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Unprecedented Outreach via MOOCs: Landscape, Issues, Opportunities

Ricky Kwok

October 30, 2014

Quick Summary

•  Landscape: –  10 million active learners; Greater China aggressive;

Various forms of online learning •  Issues:

–  Sustainability ($$/contents/enthusiasm); Quality assurance; Incentives for better teaching

•  Opportunities: –  Bigger impact (institutional and personal);

More collaborations; More creative learning •  Take-away:

–  New way to learn; thus, new way to teach 2

21st Century Learning…

•  What do you do when you want to know something?

•  Ask! •  Whom? •  Google? Facebook? •  Want to watch rather than read?

– E.g., How to play a saxophone? Bake a cake? •  Youtube

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Landscape

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Same Same But Different? •  OpenCourseWare (OCW) Déjà vu? •  One way transmission vs.

more (intelligent) interaction? –  Machine learning based grading –  Forum text-mining –  Like a textbook talking to you?

•  Many more players this time around? •  Internet usage behavior change?

–  ~4 hours per day at home for millennials –  ~17 hours per day for all media (always on!)

•  JIT Analytics? Google? Facebook? •  Mainland China?

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Landscape?

•  Aggregator platforms •  Course enrollments •  Sister institutions in HK •  Mainland institutions •  Blended learning and SPOCs

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edX

•  MIT + Harvard; Not for profit •  54 institutions: 36 Charter Members + 18

Contributors •  2.5 million learners (196+ countries) •  180+ courses •  5 million course enrollments •  150+ blended classes (13500+ enrollments) •  Xseries

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Coursera •  Start-up for profit! •  114 institutions •  9.6 million learners •  760+ courses •  “Specializations”

–  Mini-curriculum –  Handful of courses +

Capstone project •  10 specializations so far

–  Data science, Android app, etc. •  “On-Demand” courses •  Top 10 courses are by far computer science related •  Has a much stronger presence in Mainland China

–  Strong Team: Hired Yale President Emeritus Rick Levin as CEO

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HKU Status? •  Joined edX in May 2013 •  7 courses:

–  “Epidemics”: launched! On September 23 –  “The Search for Vernacular Architecture in Asia”:

April 2015 –  “Humanity and Nature in Chinese Thought”: April

2015 –  “News Literacy”: April 2015 –  “Our Place in the Universe”: January 2016 –  “Law, Economy and Society”: April 2016 –  “Hong Kong Cinema Through a Global Lens”:

September 2016

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HKUST •  Coursera, joined in 2012, 5 courses

–  Science of Gastronomy –  New History of New China –  Science, Tech, and Society in China I, II, III –  3 courses offered, 130,000 registrants, 8000 completed

•  edX, joined in 2013, 3 courses: –  Java Programming (June 2014) –  Digital Communications (August 2014) –  English for Doing Business in Asia (September 2014)

•  Java and Gastronomy courses will give full credits to on-campus students, upon finishing summer face-to-face sessions

•  5-year plan: 20 courses (one from each department) •  Recruitment; learning analytics

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CUHK

•  Coursera, joined in 2012, 5 courses: –  Information Theory – Classics of Chinese Humanities – The Beauty of Kunqu Opera – Role of Renminbi – Structural Equation Model

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Mainland China via Coursera •  Partners in Greater China Region:

–  Peking University –  Fudan University –  Shanghai Jiaotong University –  CUHK –  HKUST –  National Taiwan University

•  New partners: –  Nanjing University –  USTC –  Zhejiang University –  Xian Jiaotong University

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Peking University

•  Joined both edX and Coursera •  To launch 100 MOOCs within 5 years

–  Already launched 15; 150,000 registered –  2014 Fall: 28 courses

•  Highly systematic development •  Training program for 100 teachers per year

–  Vision: Online teaching/learning skills in the near future vs. Making PPT 15+ years ago

•  Flipped classroom for 10+ courses

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Shanghai Jiaotong University

•  Joined both Coursera and FutureLearn •  Infrastructure:

– MOOC Institute – Office of MOOC Development

•  Heavy investment also •  Flipped classroom •  Credits granted

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Coursera’s China Strategies?

•  Partner with all C9? •  Partnership with mooc.guokr.com (果壳):

– Young people in China – Translation/localization – 40% registration traffic through it

(for edX it’s over 75%!) •  User experience is said to be already way

better than edX •  May even do coursera.cn

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Smaller Scale Courses?

•  Blended learning, flipped classroom – Using MOOCs for on-campus courses – Plus on-campus activities: tutorials, labs, etc.

•  Good model for – Common Core courses? – TPG courses? – enabling HKU students to take them while

immersed overseas? – exchange students?

