This digital artefact has been created for the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) E-Learning and 'Digital Cultures' from the University of Edinburgh which was delivered through www.coursera.org.

1. Lifelong learning: MOOCs,
formal studies, certificates,
acknowledgements of credit
Experiences with different MOOCs…
Digital Artefact by Dr. Carsten Weerth
University of Edinburgh
E-Learning & Digital Cultures

2. The topic
By help of digital communication lifelong lear-
ning for a large fraction of modern humans is
available from world class Universities in an
easy and comfortable way.
Newly emerging Massive Open Online Courses
(MOOCs) from platforms such as URL:
www.coursera.org, www.edX.org and www.-
venture-lab.org are enabling thousands of
students from all over the world and all ages to
engage and participate in free online studies…

3. E-Learning & Digital Cultures
- Utopias and dystopias
- Being human
- E-Learning know and in future
- Communication Technologies:
E-Learning
- Meaning of E-Learning
are topics which are covered by this
artefact

4. Possibilities: www.coursera.org
www.coursera.org is a for-profit organization
which offers online-courses from 62
Universities in a variety of 22 different fields of
subjects – currently about 323 courses
(2013/02/21).
The courses have a duration between 4 and 12
weeks and are resulting normally in a State-
ment of Accomplishment from Coursera: the
teaching professor signs the certificate and it
can be downloaded from Coursera. 95 new
courses and 29 new Universities have been
currently announced – included above.

5. Example: Coursera.org
The Statement of
Accomplishment does
not bear an University
seal and is not counting
for credit. It contains a
disclaimer that it is built
on material taught at a
certain University, but
that the student has
never been enrolled.

6. Possibilities: www.venture-lab.org
www.venture-lab.org is a non-profit start-up
from Stanford University which offers a
handful of online-courses.
The courses have a duration between 8 and
10 weeks and are based on collaboration
with other students. They are resulting nor-
mally in a Statement of Accomplishment
from Venture-lab: the teaching professor
signs the certificate and it can be down-
loaded from venture-lab.

7. Example: venture-lab.org
The Online Course
Statement of Accomp-
lishment does not bear
an Universitiy seal and is
not counting for credit. It
contains a disclaimer that
it is built on material
taught at Stanford Uni-
versity, but that the stu-
dent has never been
enrolled.

8. Possibilities: www.edX.org
www.edX.org is a non-profit start-up from three
elite Universities Harvard, MIT and University of
California, Berkeley. It has now been enlarged
by three other Universities which all in all offer
a handful of online-courses. The courses have
a duration between 10 and 12 weeks and are
based continuing and final exams. They are
resulting in a Statement of Accomplishment
from edX which includes the name MITx or
HarvardX and singatures of the University.

9. Example: edX.org
The Statement of Ac-
complishment does bear
an Universitiy name ex-
tended by X but is not
counting for credit. It
contains a disclaimer that
it is built on material
taught at MIT, Harvard
University, etc., but that
the student has never
been enrolled.

10. Statements about MOOCs…
- MOOCs are in itself not sufficient as qualification
- MOOCs cannot replace proper, formal University
degrees
- MOOCs are a valuable contribution to University
education
- MOOCs can be part of the picture for ongoing,
lifelong learning
- MOOCs show when certified expertize in a special
field of knowledge
- MOOCs can clearly be defined as formal University
education, they are comprising exams & certification

11. Ideas to persue…
- How are MOOC certificates acknowledged by
employers or Universities?
- Are MOOCs not valuable, a little bit valuable,
very valuable?
- Can an e-portfolio or learning-log help to show
the efforts for higher education?
- Are some Universities acknowledging MOOC
certificates for credit and if so which for how
much credit (fees to pay or not)?
- Why are the Universities shying away to show
their seals and names on certificates?

12. Benefits of MOOCs
- You can learn by doing MOOCs from top
Universities for free
- You can do exams and get certificates
- You can collaborate by help of Web 2.0 software
and create new contents
- The learning experience is in some cases much
more intense than face to face with 400 students
- Learning is much more convenient if you can
choose the time and space for your studies
- Certificate bears the name of the professor and
the teaching University

13. Restrictions of MOOCs
- Your certificate does not count for credit and
it says so
- Your certificate does not mean that you are
an alumni of the University
- Your certificate states that it is unclear
weather you did really the exams
- It is unclear how employers or other
Universities are acknowledging the certificate

14. Use of current MOOCs I
- MOOCs cannot replace formal under-
graduate studies and degrees yet
- MOOCs are useful for outreach campaings of
Universities towards highschool students
- MOOCs are useful for freshman courses
when smaller Universities are lacking the
abilities to teach these contents for
themselves
- MOOCs might be used for oncampus
teaching

15. Use of current MOOCs II
- MOOCs are providing valuable insights in
various fields of study
- MOOCs are useful for training special skills
such as reasoning and argueing or Science
Writing which are not regularly taught on
undergraduate level
- MOOCs of extraordinary importantce for life
long learning, e.g. for mid-career-studies, so
called Studium generale or General Studies

16. My Experiences with MOOCs I
- I did about 10 MOOCs with coursera.org
- I am currently doing an edX.org course,
- I did two venture-lab.org courses from Stanford
University
- I did more than 50 trainings (precursers of
MOOCs) with Johns Hopkins University's
Bloomberg School of Public Health, Columbia
University, The State University of New York at
Albany, the University of North Carolina at
Chapell Hill, the University of California at Davis
and Minessota University

