Utilization of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and Open

Educational Resources (OERs) in Engineering

Education

Mahmoud Abdulwahed31st of March 2014, Qatar University

CC BY Mahmoud Abdulwahed http://www.linkedin.com/pub/mahmoud-abdulwahed/61/175/652

Intended Outcomes of Today’s Seminar

• Brief knowledge of available high quality free or inexpensive online courses and open educational materials offerings by reputable institutions (e.g. MIT, Stanford, Harvard, etc.)

• Brief Knowledge of relevant platforms of MOOCs and Open Educational Resources• Brief Knowledge of creating own CENG MOOCs• An Overview of some Innovative student-centered pedagogies and ways of utilization of

MOOCs and OER in CENG courses• Brief overview of Open Education Movement• Brief Knowledge of Licensing issues in MOOCs and OERs• A look backward and forward: A revolution undertaking place in HE, teaching, and learning • Some Actions or Plans for pilot experiments on MOOCs and OER for Engineering Education

with interested Faculty

From OCW towards MOOCs

MIT Administration posed two Questions to the Faculty Committee in 2000:

How is the internet going to change education?

What is MIT going to do about it?

Former MIT President Charles Vest

CC BY Andy Lane

Where it was Rooted?

The Birth of MIT Open CourseWare, 2001

MOOCs, the Initial Birth

Early experiments took place around 2008, 2009, and 2010; by George Siemens, the father of notion of connectivism, Alec Couros and others

MOOCs, ….

MOOCs gained a lot of public attention in 2012 with the deployment and birth of a number of courses and platforms, in particular developed by Elite Universities (MIT, Harvard, and Stanford)

MOOCs in the US

• Movements in MOOCs transferred to the US with Experiments in Washington and Stanford in 2011

• Courses on Digital Story telling, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning were offered

• Artificial Intelligence course of Sebastian Thurn from Stanford attracted 160 000 student

The Birth of Platforms: 2010 till now

• Udacity (by Sebastian Thurn, from Stanford) – For Profit• NovoEd (Stanford)• Coursera (by Andrew NG, and Daphne Coller, from Stanford) – for

Profit• Edx (by MIT and Harvard) – Non for Profit • And many others

MOOCs Platforms

MOOCs Platforms

MOOCs Platforms

MOOCs Platforms

Activity 1 (5 Minutes)

• Visit one of the following Platforms:• Edx: https://www.edx.org/ • Coursera: https://www.coursera.org/• NovoEd: https://novoed.com/ • Udacity: https://www.udacity.com/ • Open2study: https://www.open2study.com/ • FutureLearn: https://www.futurelearn.com/ • Or any other platform

• Browse different offerings in these platforms• Identify 1 or more courses you would be personally (or your think one of your colleagues

would be personally) interested to follow for your (or his/her) own professional development• Discuss among the audience, why do you think this course(s) is useful for you as a faculty

member to follow

MOOCs Demo

• As with other MOOC style offerings edX students will have a little interaction or won’t have interaction with faculty or earn credit toward an MIT degree.

• For a small fee students can take an assessment which, if successfully completed, will provide them with a certificate from edX.

• EdX offers honor code certificates, ID verified certificates, and XSeries certificates (successfully completing a series of courses)

• edX platform used to conduct experiments on how students learn and how faculty can best teach. Assessing course data, from mouse clicks to time spent on tasks, to evaluating how students respond to various assessments.

Pedagogy of Edx and Other MOOCs

CC BY Paul Stacy

• Initial edX aim was to improve teaching and learning of tuition paying on-campus students. Have revised aim to developing best practices to enhance the student experience and improve teaching and learning both on campus and online

• Pedagogy very similar to Udacity and other platforms• Regrettably the rich body of research about online learning is

not being used• Focus of edX so far is not on pedagogy but on engineering an

open source MOOC platform

Pedagogy of EDx

CC BY Paul Stacy

Pedagogy of Classical MOOCs

Innovative MOOCs PedagogiesDS106 Digital Storytelling (started since 2011 in its first offering) at the University of Mary Washington is a course that registered students at that university can take for credit, and is also open for free for non-credit learners.In Fall 2013, experiment was undertaken to offer the course without a teacher

http://ds106.us/

Innovative MOOCs Pedagogies• Assignments created

by students• No teacher in Fall

2013 experiment• Course has its own

radio station!

Activity 2 (5 Minutes)

• Discuss in Pairs or Triplets the following:• Can MOOCs be integrated into UG and PG courses?• How?• What are the advantages?• What are the risks?

