(M)OOCs at the University of Iceland

Presentation at the Erasmus+ project BCSI - Building the Culture of Social Innovation in Higher Education Reykjavík September 29 2016

Sólveig Jakobsdóttir, associate professor University of Iceland – School of Education

This presentation

• Background, context• University of Iceland (UI) workgroup 2013

– report & recommendations• UI 2014-2016 Embedded MOOCs• ICT for practicing teachers (Samspil+)• European context• Issues and thoughts

Iceland: from isolation to an “online state”...

• Ísmennt: The Icelandic Educational network – teachers@ismennt.is

• Ísmennt online courses on Internet use from 1996?-1997+

• Internet "wonderworld”; Browsing the web• Web "spinning", beginners, intermediate

• KHÍ - Iceland school of education, DE online

Myself

• Project manager 1997• Research on Internet use of teachers

• Lecturer ICT and DE from 1997– Jakobsdóttir, S. (2004). Distributed research in distributed education: How to

combine research and teaching online Netla, 3(2). http://netla.khi.is/greinar/2004/010/index.htm

– Jakobsdóttir, S., et al. (2010). Using the new information and communication technologies for the continuing professional development of teachers through open and distance learning. In P. A. Danaher og A. Umar (Eds.), Teacher education through open and distance learning (pp. 105-120). Vancouver, Canada: COL.

IUE + UI: Merging universities: no of DE students in each, 2007-8

No and % of students

Kennaraháskóli ÍslandsIceland University of Education

University of Iceland

Under-grad.

Grad. Total Total

No of students

1.703 679 2.382 9.783

No of DE students

920 679 1599 267

% DE students

54,0 100,0 67,1 2,7

Merging of two Icelandic-uni’s, 2008Iceland University of

Education (IUE)1908 (University level 1971)

University of Iceland (UI)1911

Many different committees set up to ease the merging including a

DE policy group:50 (67)% vs. 3% distance students

Recommendations that UI opened up courses/programs for DL

University of IcelandIcelandic as a second language programme

Icelandic OnlineThe first Icelandic MOOC?

http://www.icelandiconline.isFrom 2004• Free, online course(materials)• Can now sign up for course with a

tutor (with cost)• Used in a blended mode to

prepare students who come to study Icelandic in Iceland

• Recent analytics: 140,000 visitors, 43,000 actively participating

MOOCs

• MOOC = massive? open online learning• The two main types

– cMOOCs - connectivism: networking, based on sharing and participation

– xMOOCs - behaviorism, cognitivism: content-test, individuals (+learning community)

– (tMOOCs)...

The first cMOOC Siemens and Downes – University of Manitoba

Connectivism and Connective Knowledge (CCK08)

• 25 campus students paying, 2200+ from anywhere for freeIcelanders participating e.g. promoters of open source, OERs, open knowledge...– Salvör Gissurardóttir, assistant professor at

University of Iceland – School of Education– Sigurður Fjalar Jónsson, teacher, former head

of 3f - ICT in education teacher association

Work group at UI 2013

Report and recommendations:• MOOCs internationally• How s‘s and t‘s use those• Issues and challenges:

including language• UI-MOOCs – which fields?• Opportunities in use of MOOCs at UI

Menntakvika2014

Exploration – from mooc.ca

• Providers – 14-20 –different models – and size (massive?), majority US-based, English main teaching language, 7-92 courses per provider in most cases

• Challenges: finances, certification, testing, drop-out, self-discipline, social issues, course evaluation, language, higher education development

Student survey

• All UI students – online questionnaire spring 2013, 503 answered (60% undergraduates, 74% women),

• 12% saide they had completed a MOOC• 20% signed up/or examined a MOOC

without completing, • 75% used online learning resources

Work group recommendations

• Exploration with 2-3 courses per UI-school with MOOC integration

• Design of UI MOOCs (Icelandic, history/middle ages, geology, health..)

