What is a MOOC?M Massive

According to Katy Jordan a typical MOOC enrolls 50,000 students

O Open(-Access)

O Online

C Course

Based on materials from Brenda Glascott

Source: http://www.katyjordan.com/MOOCproject.html

The Big Three

For Profit Non-profit

For Profit

CourseraDaphne Koller

Rejeev Motwani Professor in Computer Science at Stanford.

Andrew Ng

Director of the Stanford AI Lab.

“Ng’s goal is to give everyone in the world access to a high quality education, for free. Coursera partners with top universities to offer high quality, free online courses [. . .].”

Source: cs.stanford.edu

Koller’s Research

Ng’s Research

Ng’s Courses

UdacitySebastian Thrun

Research Professor at Stanford in Computer Science, Robotics, and AI (used to run AI Lab)

Google Fellow (Google glass and driverless car)

Mike Sokolsky

“[W]orked in robotics at Stanford and the University of Alberta”

Sources: udacity.com and robots.stanford,edu

Thrun’s Publications

EdXAnant Agarwal

Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT

Has directed MIT’s Computer Science and AI Lab

Taught 1st EdX course (Circuits and Electronics): 155,000 students signed up

Founded and governed by MIT and Harvard

“Courses are designed to be interesting, fun, and rigorous. They are the best courses, from the best professors and the best schools, spanning dozens of subjects.”

Source: edx.org

Agarwal’s Research

Patterns

MOOCS were founded by people with expertise in MACHINE Learning

Rhetoric of excellence (the best professors at the best schools)

Source: http://www.sentientdevelopments.com/2009/03/kurzweil-when-minds-merge-with-machines.html

Let’s Talk about Open-AccessTo What? For Whom?

How Free is “Open”?

“O” is for Open-Access

Access to “the best”“In the first place, online learning will give millions of students access to the world’s best teachers. Already, hundreds of thousands of students have taken accounting classes from Norman Nemrow of Brigham Young University, robotics classes from Sebastian Thrun of Stanford and physics from Walter Lewin of M.I.T.” – David Brooks, “The Campus Tsunami,” NYT, 5.3.2012

“I can see a day soon where you’ll create your own college degree by taking the best online courses from the best professors from around the world — some computing from Stanford, some entrepreneurship from Wharton, some ethics from Brandeis, some literature from Edinburgh — paying only the nominal fee for the certificates of completion. It will change teaching, learning and the pathway to employment”. – Thomas Friedman, “Revolution Hits the Universities,” NYT, 1.26.2013

How to Recognize “the best” Ivy League School or member of Association of

American Universities (AAU)*

Professor is a Prominent Researcher

* Coursera specifies in its contract that providers must be in the AAU or a “top 5” school in another country unless an institute is granted a waiver by the Board

Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/03/22/coursera-commits-admitting-only-elite-universities

Saving the World . . .From Mid-Level Schools“We are simply trying to support too many universities that are trying to be research institutions.”

--Stanford President John Hennessey (he is a professor of electrical engineering)

“If elite universities were to carry the research burden of the whole system, less well-funded schools could be stripped down and streamlined.”

-- Nathan Heller, “Laptop U,” The New Yorker, 5.20.2013

“In fifty years there will only be ten universities left in the world.”

-- Sebastian Thrun (Udacity)

Non-Elite Professors Become Tutors and TAs“In a blended online world, a local professor could select not only the reading material, but do so from an array of different lecturers, who would provide different perspectives from around the world. The local professor would do more tutoring and conversing and less lecturing.”

– David Brooks, “The Campus Tsunami,” NYT, 5.3.2012

Who do MOOC advocates think needs this access?Students Around the Globe.

Community College Students.

Our Students.

Governor Jerry Brown wrote to Sebastian Thrun after reading about MOOCs in the NYT. Here is what he wrote:

“We need your help.”

And thus was born the Udacity partnership with San Jose State.

http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/01/how-udacity-sebastian-thrun-met-jerry-brown.html

The San Jose ExperimentThe Pilot: Students take Udacity courses for SJSU credit

Math 6L: Remedial Algebra

Math 8: Intro to College Algebra

Stat 95: Intro to College Statistics

Source:”Preliminary Summary: SJSU + Augmented Online Learning Environment Pilot Project.” Sept 2013

5% to 10% Pass Rates

MOOCs and Persistence

“O” is for Open (Free!)