• Share with the Audience your Thoughts

Activity 3 (5 Minutes)

• Visit one of the following Platforms:• Edx: https://www.edx.org/ • Coursera: https://www.coursera.org/• NovoEd: https://novoed.com/ • Udacity: https://www.udacity.com/ • Open2study: https://www.open2study.com/ • FutureLearn: https://www.futurelearn.com/ • Or any other platform

• Browse different offerings in these platforms• Identify 1 or more courses you think that students (UG or PG) in your field of expertise or

teaching area can use it as an alternative/or addition to a similar course in their degree • Discuss among the audience, why do you think this course(s) is useful for these students• Discuss among audience potential innovative pedagogies that these courses could be

utilized for

Initial MOOCs Integration Experiments in QU

Integration with Graduate and Undergraduate QU Courses in Spring 2014

Initial MOOCs Experiments in QU

• Development QU MOOCs• One course from College of Sharia; Expected deployment May 2014• One course from College of Engineering; Expected deployment May

2014• Foundation program course(s); Expected deployment Fall 2014• Etc

Building your Own MOOC

• Building your own MOOC is not difficult process• You need to plan ahead, and ask the following questions:

• Why would you be interested in developing your MOOC• What course• For which audience• What are the course objectives and learning outcomes • What content • What pedagogy• What assessment • Which platform• Etc.

Hints for Building an Effective MOOCs • Participate in a MOOC to get sense of it• Identify your audience, and build a course contextualized for them• Build or offer a MOOC with others (e.g. faculty, TA/GTA, excellent student, etc.)• Develop clear learning outcomes of your MOOC, and then design its materials

accordingly• Develop assessment plan and strategies that fosters self-paced and peer learning • The shorter the MOOC, the better; try to aim for 6-8 week long MOOC • Utilize a modular structure based on weekly modules• Try to have everything students will need available in the MOOC (e.g. avoid

building a MOOC around a hardcopy textbook that need to be bough)

Building your Own MOOC: How To?

• Develop a Syllabus with clear learning outcomes• Develop content for your course:

• Videos• Slides and handouts• Activities• Assessments and grading scheme

• Develop an attractive promotion video of your MOOC, e.g. 1-2 minutes• Keep your videos short and divide them around concepts• Each concept is normally followed by an assessment (e.g. multiple

choice questions, and/or an activity)

Videos Recording

There are many options for developing your videos professional video recording:

• Professional recording • Classroom video capture

(Eco360 in QU)• Desktop capture (e.g. Camtasia)

Camtasia for Video Recording

Building your Own MOOC: Platform?

Building your Own MOOC: Platform?

https://www.canvas.net/learn-more

Udemy Demo

Activity 4 (5 Minutes)

• Go to Udemy.com • Register as a teacher • Familiarize yourself with the course publishing platform

• Do you think you will utilize the platform for developing a MOOC in the future?

Activity 5 (5 Minutes) – MOOCing CENG Courses• Discuss in groups the following ideas:

• What about MOOCing CENG courses of large enrollment and using MOOCed formats for our students; e.g. the General Engineering Courses?

• GENG106 Computer Programming?• GENG107 Skills and Ethics? • GENG 200 Probability and Statistics? • GENG 360 Engineering Economy? • GENG 300 Numerical Analysis? • GENG 111 Engineering Graphics?

• If MOOCed; what do you think the lecture time could be used for?• What disadvantages and advantages could be obtained by MOOCing these courses? • Other CENG courses for MOOCing?

• Share your discussions outcomes with the audience

Open Education

• Education builds the future.• Education is sharing.• Open allows more rapid building and

sharing at a larger scale.• Free quality resources is an enabler for

democratizing Education

Open Education starts with basic ideas:

CC BY Open CourseWare Consortium

Open EducationTerms Open Educational ResourcesOpenCourseWareOpen Educational PracticeOpen Textbooks

= Free and Open

CC BY Open CourseWare Consortium

OER are teaching, learning, and research materials that permit their free use and re-purposing by others.

Open Educational Resources (OER)

CC BY Open CourseWare Consortium

OER involves lots of groups and organisations around the world

• OER are explicitly funded by:• Foundations• Governments• NGOs• Institutions• Donations

• OER can be found in:• funded institutional repositories • funded and non-funded community based initiatives • proprietary channels • websites of projects, groups and individuals

• OER are being supported via• International and national consortia• Commercial activities and organizations • Infrastructure activities and organizations

CC BY Andy Lane

Open Education • Open Educational Resources Repositories and Catalogues

• OER Commons• MERLOT• JORUM • Etc.

• Open Textbooks:• C-K12• ConneXions

• Open CourseWare Movement• MIT Open CourseWare• Open CourseWare Consortium • Etc.

• xMOOCs is the new wave of Open CourseWare

Free no cost

OpenNo cost + permission to change

By Adam Bartlett http://www.flickr.com/photos/atbartlett/2432704579/

By Sean MacEntee http://www.flickr.com/photos/smemon/4518528819/

CC BY Open CourseWare Consortium

OER are building blocks for innovation in higher education

bdesham http://www.flickr.com/photos/bdesham/2432400623

CC BY Open CourseWare Consortium

The OCW Movement—What is OCW?

OCW is a type of Open Educational Resource (OER).

OER are a type of Open Content.

OpenEducationalResources

Open Content

OCW

CC BY Andy Lane

What is OpenCourseWare?

• Materials organized as courses

• Generally includes course planning documents, thematic content, learning activities and evaluation instruments

lecture notes

syllabi

course calendar

assignments, projects, tests

videos or recordings of lectures

demonstrations and illustrations of concepts

CC BY Andy Lane

What is OpenCourseWare? Summary:

An opencourseware (ocw) is a free and open educational resource for faculty, students, and self-learners throughout the world.• An ocw is not a distance-learning initiative: there are no

degrees granted, no student/faculty interactions and no transcripts.

