MOOCS and the Future of Higher Education

MOOCs and the Future of Higher Education, ICHL2013, Toronto Canada
MOOCs
and the Future of Higher
Education
Bebo White
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Stanford University
International Conference on Higher Learning 2013
bebo@slac.stanford.edu

Agenda
• An analytical view of the MOOC phenomenon
• The evolution of MOOCs - “a MOOC is not a MOOC is
not a MOOC”
• Bebo’s foray into the MOOC world
• Elements of MOOC production, delivery, & design
• A successful MOOC case study
• Thoughts about the future of MOOCs (esp. in higher
education)
• Let’s make this an interactive discussion!

Massive Open Online
Course
(this slide may not be necessary)
• A course that is open, participatory, distributed, and
connects students to a digital world interested in
the same topic
• Provides a massive network of tools and people for
students and educators to build their technology
skills and professional networks for life-long learning
• Have attracted media interest due to huge
enrollments and the involvement of “elite”
institutions

This is anThis is an
example ofexample of
diffusiondiffusion
This is anThis is an
example ofexample of
diffusiondiffusion

A brief history of
MOOCs (1)
• 2004: George Siemens & Stephen Downes
develop theory of Connectivism, “the thesis
that knowledge is distributed across a
network of connections, and therefore
learning consists of the ability to construct
and traverse those networks (Downes,
2012)

“The interesting question now is not ‘How can we use technology to
do online what we cannot do in-class?’ The compelling principle now
is: ‘Technology shouldn’t merely simulate traditional functionality; it
should extend and transcend those functionalities’”
(Sanders, Stanford)

Downes’ MOOC Model
• Four essential elements for a successful MOOC:
• Autonomy - students decide how much to
participate
• Diversity - students come from all backgrounds,
different countries, different experiences
• Openness - MOOCs should be free or of such low
cost that nearly anyone can participate
• Interactivity - Chats, social networking, video
meetings, collaboration

A brief history of
MOOCs (2)
• 2002: MIT OpenCourseWare project formed
• 2008: First MOOC presented at University of
Manitoba with ~2200 registrants
• 2008: Khan Academy starts up (actually in 2006)
• 2010: Dave Cormier videos about MOOCs added
toYouTube (Cormier, 2010)
• 2011: MOOC for college prep skills helps freshmen
prepare for college requirements (Cormier, 2011)

A brief history of
MOOCs (3)
• 2011 Thrun’s AI course at Stanford has 160k registrants
• 2012: Harvard’s first MOOC has 370k registrants
• 2012: Coursera, Udacity, & edX formed; offers first
xMOOCs
• 2012: NewYork Times calls 2012 “TheYear of the
MOOC”
• 2013: cMOOCs and xMOOCs too numerous to
accurately count
• More on history later

Are MOOCs a “fad” or
be taken seriously?
• The literature contains references to MOOC-ology and MOOC-ologists!
• Diffusion models have been traditionally used in the context of sales(?)
forecasting
• An analytical approach to describe the spread of a diffusion phenomenon
• Attempts to measure the interest and adoption of a phenomenon
• Diffusion metaphors are often more persuasive than numerical data,
analytical models, and formal reasoning (Eccles & Nohria, 1993)
• Rogers’ S-curve
• Gartner Group “Hype Cycle”
• Investment Bubble Phases

Rogers’ S-curve
Illustrates diffusion rates over time
OER
Thun &
Norvig
2008
UofM
Coursera,
et.al.
2013
>3k
These placements
may be
arbitrary

Gartner Group “Hype
Cycle”
Illustrates visibility over time

It’s interesting that despite the media hype, MOOCs
do not appear...

It may be a dangerous to assume that MOOCs will be
driven by similar forces because no MOOCs have yet come
close to demonstrating an effective business model even in
any rigorous theoretical way
So, why the investments in xMOOCs?

