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MOOCs Behind the Scenes Brenda Cecilia Padilla Rodríguez* Alejandro Armellini** Viviana Carolina Cáceres Villalba* * Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León (Mexico) ** University of Northamtpon (United

MOOCs behind the scenes

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Page 1: MOOCs behind the scenes

MOOCs Behind the ScenesBrenda Cecilia Padilla Rodríguez*Alejandro Armellini**Viviana Carolina Cáceres Villalba*

* Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León (Mexico)** University of Northamtpon (United Kingdom)

Page 2: MOOCs behind the scenes

Massive Open Online Courses

The technological infrastructure has the potential to support large-scale use (Steward, 2013).

Any person with Internet access can participate for free, without having to meet any strict pre-requisites (Anderson, 2013).

Delivery is via the Internet.

MOOCs are coherent academic interventions with a defined set of learning outcomes (Youell, 2011), and (usually) start and end dates.

M

O

O

C

Page 3: MOOCs behind the scenes

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The MOOC Process (I)

Global Learn, 28-29 April 2016

Conceptualisation

• Marketing strategy

• Academic purposes

Development

• Challenge of desgining for a wide audience

• Teams of academics

(Allen & Seaman, 2014; Arnold et al., 2014; Hollands & Tirthali, 2014; Ross et al., 2014; Sharples et al., 2014)

Page 4: MOOCs behind the scenes

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The MOOC Process (II)

Global Learn, 28-29 April 2016

Delivery

• Little personalised support

• Automated “teaching”

• Community of learners as main source of guidance

Evaluation

• Low completion rates (approx. 15%)

• Evaluations focused on learners’ perceptions

(Bayne & Ross, 2014; Jordan, 2015; Milligan & Littlejohn, 2014; Padilla Rodriguez et al., 2015)

Page 5: MOOCs behind the scenes

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Participants

10 participants, 4 universities

in the UK

MOOC coordinato

rLearning designer

Learning technologi

stCourse builder

Facilitator

Global Learn, 28-29 April 2016

Page 6: MOOCs behind the scenes

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Procedure• Initial contact via email

• One hour semi-structured interviewso Conceptualisation: reasons for offering MOOCso Design, creation and deliveryo Course evaluationo Challenges and recommendations for the future

• Interviews audio recorded

• Inductive thematic analysisGlobal Learn, 28-29 April 2016

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Reasons for offering MOOCs• Pressure to join other institutions on the MOOC stage

o “We felt we had to do it; others were doing it” [P7])

• Using MOOCs as a marketing strategy (Allen & Seaman, 2014; Hollands & Tirthali, 2014)

• Taking advantage of existing learning materials by repurposing them o Example: converting a book or a face-to-face module into

a MOOC

• Reaching an international audience

Global Learn, 28-29 April 2016

Page 8: MOOCs behind the scenes

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Reasons for offering MOOCs

The overarching strategy is…

Global Learn, 28-29 April 2016

“There is no strategy.” [P9]

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Design and Creation• Team-based approach for MOOC design

• Heavy reliance on videoso PowerPoint presentations with audioo Animationso Filmed discussions between content experts

• Limited use of open educational resources (OERs)o Time required to find and repurpose suitable

resources might exceed the time needed to create themGlobal Learn, 28-29 April 2016

Page 10: MOOCs behind the scenes

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Design and Creation• Only three participants mentioned

conducting a pilot before launching MOOCs

• Promotion through the Marketing Department of participants’ universities

Global Learn, 28-29 April 2016

Main reasons to fail to conduct a pilot of the MOOC: Not enough time

Not enough funding

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Delivery• Communication mostly in unstructured

discussions

• Conversations on social mediao For example: Twitter hashtags, Google Hangouts,

Flickr

• The assumption that knowledge is within the community of learners might be flawed.

• MOOC learners sometimes offer incorrect advice.

Global Learn, 28-29 April 2016

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Delivery• Relevant role of the teacher

o Keeping conversations on tracko Clarifying confusionso Student ambassadors

• Making MOOCs self-sustainable by automating processes and requiring little support from teachers

Global Learn, 28-29 April 2016

Challenge: Not enough time

Not enough funding

Page 13: MOOCs behind the scenes

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Evaluation

• Some MOOCs offered non-credit bearing completion certificates.

• Only one interviewee [P4] was involved in a MOOC which offered academic credits (for a fee) after a formal assessment.

Global Learn, 28-29 April 2016

Learning Evaluation• Quizzes with multiple-

choice questions• Self-assessments

General Evaluation• Satisfaction surveys• Data from learning

platforms

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Evaluation

• Information on learners’ sociodemographic profile, engagement indicators (eg, clicks or page views) and perceptions of improvement

• Lots of data available but not enough time to analyse it

• MOOC considered a success for being innovative, before it was even launched. --- No interest to check later!

Global Learn, 28-29 April 2016

Was your MOOC effective?We are not sure.

Page 15: MOOCs behind the scenes

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Evaluation

Global Learn, 28-29 April 2016

Clear goals help us know if we are successful.

Goal: Increase student

enrolments

Three MOOC

participants

converted to fee-paying stdents

SUCCESS

Page 16: MOOCs behind the scenes

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Challenges

Global Learn, 28-29 April 2016

Obtaining enough funding

Managing time

Creating and sustaining a large and active community of

learners

Page 17: MOOCs behind the scenes

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Benefits for Academics

• Academics develop a learning design skill set. o “We've learned a lot about e-learning-type

teaching” [P9]

• Academics feel empowered.o “If they had told us years ago that we would be

able to do something like this [developing and delivering a MOOC], we wouldn’t have believed it” [P2]

Global Learn, 28-29 April 2016

Page 18: MOOCs behind the scenes

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Recommendations• Plan well in advance before implementation [P1]

• Design the MOOC to be platform-independent [P7]

• Consider how the MOOC works for learners from different nationalities [P7, P10]

• Focus on the students’ perspective, on how the MOOC benefits them [P1, P10]

Global Learn, 28-29 April 2016

Page 19: MOOCs behind the scenes

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What have we learned?• The emergence of MOOCs is sometimes driven by a

desire to “follow the trend”.

• MOOCs often fail to benefit from existing OERs.

• MOOC facilitators can prevent conversations from going off track and intervene if learners share incorrect ideas.

• Claims of MOOC effectiveness usually lack agreed indicators of success, critical analysis or are based on a very limited evidence base. Global Learn, 28-29 April 2016

Page 20: MOOCs behind the scenes

Thank you.