MOOC

MOOC

Deb Kumar BAndyopadhyay

Definations

Common features of a MOOC

Distinctions between pedagogical styles of MOOCs

MOOCs and Open Education

Analysis of MOOC-style open education initiatives

Issues and challenges for MOOCs

Implications for Higher education

Massive Open Educational Systems (MOOCs) are a new addition to the open educational system. The internet and mobile internet is increasingly adopted by exting high education providers as a mode of provision.

The open online course “Connectivism and Connective Knowledge” led by George Siemens and Stephen Downes offered by the University of Manitoba(Canada) in 2008 is considered the first MOOC. Educational Institutions as well as learners arround the world have shown a remarkable interest in MOOCs.

A first proposal for a MOOC defination was developed by the HOME partners in March 2004. Proposed defination was MOOCs are courses designed for learge numbers of participants, that can be accessed by anyone anywhere as long as they have an internet connection, are open to everyone without entry qualifications, and offer a full/complete course experience

Common features of a MOOC:

According to Bates (2014), MOOCs share a combination of the four key characteristics listed below.

M – Massive – An online course designed for large number participants.

O – Open – Course can be accessed by anyone anywhere, freedom of place and time, open to everyone without entry qualifications, course can be completed for free.

O – Online – Complete course online.

C – Courses – Unit of study.

Distinctions between pedagogical styles of MOOCs:

There are two main strands of MOOCs identified based on the pedagogy adapted in them.

cMOOCs

The early MOOCs were 'connectivist' (Siemens, 2012), described as cMOOCs, due to the focus on creating mass communication and interaction. One quality question arising around process-based cMOOCs is that since individual participants of cMOOCs create a lot of the material, whether they own the rights to this and how long the MOOC materials will remain available? (Bates, 2014). In deciding on a framework for quality in a cMOOC, Creelman, Ehlers and Ossiannilsson (2014) question if this should then relate to the desired social interaction in cMOOCs, based perhaps on the Community of Practice Model or situated around the theory of constructivist or connectivist assumptions. The focus would be on progression of learners growing into the community of their peers, how they build up expertise through making use of the connections and links they build, within the sphere of social interaction (Creelman, Ehlers and Ossiannilsson, 2014).

xMOOCs

The more instructivist models have been labelled xMOOCs. These tend to employ a knowledge transmission model, through video recordings of classroom lectures or custom produced mini-lectures (Jona and Naidu, 2014). These may feature famous professors from highly reputed universities. Online participants learn autonomously without (necessarily) much focus on creating social interaction. A suitable quality framework for xMOOCs could therefore be a content-oriented type of framework, which is assessing the quality of the content presented. Subject matter experts would be needed and an analysis of the learning design to evaluate how content is presented, and which type of learning objectives and assignments are given (Creelman, Ehlers and Ossiannilsson, 2014).

MOOCs and Open Education

:

MOOCs are open online courses that generally allow anyone to register and follow the course without a fee (at least for the basic course). Cormier and Siemens argue that they are “a potential by product of open teaching and learning”. The level of openness in MOOCs differs from course to course and if the course is offered on a MOOC platform, depending on the platform. While many cMOOCs offered its content using open licensing, other MOOC providers only provide the content for personal use only. For example, the licensing agreement of Coursera, one of the leading xMOOC platforms, states that the material is “only for your own personal, non-commercial use. You may not otherwise copy, reproduce, retransmit, distribute, publish, commercially exploit or otherwise transfer any material, nor may you modify or create derivatives works of the material”. Thus, even though a “by product” of the Open Education movement, MOOCs seem to be less open than Open Education Resources (OERs), freely accessible educational content, which are generally produced with open licensing.

Analysis of MOOC-style open education initiatives

:

The following section analyses recent initiatives that have been launched to make teaching, learning resources, and coursesin various subjects and levels, available online.