17. My Experiences with MOOCs II
- I did a UNESCO ITC Training on the usage of
Technology and Communication in further
education
- I did a training on Food Allergens with the Foods
and Drugs Administration FDA
- Though the trainings are shorter than MOOCs
and delivered by Universities the certificates are
much more impressing than the poor delivery by
coursera.org or venture-lab.org

18. My Experiences with MOOCs III
- Coursera offers courses with strongly differing
quality and for different target audiences
- Coursera is a for-profit organization that teams
up with World class Universities who deny
participants the official seal of the University:
- Though all courses are produced by professors
from Universities and use the University seal on
the Statement of Accomplishment only the
coursera.org logo shows up – this is clearly a
drawback. The same applies to venture-lab, a
start up from Stanford University.

19. My Experiences with MOOCs IV
- When you are aiming at certificates these free
online studies are not really useful
- Many courses are offering wonderful learning
opportunities for lifelong learning
- The contents of these courses differ strongly and
some consists out of only 15 minutes of lectures
per week
- One question posed was: why are Universities
joining Coursera: my answer – they gain access
to 2.7 million students in a reach out campaign…

20. Utopias about MOOCs
- Free high quality education is a high and good
aim for humankind. Why paying for education?
- Wilhelm von Humboldt was the founding father
of Germany’s free University system with about
these above said ideas…
- Soon Universities will understand and accept
that they will also their seals on Coursera-
certificates
- A system for acknowledging continuing
education credits will appear between
Universities and employers.

21. Dystopias about MOOCs
- MOOCs are free right now – but Coursera will
soon charge for high quality education…
- MOOCs are only for profit: Universities can do
research (about interested students and
possible new courses) and outreach for free
without having to give away credits or seals on
the certificates…
- Soon Coursera and the others will try to make
money with distance E-Learning & continuing
education – what a shame since it should be a
human (basic) right…

22. Other (old) MOOCs with certificates
- UNESCO Certificate on ITC in Education
- Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School
on Public Health: Terror Preparedness and
Infectious Deseases
- University of California in Davis: Food
Allergies (FDA), Herbicides and Bees…
- Advanteges: short duration (btw. 1 and 3 hrs)
and a Certificate with a University/UNESCO
Seal on it and/or signatures.
- Prestigious Universites issue certificates…

23. Call for establishing Continuing
Education University Credits for Free
- Continuing Education Credits are common for
professional training in public health in USA
- CE credits are offered for nurses, physicians,
nutrition specialists, etc. for free…
- Some topics are in line with free education for
the good of mankind, e.g. Terror response,
Vaccinations, Emerging diseases awareness,
etc., Primary Health care for all, HIV.
- Offering free higher education is in fervor of
Universities, civil societies and humankind…

24. Example: UNESCO

25. Example: Johns Hopkins University

26. Example: Columbia University

27. Example: University of North Carolina

28. Example: University of Minessota

29. Example: State University of New York

30. References & Links
[1] Pappano, The Year of the MOOC, New York Times, URL:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/04/education/edlife/massive-open-online-courses-ar...
[2] Anderson, Elite Education for the Masses, The Washington Post, URL:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/elite-education-for-the-masses/2012/...
[3] Blog, The crisis of higher education, URL:
http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/429376/the-crisis-in-higher-education/
[4] Interview by the University of Pennsylvania: MOOCs on the Move: How Coursera Is
Disrupting the Traditional Classroom, URL: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.-
cfm?articleid=3109
[5] URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_open_online_course
[6] URL: http://blog.coursera.org/post/43625628117/29-new-schools-92-new-courses-5-
languages-4
[7] URL: http://theblogbyjavier.com/2012/12/27/online-education/, Online Education.
[8] Discussons about Coursera and the EDC MOOC of Edinburgh University on the
DNLE website, URL: http://dnle.stanford.edu/content/edc-mooc-interesting-statistics
[9] MOOCC: Designing New Learning Enviroments, URL: http://dnle.stanford.edu

31. References & Links II
[10] Marszal, UK Universities to launch free degree-style online courses, The Telegraph,
URL: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/9743703/UK-Universities-to-
launch-free-degree-style-online-courses.html

32. Acknowledgements...
This presentation was made as the ‘Digital
Artefact‘ - the final assignment for the
Univeristiy of Edinburgh‘s MOOC E-Learning
and Digital Cultures.
The digital artefact is created by help of
courersa.org, edx.org, venture-lab.org and
Slideshare.com as means for distribution.
The background picture was downloaded for free from URL:
http://www.freeimages.co.uk. The background music was
downloaded for free from URL: http://www.light2art.de.

33. About the author
The author has studied Biology at the Universities
Bremen, Glasgow, Konstanz and Bremen and holds
degrees from the University of Glasgow (BSc), Finance
(University of Applied Sciences of the Federal Republic
of Germany), Economics (PhD from the Carl von
Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg), LL.M. (Com., Univer-
sität des Saarlandes). He has written more than 10
books and published over 100 articles in scientific jour-
nals. Currently he is doing a Master of Arts in Adult Edu-
cation. He is very much commited to livelong learning
and is swept away from the current developments of
MOOCs. He did DNLE with Stanford University in 2012.