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An Example of edX-based SPOC

•  HLS1x, HarvardX, Jan-April 2013 •  Enrollment: Limited to 500 participants

– Diverse along many dimensions, including country of residence, age, occupation, educational background, and gender

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An Example of edX-based SPOC

•  Actions for students – Watch pre-recorded lectures – Engage in interactive live webcasts of events

in which guest speakers address especially controversial issues

– Discuss legal problems in online forums – Participate once a week in an 80-minute

online seminar (Most important) – Take a three-hour exam

•  Graded by teaching fellows

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An Example of edX-based SPOC

•  “Participants who receive passing grades will be awarded certificates of completion and will be provided written assessments of their degree of proficiency.”

•  500 participants are supervised by 21 teaching fellows

•  “The limit on the enrollment does not mean, however, that we are not allowing access to the course materials; they are made publicly available.”

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Issues

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Issues?

•  Course selection •  Course development •  Copyright •  Running the course •  Quality assurance •  Sustainability

Course Selection

•  Common Core courses? •  Entry level courses? •  Master level courses? •  New or existing courses?

•  Priority areas?

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Course Development: Overall Coordination

•  Institutional support makes it all possible

VP-PVC(TL)

EPSU Publicity

(CPAO, DAAO) Video Production

Resources

Faculties

CETL

MOOC WG

•  Institutional “memory” is key! •  Teaching practices can be transferrable

– New way to learn to teach…

Course Development

•  Course outcomes clearly defined •  Course outcomes carefully mapped to

weekly topics •  Story boards precisely articulated for each

week •  Co-design of video contents and

pedagogical elements, addressing specific course outcomes

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Course Development: A Multimedia Design Process

•  A wide range of possibilities •  Web-cam talking head vs. TV production •  Video is important but not all •  Pedagogical design is critical to achieve

success •  Involving multiple parties

– Team effort! •  Forum management… •  NEW WAY TO TEACH, please

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No Silver Bullet…

•  “Courses should have multiple exit points” •  “Video should be just for things not

possible in physical world” •  “Talking head is a no-no” •  “Using presentation coaches is a very

good investment”

•  Research???

Copyright

•  Text: articles and books •  Images •  Video clips

•  Need innovative ways to deliver materials •  New way to syndicate

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Running the Course: Engage The Audience

•  Pre-course survey •  Social networks

– Twitter – Weibo – Facebook

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Keep Engaging Them

Source: UTx

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All The Time

Source: UTx

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Quality Assurance?

•  Compiled a checklist for edX MOOC development – Specifying minimum requirements (e.g.,

accessibility in the U.S.) •  Video quality? Contents legitimacy?

– Copyright issues!!! •  Assessment quality? •  How to define success?

– BTW, do we do this in conventional courses?

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edX: Revenue Generation for Platform Sustainability?

•  One way is to pursue “executive education” – E.g., MIT’s Big Data course, US$495 per

head, students from prominent institutions such as World Economic Forum

•  Sponsored courses? – HKU Foundation? Other friends? Etc. – Have to be handled in very delicate way (edX

is not meant to be an advertising site) – Will devise a “tasteful” way to do this

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Platform Sustainability?

•  edX: Partner Sustainability Index (PSI) – Ratio of pay-out (to partner institutions) to cost – Current value is very low, ~1.7%, while

sustainability requires a value of at least 100%

•  Well, if a platform is not sustainable, then…

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Institutional Sustainability? •  Money is an issue but not the most serious •  Enthusiasm is the main driving force (now) •  Create incentives

– For investing in this (Provost) – For involving in this (teachers/students)

•  Let’s look for win-win: Blended learning for on-campus Common Core courses? – Cohort based MOOCs?

•  Make teaching skills transferrable! •  Impact? Enrolment?

Institutional Sustainability?

•  Resources, Support, Sponsor, Buy-in •  Reward system to encourage better

teaching? •  Relief of “regular” teaching to develop a

MOOC/SPOC/Blended-Class? •  Measuring “impact” of teaching?

•  New way to prioritize? 35

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Opportunities

Institutional Level? •  Outreach, reputation, branding

–  Partnership with top universities? Co-teach a course? –  Mainland China in particular?

•  Learn about learning enabled by analytics –  Think about this in a broader context: What are we supposed to do

with all the SETL, HKUSLEQ, etc. things in all these years? –  Teaching and research go “truly” hand-in-hand

•  Prepare students for life-long education •  Re-invigorate courses and even people •  Recruitment of exemplary students •  Creative way to enable overseas immersion

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Individual Teacher?

•  Upside: – Unprecedented outreach – Become a star! – Highly probable research networking

•  Downside: – Huge commitment… – Cannibalizing! –  International recognition?