KEY DEVELOPMENTS OF MOOCS-STYLE INITIATIVES

edX (https://www.edX.org/) is a non-profit MOOCs platform founded by Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard

University with $60 million of resources contributed by the two institutions to support the project. Currently, there is a total of

eight courses including chemistry, computer science, electronics and public health, but it is anticipated that there will be

between 20 to 30 courses in 2013. MITx and Harvardx courses will not be offered for credit at either university but online

learners who demonstrate mastery of subjects can pay a modest fee for a certificate of completion.

Coursera (https://www.coursera.org/) is a for-profit company, which started with $22 million total investment from venture

capitalists, including New Enterprise Associates and Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers Education. There are four university

partners, namely Stanford University, Princeton University and the Universities of Michigan and Pennsylvania. Coursera

currently has 197 courses in 18 subjects, including computer science, mathematics, business, humanities, social science,

medicine, engineering and education. Some partner universities offer credit for their Coursera classes to those who want to

pay a fee to have some extra assignments and work with an instructor and be assessed.

UDACITY (https://www.udacity.com/) is another for-profit start-up founded by Sebastian Thrun, David Stavens and Mike

Sokolsky with $21.1 million investment from venture capitalist firms, including Charles River Ventures and Andreessen

Horowitz. Udacity currently offers 18 online courses in computer science, mathematics, general sciences, programming and

entrepreneurship. When students complete a course, they receive a certificate of completion indicating their level of

achievement, signed by the instructors, at no cost. Some universities began offering transfer credit for Udacity students who

then take the final examination at a Pearson centre.

Udemy (https://www.udemy.com/) founded in 2010, with a total $16 million investment from Insight Venture Partners,

Lightbank, MHS Capital, 500 start-ups and other investors provides a learning platform, which allows anyone to teach and

participate in online video classes. Udemy currently offers over 5,000 courses, 1,500 of which require payment, with the

average price for classes falling between $20 and $200.

P2Pu (https://p2pu.org/en/) was launched in 2009 with funding from the Hewlett Foundation and the Shuttleworth Foundation.

P2PU offers some of the features of MOOCs, but is focused on a community centred approach to provide opportunities for

anyone that is willing to teach and learn online. There are over 50 courses available and the process of improving the quality

of the courses relies on community-review, feedback and revision. There are no fees or credits, but P2PU's school of

Webcraft adopted a badge reward system to integrate elements of gamification into the learning process.

Khan Academy (https://www.khanacademy.org/), another well-known free online learning platform, is a not-for-profit

educational organisation with significant backing from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Google. The Khan Academy,

started by Salman Khan in 2008, offers over 3,600 video lectures in academic subjects with automated exercises and

continuous assessment.

Whereas edX offer only Harvard and MIT’s courses, Coursera focuses on providing a platform that any university can use

and Udacity only offers its own curriculum with specialised areas. Other open education initiatives, such as Udemy, P2PU

and Khan Academy have been around for a while and provide opportunities for anyone to learn with experts, peers and

others outside traditional universities. Table 1 indicates the major differences between the initiatives described above in

terms of financial motivation, access, fees and credits.

Issues and challenges for MOOCs

:

The attention verging on hyperbole around MOOCs has raised many concerns and criticisms in educational fora. This

section investigates issues relating to sustainability (business models), pedagogical issues, quality and completion rates, and

the awarding of HE credit for MOOCs.

SUSTAINABILITY

According to Global Industry Analysts (2010), the global e-learning market will reach $107 billion by 2015. However, it is not

entirely clear how the MOOC approach to online education will make money. Most MOOC start-ups do not appear to have

clear business models and are following the common approach of Silicon Valley start-ups by building fast and worrying about

revenue streams later.

Some common approaches to generate revenue are considered by Coursera and other start-ups working in partnership with

HEI, including: charging students a fee for certificates of participation, completion or even transcripts; providing premium

services such as recruiting tools that link employers with students who have shown ability in a given area; and philanthropic

donations from individuals and companies. However, it is a significant challenge for partner universities to generate income

in these ways. In established business models, universities have control of the customer value proposition in that they

provide any recognition of learning and set tuition fees. For MOOCs, most participating institutions have decided that they

will not offer credits as part of traditional awards for these courses, probably as a result of concerns about the quality of the

courses and the downside risks posed to their branding. It would be also against the initial ideals of MOOCs if universities

started to charge tuition fees for their courses. Therefore, many institutions participating in MOOCs consider the courses

they offer to be a branding and marketing activity at present.

