MOOCS: AN OVERVIEW

Sukaina Walji

With Andrew Deacon & Janet Small

MOOC Implementation Team

Centre for Innovation in Learning & Teaching, University of Cape Town

Presentation for students taking the UCT Postgraduate Diploma in

Educational Technology

19 March 2014

@sukainaw

Sukaina.walji@uct.ac.za

MOOCS – A FORM OF ONLINE

LEARNING

Downloadable educational digital

content (ITunes, YouTube, digital

textbooks)

Informal teaching and courses

(MOOCs, open courses, self-study

courses, Lynda.com)

Fully structured online courses with

assessments and qualifications

conventional flexible

FORMAL

SEMI-FORMAL

NON-FORMAL

Lectures & tutorials

Block release Online courses

Short courses Professional developmentcourses

Summer school

COURSE LANDSCAPE OF HIGHER EDUCATION at UCT

conventional flexible

FORMAL

SEMI-FORMAL

NON-FORMAL

Lectures & tutorials

Block release Online courses

Short courses Professional developmentcourses

Summer school

COURSE LANDSCAPE OF HIGHER EDUCATION

FORMAL SEMI-FORMAL NON-FORMAL

CONVENTIONAL

curriculum innovation

Massive

• Have many thousands participating

Open

• Open enrollment

Online

• Everything is online

Course

• Courses structured with start and finish dates

M O O C

Showcase teaching and introduce topics with high-profile ‘rockstar’ presenters

Introduce fields and support students in undergraduate study

Develop skills and introduce topics for postgraduate study.

Showcase research and special interest topics of interest to postgraduate level

Showcase professional careers for continuing education and qualifications

CATEGORY 1 TEACHING SHOWCASE

General interest high profile course

Showcases the institution by means of an engaging subject or personality led.

Global interest and matches a popular understanding of high profile MOOCs

o n

High production costs | high enrollment | loose curriculum ties May attract external funding

CATEGORY 2 GATEWAY SKILLS

Provides foundational, bridging or enhancement skills for pre HE entry or during undergraduate pathways towards specialisation.

Could replace teaching for 'bottleneck courses.’

Local interest, either within the institution or at a country-wide setting.

Moderate production costs | low enrollment | close curriculum ties May attract external funding |

CATEGORY 3 GRADUATE LITERACIES

Post-graduate level courses to support application or programmes of study

Focussed on building postgraduate literacies.

Likely to be of local or national interest.

Moderate production costs | low enrollment | close curriculum ties May attract external funding

CATEGORY 4 PROFESSIONAL SHOWCASE

Geared towards vocational skills development, re-tooling and professional development.

Could be offered in conjunction with professional bodies.

Likely to be of local interest, although some specialised topics may be globally relevant. .

Moderate to high production costs |medium to high enrollment Close curriculum ties |May attract organisational fundingHigh potential for pathway to credit or revenue generation

CATEGORY 5 RESEARCH SHOWCASE

Showcase research or more specialised topics of interest

Offered at postgraduate level and assume some background in the topicstill geared towards general or leisure learning.

Likely to have global appeal.

Moderate/high production costs | medium/high enrollment Loose curriculum ties

A MOOC IS NOT A FORMAL ONLINE

COURSE

http://edulearning2.blogspot.com/2014/05/statistics-

for-2014-coursera.html

Online course DIFFERENCE MOOC

Fees Cost to user No feesMaybe certificates &/or support

Yes, as per all formal courses Entrance requirements

None

Limited. Capped by resources available for support &

assessmentScale

ThousandsSavings due to limited lecturer support

Responsible for curriculumalignment, QA, support

Lecturer role Flexible role re curriculumLimited individual support

Largely proprietary, some openCopyright

Content may be proprietary or open, user generated content often © MOOC provider

Distance education providersProviders

Traditional residential research universities partnered with private companies

No, not usually Analytics Yes, one of the promises

Conventional Certification Non conventional

Aligned with the usual formal courses QA processes

Quality assurance As per non formal offerings

LEARNING PLATFORMS

Hill, P (6 Feb 2014) http://mfeldstein.com/resilient-higher-ed-lms-canvas/

Online course platform MOOC platform

Institutionally supported and installed

Learning Management system

‘new generation’ located in the cloud

Full suite of tools incl wikis, blogs, discussion forums, resources allow

for social constructivist learning with teacher guided support.

Tool profile Peer assessment and social learning allow for scale and self-direction

Via university registration and student management systems

Enrollment Open enrollment via open web

Allow for small group work, discussion forums

Student interaction features

Allow for large scale discussions and peer learning

Readings, e-books, textbooks, lecture capture and access to

library

Content delivery Short video lectures, short readings, links to web sites, transcripts

Formative (quizzes, e-portfolios) and summative (quiz, tests, essays

and exams)

Assessment Formative, peer review (quiz andpeer review); summative usually machine marking

MOOCS & ONLINE EDUCATION

o MOOCs have put online education on the

map

o They have legitimised distance education

for traditional universities (and traditional

students)

o They have put the quality of teaching in all

universities under scrutiny

o Valuable insights into how students learn

online

WHY ONLINE LEARNING &

MOOCS…FOR THE INSTITUTION

o Expand reach beyond geography

o Attract increased numbers of students

o Flexible course provision

o Costs through scale and

disaggregation

DIRECTIONS FOR MOOCS

o Emerging models of new types of

courses

o Increasing range of flexible forms of

learning

Course offered simultaneously as a formal and as a open course.

Small private open course nested inside a MOOC

Massive Online Course: formal course inspired by MOOC pedagogy

Students in a course taking a MOOC with added local support and additional material

Massive Open Online Course

Formal course with lectures and support.

Questions?

Contact author

Email: Sukaina.walji@uct.ac.za

Twitter: @sukainaw