MOOCs for Opening Up Education

The role of Quality and OpennessDarco Jansen

Masterclass MESI - 24 September 2014ICDE-MESI Conference – panel 27 September 2014

MOOC for e-skills?

• What is a MOOC? (and what isn’t)

• OpenupEd as a MOOC provider?

• Macro drivers behind MOOCs / analysis MOOC providers• Institutional drivers• Drivers for learners

• Why openness matters?• Barriers and incentives to open education

• Why quality matters? / OpenupEd label

SURF 2014 Open Education Trend Report.

• Definition Wikipedia: course aimed at unlimited participation• Definition OE-Europa: massive, in the sense of no limit to

attendance

• Definition EU-projects: course designed for large number of participants• Number of participants is larger than can be taught in a ‘normal’

campus class room / college situation (>148 = Dunbar’s number)

• The (pedagogical model of the) course is such that the efforts of all services (including of academic staff on tutoring, tests, etc.) does not increase significantly as the number of participants increases.

MASSIVE - OOC

• Definition Wikipedia: course open access via the web.

• Definition OE-Europa: • 'Open' in the sense that it can be accessed by anyone

anywhere as long as they have an internet connection. • Free of charge (not including the certificate of completion)

• Definition EU-projects:• Course can be accessed by (almost) anyone anywhere as long

as they have an internet connection.• Open to everyone - without entry qualifications• Course can be completed for free (full course experience

without any costs for participants)

M – OPEN - OC

• Definition Wikipedia: an online course / OE-Europa: Online• The Babson Survey Research Group uses three criteria to define

online course: • Online courses are defined as those in which at least 80 % of the

course content is delivered online. • Blended (sometimes called hybrid) between 30% and 80% of the

course content delivered online.• Face-to-face instruction includes courses in which zero to 29% of the

content is delivered online;

• Definition EU-projects:• Complete course online - All aspects of course are delivered

online• See definition of a full/complete course

MO – ONLINE - C

• Definition Wikipedia: • In addition to traditional course materials such as videos, readings,

and problem sets, MOOCs provide interactive user forums that help build a community for students, professors, and teaching assistants

• Definition OE-Europa:• Structured around a set of learning goals in a defined area of study• Executed according to a specific time frame with a start and end date• Offers possibilities for interaction such as social media channels,

forums, blogs or RSS feeds to build a learning community• Course materials such as videos, readings, and others, are provided

free of charge by the course designers, teachers, facilitators or even students themselves (cMOOCs)

• Includes assessment or evaluation, self assessment or peer assessment

MOO - COURSE

Definition EU-projects:

• Unit of Study • The total study time of a MOOC is minimal 1 ECTS

• Offers a full course experience (for free) including• educational content• facilitation interaction among peers (including some but

limited interaction with academic staff)• activities/tasks, tests, including feedback• some kind of (nonformal) recognition options • a study guide / syllabus

MOO - COURSE

MOOCs?

• EU-projects: MOOCs are online courses designed for large numbers of participants, that can be accessed by anyone anywhere as long as they have an internet connection, are open to everyone without entry qualifications, and offer a full/complete course experience online for free

• Wikipedia: A massive open online course (MOOC) is an online course aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the web. In addition to traditional course materials such as videos, readings, and problem sets, MOOCs provide interactive user forums that help build a community for students, professors, and teaching assistants

MOOCs expansion from the US …

• MOOCs: predominantly US-where it all started as of 2011 and expanded massively-and which houses major providers Coursera, edX (Udacity)

• Response in Europe …-some universities joined US initiatives, others started themselves-country/language-based platforms: FutureLearn (UK),MiríadaX, UNEDcoma (Spain), Iversity (Germany), FUN (France)

• First and so far only pan-European initiative OpenupEd (April 2013 / EADTU & 11 partners, 12 languages / referatory portal / 8 common features / currently big provider)

OpenupEd

OpenupEd is an open, non-profit partnership on MOOCs

OpenupEd aims to contribute to opening up education to the benefit of learners and the wider society while reflecting values such as equity, quality and diversity.

Offering over 174 MOOCs in 12 different languages. With > 100 with an option to do a formal exam (ECTS credits).

Darco Jansen

OpenupEd partnership

• from the EU: France, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, the UK

• outside of the EU, from: Russia, Turkey, Israel

• planning to join, from: Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, France (+1), Greece, Ireland, Poland (2x), Slovenia, Spain (+1)

• Open to other potential partners (> 20 requests)

Darco JansenFred Mulder

Macro level drivers behind MOOCs (1)

1. Need for education- Education is a 7 trillion dollar industry (570 times online advertisement and 7 times lager then mobile industry).- On a personal level higher level of education yields to higher earnings

2. Access to affordable higher education- Today: 165 million people enrolled in tertiary education. - 2025: peak at 263 million in 2025. - Additional 98 million students would require more than four major universities (30,000 students) to open every week for the next fifteen years (Sir John Daniel).