PEDAGOGY

There are two concerns regarding pedagogy for MOOCs:

MOOCs and Open Education: Implications for Higher Education

1 Do MOOCs follow a sound pedagogy and organisational approach to online learning that will lead to quality outcomes

and experiences for students? And,

2 What new pedagogies and organisational mechanisms might be required if MOOC are to deliver a high quality learning

experience?

xMOOCs have been criticised for adopting a knowledge transmission model; in essence, they are considered to be

technology-enriched traditional teacher-centred instruction (Larry, 2012). Such systems offer an individualised experience in

that they allow students to take alternative routes through material and offer automated feedback. However, they do not

provide a social learning experience or one of being dealt with personally. Coursera leaves the design of the courses up to

the individual institutions within broad guidelines. However, it is likely that few institutions have enough staff with significant

working knowledge of online pedagogy involved in the development of these courses.

By contrast, cMOOCs provide great opportunities for non-traditional forms of teaching approaches and learner-centred

pedagogy where students learn from one another. Online communities ‘crowd-source’ answers to problems, creating

networks that distribute learning in ways that seldom occur in traditional classrooms in universities. For example,

institutions, like MIT and Edinburgh University are using MOOCs as an experimental venture to participate in emerging

pedagogical models, exploiting peer support and using peer assessment techniques.

QUALITY AND COMPLETION RATES

The issue of quality assurance of MOOCs is a big concern for HEIs. In most cases, compared to other online courses,

MOOCs lack structure, and rarely include the central role of the instructor or teacher. They are largely self-directed learning,

which is a very different experience to formal education. The open nature of MOOCs creates a population that is self-

selected to be engaged and passionate about this approach to learning. MOOCs demand a certain level of digital literacy

from the participants, which has raised concerns on inclusivity and equality of access.

Typically, there tends to be little formal quality assurance for MOOCs. It has been suggested that one approach could be for

them to be evaluated by learners and educators, leading to league tables that rank the courses by the quality of the offering

(Daniel, 2012). In this way, it is possible that courses from institutions and individuals that rate poorly will either disappear

due to lack of demand or will survive by improving course quality in response to poor ratings. Arguably, for MOOCs, the

most significant form of quality assurance and enhancement comes from the reflections and informal evaluations of the

enthusiasts who put on the courses and comments from participants using social media.

Whether the dropout rates and progression should be a concern for MOOCs is a contested debate. Meyer (2012) reported

that the dropout rates of MOOCs offered by Stanford, MIT and UC Berkley were 80-95%. For example, only 7% of the

50,000 students who took the Coursera-UC Berkeley course in Software Engineering completed. There is a similar reported

dropout rate in Coursera’s Social Network Analysis class where only 2% of participants earned a basic certificate and 0.17%

earned the higher level programming with distinction certificate. Whether or not these rates matter depends largely on the

perceived purpose of the MOOCs in the first place. If the aim is to give the opportunity of access to free and high-quality

courses from elite universities and professors, then high dropout rates may not be a primary concern (Gee, 2012). However,

it is widely agreed that it would be useful to improve the retention rates of MOOCs by finding out why and at what stage

students drop out of courses.

ASSESSMENT AND CREDIT

Most MOOCs use quizzes as their main instrument of assessment – short multiple choice questions with automated answers

for feedback. Some may offer other types of assessment that require open responses, but with limited resources it is not

MOOCs and Open Education: Implications for Higher Education

possible for thousands of essay assignments to be marked by one lecturer. Some MOOCs rely heavily on peer engagement

and assessment to support the individual student's learning process. Coursera, for example, includes submission of essay

style answers, graded through peer assessment, to balance the scale with the available resource. Some concerns are

expressed around cheating and plagiarism with online learning, particularly where courses are eligible for academic credits.