• Project group to monitor/study• Special funding• Study teaching methods, ICT integration

New work group – exploration 2014

• Advertised for interested faculty members – willing to integrate MOOCs in courses

• 8 answered, 6 first meeting, 4 participated• Linguistics • Statistics – Health science• School of Education: Online teaching and

learning; Distance Education

New work group – MOOC integration spring semester 2014

Table1:OverviewofcoursesparticipatinginatrialwithMOOCintegration

Course No. of students Linked MOOCs Providers

Computers and language

12 Corpus Linguistics FutureLearn

Biostatistics I 5 (out of 70)

Statistical Reasoning for Public Health

Coursera

Learning and teaching on the Internet

12 K-12 Blended & Online Learning (mainly)

Coursera

Distance education 17 Several1 Coursera; University of

Alaska

1 Two groups of 5 to 6 students all selected the same course: K-12 Blended & OnlineLearning. One group of 5 students selected different courses: K-12 Blended& OnlineLearning, Gamification, How viruses cause disceases, Digital citizenship and ethics ineducationaltechnology.OnestudentchoseIntroductiontofinance.

Distance education spring 2014

• Mandatory, first project (25%)• 17 students: 3 groups 1 individual• Course choice f2f session 1, intro session 2• Report: Group’s experience of MOOC’s, ideas

for use at the UI, in own professional development or work.

• Some signed up for one course, some for different courses.

Menntakvika2014

Students: some conclusions

• Courses well organised, useful• Cannot replace u-courses completely

(“parrot learning” in xMOOCs)• Great for professional development, self-

study!• Critical but alert to opportunties and highly

interested

Challenges

• Dropout, little or no communication with the teacher, little support for students, social aspects, language, the course too much aligned with US culture.

• Question whether the same form of learning was good for everyone. Knowledge factory-production, “parrot” learning?

MOOCs in DE spring 2016

Upcoming presentation and paper• Jakobsdóttir, S. (2016). MOOCs as provisions in

graduate education for future professional development. In Conference proceedings for the 8th Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning (PCF8). Kuala Lumpur: COL & Open University Malaysia.

• Jakobsdóttir, S. (2016). (M)OOCs in Iceland: Language and learning communities. In D. Jansen & L. Konings(Eds.), MOOCs in Europe: Overview of papers representing a collective European response on MOOCs as presented during the HOME conference in Rome November 2015 (pp. 14-18). Maastricht, The Netherlands: EADTU.

Education Plaza („torgs“): teachers‘ communities of practice+digital habitats

http://menntamidja.is

Icelandic style MOOC for teacher professional development

• Spuni 2011 and 2012? LanguagePlaza• Samspil 2015 EducationPlaza+• Digital citizenship MOOC (in Icelandic) 2017 UI,

RANNUM, SAFT, EducationPlaza...?

The EU HOME project: home.eadtu.eu

Europe - situation

Jansen, D. og Schuwer, R. (2015). Institutional MOOC strategies in Europe: status report based on a mapping survey conducted in October-December 2014.http://www.eadtu.eu/documents/Publications/OEenM/Institutional_MOOC_strategies_in_Europe.pdf

Porto declaration, Nov. 2014

• Europe must seize this moment to grab the opportunities offered by MOOCs.

• Risks and threats, opportunities• Embrace full openness• Collective European response• Strong support, government, EC• University collaboration

Porto declaration, Nov. 2014

• Europe must seize this moment to grab the opportunities offered by MOOCs.

• Risks and threats, opportunities• Embrace full openness• Collective European response• Strong support, government, EC• University collaboration

HOME policy brief, recommendations

• Connect to local institutional objectives and focus on specific target groups for MOOCs

• Disseminate incentives to institutions through continuing networking activities and conferences

• Support institutions in identifying and explicating local business models for MOOCs

• Broaden the domain and activities of OpenupEd• Support special groups of institutions to coalesce in

MOOC development within different levels and models

Languages and cultures

From the BBC web:

• .. up to 7,000 languages spoken in the world.

• 2-3%(150-200 languages with 1 million people+

• 90% used by less than 100,000 people.

English

image available in wikipedia (Jroehl, 2015)

Some issues and thoughts

• How open are MOOC‘s?• How do we design/make use of MOOC‘s

in small language communities?• Formal/informal/non-formal learning at

different school levels, learner groups• Small open online courses – how will they

evolve? (P2P?)

Recommendations Iceland+• Encourage (M)OOCs at the local and national level -

different language groups, include a global outreach/for a distributed audience

• Consider value not just for individuals but more wholistically for groups, communities, society

• Foster formation of learner groups/ communities • Consider blended modes (optional)• Involve and link to communities of practice