Back to a definition
MOOC is not a “Massive Open Online Course,” it is not a
course. It is “massive open digitally-mediated course-compatible
resources (MODMCCRs)
(Marc Sanders, Stanford)
MOOCs are a symptom of the LIL (learner-initiated
learning) movement; BYOD reflects a move towards LIL
(Trent Batson)

A little more history
the UK Open University, which has no
academic admission requirements, has awarded
over a million highly regarded degrees to its
students. Entry to the Open University is easy;
exit with a degree is difficult (Sir John Daniel)
the UK Open University, which has no
academic admission requirements, has awarded
over a million highly regarded degrees to its
students. Entry to the Open University is easy;
exit with a degree is difficult (Sir John Daniel)
In a world of abundant content, courses
can draw from a pool of open
educational resources (OER) and
provide their students with better and
more varied teaching than individual
instructors could develop by themselves
(Sir John Daniel)
In a world of abundant content, courses
can draw from a pool of open
educational resources (OER) and
provide their students with better and
more varied teaching than individual
instructors could develop by themselves
(Sir John Daniel)

an educational system should ‘provide all who want to learn
with access to available resources at any times in their lives;
empower all who want to share what they know to find
those who want to learn it from them; and finally furnish all
who want to present an issue to the public with the
opportunity to make their challenge known (Illich, 1971)
the MOOCs attracting media attention today are “at the
intersection of Wall Street and Silicon Valley” (Caulfield,
2012)
cMOOCs
xMOOCs

(Source: Campus Technology)

But wait, there’s more -
“blended MOOCs”
• Attempts to implement the “flipped classroom” pedagogical model
• Outside class: students participate in a MOOC (either a cMOOC
or xMOOC)
• Inside class: students discuss content, problem solve, do projects
and lab work
• Changes the role of the instructor
• Simplifies (?) assessment
• “can be integrated deeply into a traditional campus-based
education, providing the economic and pedagogical benefits of
networked learning while preserving the desirable attributes of
traditional face-to-face, place-based education” (Caulfield & Collier)

• Who do they benefit - the students or the
sponsoring institution?
• Can they remain free?
• cMOOCs or xMOOCs ?
Again, are MOOCs a fad?

Common Pros & Cons
(1)
• Advantages
• Free unless college credit is available
• Learning is informal & at student’s own pace
• Computer & Internet access are only resources
required
• Students can share work, assess others, & receive
feedback from others
• World-class instructors without high tuition of elite
institutions

Common Pros & Cons
(2)
• Disadvantages
• xMOOCs involve costs, sometimes significant
• No real-time engagement (face-to-face)
• Technical difficulties
• Academic dishonesty possible
• Students must learn to be responsible for
their own learning

Remember
“empower all who want to share what they know to find
those who want to learn it from them”
(Ilich, 1971)
Do MOOCs really make this possible?
Is it possible to experiment with “the MOOC world?”

My foray into MOOCs (1)
• MOOCs are a ‘new’ technology but rather a ‘new’ application of a suite of existing
technologies (rather like Web 2.0)
• I wanted to experiment with MOOCs
• “Constructivist MOOC” - distributed approach using a selection of available tools in
their “native” guise
• AYouTube channel (for lectures)
• WordPress, GoogleDocs, Dropbox etc. (for content)
• Facebook, Google+,Twitter, wikis, etc. (for the social side)
• SurveyMonkey, etc. (for assessment, rating, etc.)
• etc., etc......sounds easy...
• But coordinating all such tools plus developing content is hard! A platform would
be helpful...”Instructivist MOOC” - consolidated/unified approach presenting course
elements in a single “wrapper”

My foray into MOOCs (2)
• I wanted to create an online course on Web Science
though have some doubts re: current curriculum
efforts on WS
• Explored the possibilities of
• Social Media Classroom/Colab (
http://socialmediaclassroom.com/) - used by
Howard Rheingold
• Moodle
• Google Course Builder

Social Media Classroom
(SMC)
• A free and open source (Drupal based) Web service that
provides teachers and students with an integrated set of
social media that each course can use for its own purposes
• Classroom also includes curricular material, syllabi, lesson
plans, resource repositories, screencasts and videos
• Collaboratory (Colab) is the Web service portion
• Free to install or SMC-hosted
• Sounds great...but they ran out of $$ and are on hiatus -
stay tuned