But, They’re Free, Right?Coursera Signature Track

Cost: “typically” between $39-90 per course

Earns you a “Verified Certificate”

Udacity

For-Credit Courses

Cost: $150 per course

“I just spent the last two days at a great conference convened by M.I.T. and Harvard on “Online Learning and the Future of Residential Education” — a k a ‘How can colleges charge $50,000 a year if my kid can learn it all free from massive open online courses?’” – Thomas Friedman, “The Professors’ Big Stage,” NYT, 3.5.2013

EdX

Verified Certificate of Achievement

Cost: Seems to be between $25-100 per course

Xseries Certificate: about $700

Outsourcing is Profitable (for MOOC Providers)Inside Higher Ed reports that state-run universities are making no-bid deals with MOOC providers.

University of Texas System: $5 million to EdX

Georgia Institute of Technology: $2 million over three years to Udacity

University System of Georgia: state will pay Coursera $3,000 per course and fees up to $65 per student

SJSU: “revenue-sharing” with Udacity (university will get $40 of the $150 fee)

Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/07/17/moocs-spread-quickly-aided-no-bid-deals-public-universities

“M” Stands for Massive

Do Teachers Matter?

How the MOOCs Talk about Massive Pedagogy

“Innovative” Lecture videos are

relatively short (between 4-20 minutes)

You can rewind and rewatch

“Interactive” Quizzes after videos

Retake until correct

Peer Assessment

Peer Discussion Boards

Peer Meet-ups (some, voluntary, seems relatively new response to student desire)

Innovative Interactive

https://www.coursera.org/about/pedagogy

https://www.udacity.com/how-it-works

Teacher

Student

Peers

Ecology of Learning and Teaching

“Socrates Teaching People in the Agora.” Sculpture by Harry Bates

Source: http://iume.tc.columbia.edu/index.asp?Id=Community&Info=Past+Culture+Circles

Do Teachers Matter? If so, why?Or, Better, When Do Teachers Matter?

Dialogic

Mutuality

Inquiry

Not content delivery, but ways of thinking

Self-reflexive

Pleasure/Joy

Desire/Motivation

Humans Aren’t Machines (yet)Teacher-Student Contact in College has been shown to:

Increase student persistence and retention

Affect student motivation

Affect student outcomes

Face-to-Face Communication:

Quick feedback

Multiple nonverbal cues

“a highly personal focus”

From: Laura Umphrey et al. “Student Perceptions . . .”

“students’ communication experience of connectedness/mutuality was affected by their perceptions of the instructor’s immediacy as expressed in presence, attraction, and warmth, and by receptivity as expressed in interest and openness” (111).

-- Laura R. Umphrey, Jeffrey A. Wickersham, and John C. Sherblom, “Student Perceptions of the Instructor’s Relational Characteristics, the Classroom Communication Experience, and the Interaction Involvement in Face-to-Face versus Video Conference Instruction,” Communication Research Reports, 2008.

“Excellent professors do not teach subjects or classes; they teach students [. . . ] students are more likely to be satisfied and successful in classes where they perceive that professors primarily care about them as individuals rather than merely focusing on the transfer of knowledge” (39).

-- Patricia Pattison, Janet Riola Hale, and Paul Gowens, “Mind and Soul: Connecting with Students,” Jnl of Legal Studies Education, 2011

You Need to Start Writing

AboutPedagogy

What Does Good University Teaching Look Like?

Or, We Can Let Him Decide How Students Learn:“What we’re saying here is students have to pass an exam at the end, so they have to pass to attain the knowledge,” he said. "The arguments against it would be there’s something magical about how you attain that knowledge. For the most part, the knowledge is the commodity. So what we’re saying is, ‘How are we going to get this commodity into your head?’”

-- Florida State Senator Jeff Brandes (April 2013)

Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/04/11/florida-legislation-would-require-colleges-grant-credit-some-unaccredited-courses#ixzz2gurWedX9

Or, Him:"Of course it's quite controversial, that software can take over, but once you get a great pool of lectures out there that incorporate problem solving and drill practice, this frees up time" for more-personalized instruction in the classroom, Mr. Gates said. As MOOC lectures evolve, the average classroom professor will have a hard time competing, and the traditional lecture will seem antiquated, Mr. Gates suggested. "The quality of those lectures, as they go through the competitive process, will be extremely good," he said. "No individual performance is likely to come up to that level."

Source: http://chronicle.com/article/MOOCs-Could-Help-2-Year/142123/#sthash.jgSMkUZ3.dpuf

MOOC Critic Tips

You must be a Luddite.

Have you ever taken one?

You are overblowing this threat.

What, you are against free access?

You are only interested in protecting your job.

Calm down, let’s see what happens.

You must be against all online education.

Anticipate and prepare for common arguments used to try to shut down critiques of MOOCs