Presentation from LFHE Conference 2014: "MOOCs: What we have learned, emerging themes and what next?" Video here: http://youtu.be/1Wnw8YbCa3g

1. Wha’s a MOOC?
A Personal Reflection
Jon Harman
:
h$p://uk.linkedin.com/in/jonharman1075
:
@kao:coddchild

2. 2008
I was awake a lot at night

3. 2008
or
Choices, choices…..

4. Back in 2008
Learning Technologists were like…..
https://vimeo.com/85465281

5. Learning was King
More interesting
>
a delivery
concept

6. But
the
apocalypse/
avalanche/
storm
[insert
change
narra6ve]
had
started
!

7. Sebastian Thrun Did Proclaim!
Innovative disruption was nigh….

8. It was…….
and EVERYONE
was…….
https://vimeo.com/85465282

9. All over so quick?

10. déjà vu ?
David Noble,
Digital Diploma Mills:
The Automation of
Higher Education (New
York: Monthly Review
Press, 2001)
“Promoters of instructional technology
and ‘distance learning’ advanced with
ideological bravado as well as
institutional power…. They had merely
to proclaim ‘it’s the future’ to throw
skeptics on the defensive and
convince seasoned educators that
they belonged in the dustbin of
history…..and sound bites about the
imminent demise of the ‘sage on the
stage’ and ‘bricks and mortar
institutions.’”

11. So what did we learn ?
http://followersoftheapocalyp.se/education_is_broken/

12. https://vimeo.com/85465651
(Presentation within a
Presentation)

13. Were we good at design and planning before?

14. •
The majority of staff responding to a 2009 survey believed
that the process of creating a course was becoming more
complex
• 50% believed that it was becoming harder for them to
understand how all the parts of planned learning & teaching
fit together and almost 75% agreed that there was a need
for clearer methods of representing the structure and key
components of a course.
• There was strong belief in the educational potential of ICT
(87%) but confidence that this potential would be realised
was weaker (50%)
Cross, S., Clark, P. and Brasher, A. (2009). Survey of staff perceptions, practice and attitudes
of learning design. Available http://oro.open.ac.uk/32037/

15. So Pedagogy?

16. MOOCs Through a Learning Design Lens
The MOOC Learning Design Project (Weller et al): http://ld.h817open.net/ld1/

17. The MOOC Learning Design Project (Weller et al): http://ld.h817open.net/ld1/

18. !!
Laurillard (2013)

19. Isn’t This:
Still This:

20. 45%
of
students
"did
not
demonstrate
any
significant
improvement
in
learning"
during
the
first
two
years
of
college
in
the
US.
-­‐
Arum
&
Roksa

21. Digital
tools
and
challenges
to
ins6tu6onal
tradi6ons
of
learning
–
Saljo
(2010)
to learn something is to be able to convert information stored in
the expanding external symbolic storages of our social memory into
something that is new, interesting and consequential for
a practice or an issue.
The implications of such a metaphorical construction of learning
will have to be worked out within the educational system and its
instructional practices. It does not follow from a mere
introduction of new technologies.

22. Completion Rates Headlines!
Do enrollment numbers relate to completers?
Yes - the more people who enrol then the lower the
percentage who complete.
Activity Important! – well there is a significant
negative correlation between number of active
users and the percentage who complete
University reputation has no effect on
completion rates
Does the course length have an impact
on completion?
The longer your course, the lower the
percentage who see it through.
K.Jordan (2013)
http://nogoodreason.typepad.co.uk/no_good_reason/2013/12/completion-data-for-moocs.html
http://www.katyjordan.com/MOOCproject.html

23. Certification/ Prior Learning Headlines!
5% of all registrants earned a certificate of
completion.
35% never viewed any of the course materials.
54% of those who “explored” at least half of the
course content earned a certificate of
completion.
66% of all registrants already held a bachelor’s
degree or higher.
74% of those who earned a certificate of
completion held a bachelor’s degree or higher.
Harvard & MITx: 1st Year of Open On Online Courses (2014)
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2381263

24. Mo:va:on
Dynamics
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience Csikszentmihalyi (1990)
http://pushingattheedges.wordpress.com/2014/01/25/moocs-content-curationlearning-what-motivates-me/

25. Coursera Partner Institutions: $50k to run/ produce a MOOC
Mid 2012: VC Funding round for Coursera = $22 million
Mid 2013: Further Funding round for Coursera = $40 million
General rule: Don’t dilute shares unless you need the money
Coursera’s Burn Rate: $1.5 - $2million/ month
Signature Track: Single Revenue stream = $1million in 1st ¾ of 2013
Expenditure: $1.5 - $2million/ month
Income: $100k per month.
http://higheredstrategy.com/the-future-of-moocs-coursera-and-edx/

26. …and Sebastian Thrun Did
Whisper….
“not many people complete MOOCs, and making them pay is
a good incentiviser, so he's making Udacity an elearning corporate
training company.”
http://nogoodreason.typepad.co.uk/no_good_reason/2013/11/stop-me-if-you-think-youve-heard-this-one-before.html

27. interaction and
assessment from
the replicable
content pole.
Digital
Publishers
&
Content
Universities?
Where do MOOCs take us ?
MOOCs
&
PlaVorms
replicable content
from the interaction
and assessment
pole
Learning
Analy6cs
&
Adap6ve/Personalisa6on
Tools
Learning
Design
&
Pedagogy
Profiling
Tools

28. Have we reinvented the Wheel?
!
A shift from the class seen as an event; to the class seen as a designed (and
somewhat replicable) learning environment.
It subverts traditional models of labour, and has the potential to radically change
what we mean by education.
!

29. Learning and Performance Support Systems
A new $19 million 5-year initiative at the National Research Council lead by
Stephen Downes
http://halfanhour.blogspot.no/2013/12/learning-and-performance-support-systems.html

30. Learning as a Cloud Service – will create a distributed learning layer, which is a
mechanism for working with data no matter where it is stored, through desktop,
mobile and other devices.
Resource Repository Network – will create a resource graph of learning/training
resources data from multiple sources and multiple formats including live and
dynamic data such as workplace data, plant instrumentation, or market
information.
Personal Learning Record – will define how we represent, capture, and leverage
user activity, including ratings, test results, performance measures, and the like, in
a distributed learning and work environment.
Automated Competence Development and Recognition – whereas existing
recommender systems depend on manually defined metrics and taxonomies, this
system will detect new and emerging competences and automatically assess
employee performance.
Personal Learning Assistant – will develop an integrated learning appliance, a
mechanism for looking up or finding references or resources inside other programs
or environments.
http://halfanhour.blogspot.no/2013/12/learning-and-performance-support-systems.html

31. Maybe Certification becomes less important?

32. What is a Higher Education for?
http://www.slideshare.net/PSFK/psfk-presents-future-of-work-report

33. My Online Learning Journey Continues……
http://www.lawwithoutwalls.org/lwow-x/
http://apolyglotworld.com/add1signup
http://www.curatr3.com/massive-open-online-courses/

34. That’s
All
Folks!
e: kaoticoddchild@gmail.com
Skype: kaoticoddchild