Moodle for MOOCs? (1)
• A well known and very well supported LMS (Learning
Management System)
• Web-based
• Supports media (e.g., video)
• Strong social services (based on connectivism)
• Capability for quizzes
• Good course management services - tracking progress, grading,
ratings
• Can easily run as an instance under Amazon Web Services
(AWS)

Moodle for MOOCs (2)
• Sounds good - so I queried the Moodle Forum and here’s what I was told:
• “Moodle has been a MOOC since long before the MOOC buzzword was
invented”
• Concerns about growth and scaleability - load balancing could help
• Lack of “automated peer assessment” and “calibrated peer assessment”
• “Let’s wait for open source edX”
• “Poor interactivity and engagement design”
• “If you want to use Moodle for a big online class, for example, with the use
of groups, you can split classes and delimit discussions to specific clusters,
use external materials, broadcast a lecture, etc.”
• “Too many MOOC-like functions require plugins”

Google Course Builder
• Open source project based on the Google App
Engine
• Grew out of “Power Searching with Google” course
(155k registrants) run by Google Research
• Requires competence in HTML, JavaScript, & App
Engine; template-based
• Strong support, user forum, Google+ hangouts, etc.
• Free up to a limit, then as a paid app (e.g., “Power
Searching with Google” cost ~$20/day)

xMOOC Initiatives

The easy way...

(ref: Pea et.al.)
learner background & intentions:
- variety of student purposes for course
engagement
- student experience
- byproduct of course topic, instructor,
institution, and novelty of medium

Four prototypical learner
trajectories in MOOCs
• Completing learners: attempt the majority of the assessments offered
in the class
• Auditing learners: attempt assessments infrequently, if at all, but watch
lectures throughout the course
• Disengaging learners: attempt assessments at the beginning of the
course but then move to sparsely watching lectures or disappear
course entirely
• Sampling learners: briefly explore the course by watching a few
videos, either at the beginning of the course or while it is underway
• ----No-shows: enroll but never actively engage with any of the course
materials (study indicated 30%-43%)
(ref: Schneider, Stanford, 2013)

(ref: Pea et.al.)
technology infrastructure:
- social media & technology tools
- interactivity
- data collection & analytics

MOOC Tools &
Pedagogy
the correlation between
online learning tools
used in MOOCs and
Bloom’s Taxonomy
(Morrison, 2012)

(ref: Pea et.al.)
evidence-based improvement:
- evaluating design decisions around ILE
and technology infrastructure
- measurement of desired learning
outcomes

?

Issues in “pulling off” a
MOOC
• Production
• Delivery
• Design
• These are independent of whatever
MOOC platform chosen!

MOOC Production (1)
• Recording - equipment (e.g., camera, microphone,
lighting, green screen vs. screen flow, HD)
• Editing - software
• Recording needs in software choice (e.g., green
screens, Powerpoint, screen annotation)
• Editing expertise and/or learning curve
• Who does this? Time & $$

MOOC Production (2)
• Use of media
• Clip art or obtained images - address
copyright/permissions; unless images are
royalty-free or purchased, attributions must
be provided; registration size draws attention!
• Photographs - have individuals in photos
signed release forms? necessary to avoid
legal/privacy issues

MOOC Production (3)
• Accessibility
• Transcripts and captioning for all videos -YouTube provides free
& paid services, but usually transcripts need to be edited; who
will do this?
• How will students in countries withoutYouTube access videos?
• YouTube alternatives (e.g.,Youku.com, 56.com)
• Dropbox not a good solution for videos - disables links to
stored videos when they receive too many visits
• Post (and link to) videos on Amazon S3 or other cloud
service?
• Translations?

