are developing our capacity to develop high quality on-line

courses



• Changing Beliefs – online works!

• Curriculum Design

• Working with the right academic staff time. Who pays them?

• Growing teams of Learning Designers and Multimedia Production

• Legal Matters

• Speed and Agility

• Budget

• Marketing

Challenges for Institutional Strategy

End of the campus...?

Clicks AND Bricks

Just as people still throng to music concerts for the

unique experiences they entail, the rich and dense

ecosystems of communities of learning that are

embedded in place-based universities will remain precious, cherished and

revered.

Galager & Garrett, 2013



MOOCs are a good marketing device

MOOCs have the potential to democratize education

But they are also useful Providing high quality content for re-use /embedded MOOCsChanging teaching practiceProviding big data about how learners learnBuilding capacity for on-line

MOOCS are the vanguard of the online disruption. Watch this space!

Conclusions

47

48

Thank youAny Questions?

Hugh Davis@HughDavis

http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/[email protected]

how are moocs disrupting the educational landscape?

Education

technologies education

hughdavis csedu

learning instructor

learning outcomes

social learning

democratizing education

higher education need

clear learning goals