•  Teaching vs. research?

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Further Development…

HKU

HKUST

MIT

Harvard

Intermediary Aggregator

(Provider Platform)

etc.

Now What? •  Like it or not, technology-based education is here to stay

–  MOOC/SPOC/blended-learning/e-learning/you-name-it/who-cares? •  MOOCs viewed as a tool to incubate good practices that are

overdue •  Seismic change? Tsunami?

–  Have Amazon.com, Taobao got rid of shopping malls yet?

•  Bubble? –  Some intermediaries may go bust –  But producers and consumers, and btw, the Internet, are here to stay

•  Complementary Coexistence Curriculum –  New way to learn, and therefore, –  New way to teach

•  Now seize the chance and learn a new way to teach! 40

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Hierarchy of edX Platform Stakeholders Role edX staff Provide, develop and support the portal; Provide tools for

analytics, machine-learning based marking and other services

Course Instructors Provide course materials; Run and support the course Youtube Store video contents Amazon Store non-video contents; Provide Internet infrastructure Students View course contents; Participates in assessment

edX Instructors

Amazon & Youtube

Students View the course via the portal

Run the course via the portal

edX staff Run the portal

Run the Internet infrastructure for the portal

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MOOC Working Group

•  Professor George Tham •  Professor Grahame Bilbow •  Professor CS Lau •  Professor Nancy Law •  Mr Peter Sidorko •  Dr Danny Tang •  Co-opted Members:

–  Teachers of MOOCs (Arts, Arch., Dentistry, Med., Social Sci., Sci.)

–  EPSU Representatives

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Open edX •  Tsinghua University: Xuetangx.com •  Jordon: Queen Rania Foundation (QRF)

–  Queen Rania Al Abdullah –  edraak.org

•  France: FUN – France Université Numerique,

Digital University of France •  Mainly driven by “localization” needs

– E.g., out of 120 millions Internet users in Arab world, 80% non-English speaking

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Enrollment: edX Courses • Computer Sciences > Philosophy >

Medical > Social Sciences

Only Registered: Registrants who never access the courseware; Only Viewed: Non-certified registrants who access the courseware, accessing less than half of the available chapters; Only Explored: Non-certified Registrants who access more than half of the available chapters in the courseware; Certified: Registrants who earn a certificate in the course;

Source: MIT

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Statistics from MITx (All Time until May 6, 2014)

Source: MIT

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Statistics from Harvardx (All Time until June 22, 2014)

• China: 25309; India: 117609; US: 484433

Source: Harvard

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Demographics • 4.8% Doctorate; 23.1% Master;

33.2% Bachelor; 26.2% Secondary

Source: Harvard

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Demographics • China: 24; India: 23; US: 31

Source: Harvard

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edX: Passing Rates

•  Audit: 5% pass •  Honor code: 5% pass •  ID verified: 60% pass

– Similar to the U.S. college average completion rate (graduating within 6 years for a 4-year program)

•  Incentives! Incentives! Incentives!

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Course Development

Chief TA Video Team

EPSU

Teacher

Course Testing Focus Group

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EPSU

•  E-learning Pedagogical Support Unit •  Core expertise:

– Contents presentation and delivery design – Pedagogical features/functions design, e.g.,

assessments, forums, feedbacks, etc. – Quality assurance: testing of courses’

effectiveness – Analytics research and its application as

anchor for further pedagogical enhancements

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Hierarchy of a Course

•  Section > Subsection > Unit/Component (Video/Discussion/HTML Text/Problem)

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Create a Course: Overview

•  Create an account in edX Studio •  Create the course information page and

“About” page •  Create video snippets and learning exercises

as part of learning sequences •  Create homework assignments •  Provide textbooks and other learning

materials •  Support/Moderate the discussion forum

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Create a Course (1)

•  Create the “About” page – Provides a

birds-eye view to prospective learners

– Created via HTML codes

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Create a Course (2)

•  Create the course information page –  Include a syllabus, welcome announcement

for landing page, and welcome email

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Create a Course (3)

•  Create video snippets and learning exercises as part of learning sequences

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Create a Course (4)

•  Create learning exercises as part of learning sequences

•  Create homework assignments

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Create a Course (5)

•  Support/Moderate the discussion forum

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Further Development… •  Evolution:

–  Apprenticeship –  Classroom –  Bigger Classroom –  Internet

•  Massive data •  Social networks, crowd-sourcing •  Intelligence (e.g., AI grading) + Knowledge Web •  Apprenticeship again?

•  The ultimate “killer app” of the Internet? –  Can think of Google search as one of the most

primitive forms of education, can’t we?