Marco level drivers behind MOOCs (2)

3. Need for (e-)skills and jobs- High youth unemployment (across Europe)- Also many unfilled job vacancies (i.e. mismatch)- EC “e-Skills for Jobs” multi-stakeholder initiative: deliver the right skills for the labour market shared between businesses, educational providers and other stakeholders

4. ICT / technical innovation push- Innovation: the constant reduction in costs (“Moore’s law”). - ICT: reduction of both the variable costs and fixed costs- MOOCs: reducing variable costs (design for unlimited numbers)

Marco level drivers behind MOOCs (3)

5. Improving the quality of opportunities for learning- value of education (e.g., reputation of institutions)- quality matters as offer of online courses / MOOCs increases

6. Globalization / increasing collaboration- E.g. to reduce costs, increase quality and reputation- joint offering of courses with other educational institutions (e.g., networked curricula) and with other non-profit organisations and increasingly with the corporate sector (learning environment, MOOC platforms, world-wide marketing, etc.)

Marco level drivers behind MOOCs (4)

7. Free / gratis as a driver- Free to compete with a paid product of a competitor- Free product creates monetizable activity- Freemium (free high quality product, but limited; Limitations are raised by paying customers; Paying customers cover costs- Free as a tool to promote reputation

8. Openness- enhancing the circulation of knowledge and increasing the pace of innovation (etc. open access journals, OER)- European Commission’s initiative ‘Opening up Education’

Analysis providers against macro drivers

• Main macro drivers for all MOOC providers:- need for education, access to affordable higher education, ICT / innovation push, gratis/free and globalization.

• Providers with a distinct profile- Udacity: aiming at business training focusing on ict and e-skills- edX: open source platform and increasingly OER

• Quality & Openness ->> reason why we started OpenupEd

Source: http://www.onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/gradechange.pdf 

MOOC drivers at an institution level

• MOOCs for reputation / visibility• including student recruitment• marketing potential / reach new student

• MOOCs as innovation area- and/or transition to more flexible and online education (improve teaching and providing viable income by online courses)- improve quality of on campus offering

• Responding to the demands of learners and societies

Drivers for learners - MOOCs for Opening up Education

MOOCs should be designed such that all unnecessary barriers to learning are removed, while aiming to provide students with a reasonable chance of success in education.

• All unnecessary barriers to learning should be removed, both at the entry into learning and along the learning path

• Learners should be facilitated with appropriate incentives to make progress and to succeed in their learning efforts

Barrier Could MOOCs remove the barrier?

1 Economic YES, they do2 Entry requirements YES, they do (formally)3 Location YES, they do (but not for exams)4 Scheduling NO (generally), but YES is possible5 Network connectivity NO (external factor)6 Digital literacy YES (by offering a dedicated MOOC)

BARRIERS TO LEARNING (1)

Barrier Could MOOCs remove the barrier?

7 Accessibility over time PROBLEMATIC, but YES is possible8 Accessibility to all PROBLEMATIC

(language, sanctioned countries)

9 Cultural PROBLEMATIC(dominant ‘Western’ perspective)

10 Legal YES, but ONLY with open licensing11 Quality YES, to some EXTENT

(no systems guarantee!)

BARRIERS TO LEARNING (2)

Incentive Could MOOCs offer the incentive?

Satisfaction YES, but it’s a constant CHALLENGE(motivation, lay-out/text-graphics-video, learning environment, interaction)

Completion YES, but ONLY with DEDICATION to:online pedagogics, independent learning, context sensitivity, small units

Recognition YES, but PRIMARILY with the OPTIONof formal credit & credit transfer (far from reality)

INCENTIVES FOR PROGRESS & SUCCESS

OpenupEdrevisited

11

OpenupEd’s Mission1. Contribute to Opening up Education by removing barriers and

offering incentives as much as possible2. Cherish the Values for Education in societies: equity, diversity,

quality, and autonomy

Characteristics• Learner-at-the-Centre & Self-study• High-quality Learning Materials• Diversity in Language & Culture• Public Domain & Decentralized

OpenupEd’s Score …

Remove barriers General OpenupEdYes 4 5Yes, but … 2 5No, but … 1 --Problematic 3 --No 1 1 (connectivity)

Offer incentives General OpenupEdYes -- 2Yes, but … 3 1 (satisfaction)

Suggested Institutional Strategy• Adapt your institutional strategy to Open up Education• Merge at the strategic level OER and MOOCs initiatives

• Align the culture and competencies among the staff

• OER-ize your course base hand-in-hand• with a clever selection for MOOC-ification

• Make quality assurance explicitly part of OER and MOOCs as well

• Set a long-range plan for this operation

The OpenupEd quality label:benchmarks for MOOCs

by Keith Williams

Published in INNOQUALVolume 2, No 3, 2014 and Special Issue on Quality in Massive Open Online Courses

By Jon Rosewell1 & Darco Jansen21The Open University, UK

2European Association of Distance Teaching Universities, The Netherlands

Thank you!!!

Darco.Jansen@eadtu.eu

fred.mulder@ou.nl

a.caine@unesco.org