• An ocw is a collection of high-quality learning materials presented in the form of courses.

• OCW materials are there for using and re-purposing. Modifications welcome!

CC BY Andy Lane

OCW Movement

Stanford & Berkeley

CC BY Open CourseWare Consortium

OCW Movement

http://www.flickr.com/photos/usaid_images/6462458071/CC-BY-NC-SA by USAID images

CC BY Open CourseWare Consortium

Licensing

Conditions CC licenses

Attribution

ShareAlike

NonCommercial

NoDerivatives

CC BY Open CourseWare Consortium

CC BY Open CourseWare Consortium

most free

Most restrictiveCC BY Open CourseWare Consortium

CC BY Open CourseWare Consortium

Wikipedia: Over 77,000 contributors working on over 22 million articles in 285 languages CC BY Open CourseWare Consortium

http://open.umich.edu/education/lsa/physics140/fall2007CC BY Open CourseWare Consortium

Attribution

http://open.umich.edu/education/lsa/physics140/fall2007 This course is licensed CC-BY • You are free to use, modify and distribute all or any

part of this course, including for commercial use• You must give attribution to the University of

Michigan and cite the source CC BY Open CourseWare Consortium

MOOCs Licensing

No, all rights reserved.

No, non-OER license.

No, all rights reserved.Note: some institutions using CC anyway.

Yes, CC BY or CC BY-SA

Partial, CC BY-NC on some

Most MOOCs are open only in the sense of free enrollment.

CC BY Paul Stacy

Example, Coursera terms of serviceYou may access the course for personal use only, you may not modify or reuse without permission. Anything you contribute to the course can be used, modified, distributed by Coursera without notification or further permission from you.

CC BY Open CourseWare Consortium

A Look Backwards and to the Future

Early Invention of Schooling: Ancient Middle East ca. 5500 to 6000 Years Ago

Source: http://stravaganzastravaganza.blogspot.com/2011/12/sumerian-family-life.html

Sumerian School, Ancient Iraq, ca. 3rd Millennium BX

Schooling and Universities Today!

At least we got a projector as an update of the thousands years old model of schooling!

CC BY Sean McEntee, Flickr

CC BY Punainenkala, Flickr

What's the I’m really doing in

School!

CC BY Rick Lomas, Flickr

Whats going in Education in the digital revolution Era!

Disruptive Models are Emerging

Synchronous Lectures Cross Continents!

Soon in Qatar University!http://ipodia.usc.edu/technology/

CC BY Mary Lou Forward

Disruptive Models are Emerging

Peer to Peer University!

Disruptive Models are Emerging

Open Educational Resources University!

The OER university is a virtual collaboration of institutions committed to creating flexible pathways for OER learners to gain formal academic credit. The OER university aims to provide free learning to all students worldwide using OER learning materials with pathways to gain credible qualifications from recognized education institutions.

CC BY Mary Lou Forward

Disruptive Models are Emerging

Open/Social Study and Peer Learning

CC BY Mary Lou Forward

Disruptive Models are Emerging

Competency Based Education & Deep LearningConcept Based & Embedded Assessment

Competency-based education model.Knebel et al. Human Resources for Health 2008 6:17   doi:10.1186/1478-4491-6-17

Space 2: Workplace and/or Authentic Real-life ContextSpace 2: Workplace and/or Authentic Real-life Context

Space 1: Educational and/or Training SystemSpace 1: Educational and/or Training System

Abdulwahed et al., 2013: Semantic Systemic Model of Mechanistic and Ontological Relationships between Content

Knowledge, Skills, Attributes, and Competencies

Preliminary Content

Knowledge

Intrinsic Attribute or Character

Apply in a Context

Skill Development

Apply in a Context

Competency Development

Contextual Content

Knowledge

Higher order Intrinsic Attribute or Character

Complex Conditions

Shared Development Area (Context, Content Knowledge, Emerging Skill)

Shared Development Area (Context, Content Knowledge, Emerging Skill)

CC-BY-SA billsoPHOTO http://www.flickr.com/photos/billsophoto/4175299981

Disruptive Models are Emerging

New Models of Certifications!

What is the future look like??

• More openness in education• Traditional publishing textbook will loose good size of the market

share for open textbooks• Disruptive models of degrees, certifications, and recognitions of

competencies for the job market• Universities will have to re-invent themselves, or become OBSELETE!• Innovation on pedagogies, teaching, and learning will advance • Higher shift in the role of teacher from content delivery towards

coordination and coaching; More focus on students

Activity 6 (5 Minutes)

• What do you recommend for the following questions/thoughts? • How do you think CENG or QU should proceed forward in digital learning?• What kind of experiments do you think need to be conducted?• What organizational or policy structure do you recommend to have to support

CENG or QU faculty to conduct innovation in digital learning?• What kind of research CENG or QU need to conduct in this area?

• Please discuss your thoughts in groups• Share your thoughts with the Audience

Thanks; Q & A?