On the one hand, MOOCs' scale may magnify the issue; on the other hand, the majority of MOOCs do not offer academic

credits so there may be fewer concerns in this respect. Measures taken by MOOCs to avoid the issue include Coursera

teaming up with Pearson test centres to provide in person examinations.

MOOCs often give participants opportunities to earn badges or a certificate of completion. In some cases, they may even be

able to gain credits towards a degree qualification. However, it has been observed that most learners using MOOCs are

people who already have a degree. In this case, whether the course carries credit seems less important compared to

whether they have evidence through certification that they have participated in a programme of learning and that they can

present to an employers as evidence of professional development.

Implications for Higher education

:

DRIVERS AND TRENDS TOWARDS OPEN EDUCATION

The emergence of MOOC style innovations shows a convergence of interests in social, economic and technology

developments in education in a global context. There is the potential for open education to play an important role in ensuring

access to education for all and addressing the issues and challenges of an ever-changing environment that needs new ways

to deliver and access to HE in the future, these changes include:

1 Globalisation and the increased momentum for internationalisation in higher education

2 Worldwide growth and increasing demand for access to higher education, with the projection that there will be 120

million students worldwide by 2020.

3 Changing learner demographics, experience and demands of the dramatically increasing numbers of lifelong adult

learners

4 Highly increased access to personal technology and social media

5 The need for changes in cost, affordability and economic models for higher education

The Online University scenario represents a future of openness in higher education. In this scenario, competition between

universities, with increasingly differentiated and innovative use of technologies, creates a wide variety of open education

provision. In this model, students undertake largely independent study with free courses, and paid-for external examinations

for degrees awarded when they feel ready to take them.

Within the movement towards open education, this new paradigm opens up opportunities for sharing ideas, collaborating

between institutions, educators and learners locally and internationally, and for facilitating more meaningful engagement in

teaching and learning. A number of related aspects of openness are emerging in different areas, such as those

Open Curriculum: learners mix educational resources, activities, and/or packages for different disciplines to meet their

needs. This places learners in charge of their own learning and ensures that they will learn what they need to meet their

personal desires and requirements.

Open Learning: instructors, experts and/or peers will, through various activities, generate and share new ideas and new

understanding during the learning process. This provides learners with opportunities for self-determined, independent and

interest-guided learning.

Open Assessment: instead of the “monopoly” on formal evaluation of learning results, previously led by accredited

education providers, assessment of what learners have learned is carried out by their instructors, others and peers during

the learning process via peer to peer or crowd-sourced assessment with “on-demand accreditation” for learners.

Open Platform: supports a dynamic and interactive open education community by creating and maintaining an engaging,

intuitive and stable user interface for educators and learners. Cloud–based provision and the use of open standards makes

it easier for different platforms and services to exchange information and data.

Open education brings new opportunities for innovation in HE that will not only support institutions to implement the

fundamental values of university based education but it will also shift the focus from traditional lecturing to more learner-

centred learning in higher education.

IMPLICATIONS FOR EDUCATIONAL POLICY

Higher education is already experiencing a period of unprecedented change worldwide. The cost of funding HE has become

a focus of national policy with most governments looking for new funding mechanisms, reduced costs and improvements in

the quality of teaching and learning. There is significant momentum behind the concept of free and open access to high

quality university learning, and it is likely that content and courses will continue to be promoted resulting in more MOOCs and

other types of open education approaches emerging. However, there is also a need to rethink current higher education

structures and policies that obstruct innovation. Three key areas have become the policy concerns and debates in response

to current developments in MOOCs and and open education in HE: funding for higher education institutions; degree provision;

and quality assurance.

Questions

1. What are the major initiatives are taken by Gov of India based on MOOC?
2. What are the implications for higher education based on MOOC?
3. Write a short note between pedagogical styles of MOOCs?
4. What are the new Challenges for MOOC in 21st century?