MOOC Production (4)
• Productivity & Collaboration
• Create single accounts (or shared folders) to
which all collaborators upload products (e.g., 1
YouTube account for course videos and 1
Dropbox account for course materials)
• Create a dynamic course planning document (e.g.,
on GoogleDocs) to manage tasks, timelines, work
products, upload deadlines, etc.); construct
planning document to reflect any required fields
or submissions formats of the platform

MOOC Delivery (1)
• Course promotion
• Map out audiences
• Prepare blurbs & press releases
• Reach out to relevant blogs & news sources
• Reach out via social media
• Coordinate with communications
departments

MOOC Delivery (2)
• Social media
• Course pages accounts on Twitter,
Facebook, Google+, etc.
• Who will set up, manage, post?
advantages of students vs. staff
• Risks (e.g., copyright, content, etc.)
• Ongoing continuity across future courses

MOOC Delivery (3)
• Platform
• Functions, assets, limitations
• Training for instructors/TAs
• Communication during course
• Platform info, FAQs, how-tos
• Student communication - e-mail, voting in forums
• Clarify level of communication that students can expect
• Clarify who to contact for what
• Set daily communication requirements/strategies (e.g., spend X minutes/day on
forums)
• Meetups, office hours?
• Trouble reports

MOOC Delivery (4)
• Course norms & expectations
• Honor Code - does the platform have one?
• Visibility - what is public/private? open only to enrollees? access to
student work? access to scores/assessment?
• Intellectual Property - who owns what (students & all); licensing?
• Citing external resources - provide expectations & resources
• Plagiarism - define, expectations, consequences, resources
• Promote & model a positive ILE in all communications
• Prevent & respond to cases of students using the course and taking
advantage of teammates to further individual interests

MOOC Delivery (5)
• Surveying students
• What information will be collected?
What are goals for collecting that data?
• When will surveys occur considering
attrition rate and end-of-course biases?
• Consider course demands when
scheduling a survey

MOOC Design (1)
• Consider instructional goals
• “reach vs. rigor”
• Syllabus
• “Contract” - often referred to
• Design/update to include global and online environmental
considerations
• Reading assignments
• Will reading be assigned? If so, is all reading free and available online?
• If using scholarly articles not available online, consider copyright,
distribution, & cost to students
• Consider availability of book reading assignments

MOOC Design (2)
• Assignment/assessment schedule
• Number & types of assignments
• Use peer review strategically
• Criteria for evaluation, rubrics
• Timeline & planning
• Schedule, schedule, schedule!

Case study
• MyWeb Science MOOC is scheduled for
1st quarter 2014
• I’ve participated in 6 MOOCs, finished 4
• A favorite one was “The Power of
Prototyping” (Klemmer, Stanford, 2012)
• Has shared his analysis

MOOCs & PD

Conclusions & thoughts on
the future of MOOCs (1)
• “The MOOC Hype Cycle” may be overly pessimistic
• The MOOC phenomenon has successfully initiated new discussions
on
• The value of open education resources
• Alternative strategies to address the rising costs of higher
education
• Learning “at the speed of need”
• Resources for distant/continuing education (i.e., “the digital
divide”)
• “Crowdsourcing education” (e.g., group learning/instruction, peer
assessment)

• Experimentation will continue with the various “flavors” of
MOOCs - not just xMOOCs and cMOOCs
• New business models around MOOCs will attract new
participants
• More educational institutions will “jump on the MOOC
bandwagon” either with local MOOCs (e.g., joining alliances
like edX) or adopting flipped curricula using external
MOOCs
• What about “MOOCs for the masses?” Should it be as easy
for an individual to teach a MOOC as it is to author a Web
page or a blog? Tools? (e.g.,WordPress, GoogleDocs)

• Greater use of MOOCs for professional development and business training will
occur (replacing the old Webinar concept)
• Numerous issues must continue to be addressed
• Impact on role of faculty
• Institutional investment in free MOOCs
• Registration fee models
• Academic credit
• Robustness of assessment techniques
• Copyright & licensing issues
• Archiving & searching
• Security & privacy
• Technology requirements

Meanwhile, the number of
MOOCs continues to grow
But with obvious
geographical
gaps!

Stay tuned: MOOCs
remain in the news

Is this a new model forIs this a new model for
higher education?higher education?
Is this a new model forIs this a new model for
higher education?higher education?

Closing thought - the potential of
MOOCs should not be driven by big
interests

Q & A
bebo@slac.stanford.edu

MOOCS and the Future of Higher Education

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