Talk by Amy Woodgate at the Open Education session at the Cetis Conference 2014: Building the Digital Institution held at the University of Bolton on the 17th and 18th June 2014.

1. University of Edinburgh
Capitalising on the hype:
Opening minds and institutional
change at Edinburgh
Amy Woodgate
MOOCs Project Manager

2. www.coursera.org/edinburgh

3. • 6 courses (wave 1) + 8 courses (wave 2) + more (~30 by year end)
• Broad subject areas – academic led and short in length (5-7 weeks)
• Fully online, free to take, open resources – CC licenses
• New as MOOCs, not f2f conversion – non-template approach
Academic
proposes new
course idea
Team meeting
with MOOC
support
Begin content
production
Course
live
Courses
end
Courses and the internal process
BoS + CSPC
Course approval
Head of School
approval sought
Formalapproval
Confirm
live date
Constant dialogue and review.
Training. Community. Events.
Sign off video
content
Standardised
content uploaded
Content refresh
for next iteration

4. • Never intended to be money making
• Capacity building – online learning
• Seen as knowledge exchange initiatives
• Research project into new online delivery methods
• Research project into new audiences
-- who takes a MOOC? And why?
• Logical progression of University strengths and interest
-- keen to explore technology enhanced learning
• It was new, it looked fun! 
Why MOOCs?
Open-
mindedness
to “success”

5.  Small amount of direct income to reinvest into MOOC dev.
 Capacity building – online learning
 Knowledge exchange, e.g. research outputs
 Development of new online delivery methods
 Research outputs
-- better understanding of who takes our MOOCs and why
 Strengthened the University’s development areas
-- enabled new-to-online-learning to explore in safe-space
 Tremendous fun! 
What did we achieve?
All achieved
and more!

6. Direct use of MOOCs Indirect + student inputResearchCapacityMaterials
Pure Educational research
Creating data
Testing boundaries
Risk taking
Breaking norms
Data mining student
projects – feed directly into
body of research
True outreach first creation
Joint course creation
Uruguay Erasmus+ NMSOutreach for research
Collaboration
Experiment and experience
w/ online learning
Analysing the whole
project, e.g. MBA project
New academics Sparked creativity
Enthusiasm
New ODL programmes
Student involved in
summer projects
Student surveys to
understand MOOC
experience and how it
relates to UoE learning
experience
Making content
Created short, structured courses
High quality components
Utilising own/other MOOCs, e.g.
embedding videos or as textbooks
Feedback / feeding into
course creation
Community outreach
Tutoring / learning hubs
OERs
Scripts = open
Sharing practice
Setting standards
leading example
Consultancy
Exploring
unknown spaces
Innovation
Virtual mobility Digital literacy
New processes
New services
Internal impact
Agility
Visually mindful
Showcasing Design students for new
content types

7. Academic course development
• No imposed approach or template
• Encouragement to choose an approach suitable for subject delivery and which
the team were comfortable with
• Encouragement to experiment with platform
Community and transparency
• Talking to peers and asking for feedback
• Development of teams – not individuals
• Sharing practice, good resources found
Recycle, repurpose, reuse
• Use of creative commons as default
• Encouragement to think about resources beyond MOOC space
• Awareness raising of open content
Ensuring quality through transparency, ownership and support
Every course
MUST be a
team
Every course
MUST have an
UoE academic
lead
Every team
MUST be part of
the community

8. … Lots of central guidance and resources along the way!

9. Open attitude to content creation
MOOC
content
• Content designed to be
accessible to a wide audience
• Created as a collaboration
between academics and
central support teams
• Peer community
• Everyone is learning attitude
• Academic teams given
online tutoring training to
prepare for diverse
engagement
• Prepared for tangents and
community generated
content
• Encouraged to embrace
community
• Creative commons
license applied wherever
possible to encourage
content reuse (enabling)
• OERs created as a by-
product
• Education for all around
‘open’ content
MOOC
content

10. Change for the future
 Noticeable culture change
– enthusiastically embracing learning and teaching at all levels
– All academic Schools developing online learning provisions
 Community-built attitude to course development
– impact on future development of processes
– acknowledgement broad spectrum of skills and support required
 Reflection on Learning and Teaching future trajectory
– vision for 2020 Edinburgh experience underway
 Reflection on internal provision gaps
– development of new IS Division (Learning Services & Web)
 Senior Academic and Senior Management changes
– Multiple Chairs in Online Learning around the University
– New Head of School appointments with online learning explicitly in remit
– Vice Principal online oversight changes

11. Where next?
...?
MOOCs have been (and continue to be) a lot of fun but it has been incredibly fast!
Now we need some slow time to mull over lessons learned
… at least until September 