MOOCS: LESSONS LEARNED FROM

THE FRONT LINESDisruption 2.0: Game Changers in Professional, Continuing and Online Education

UPCEA 98th Annual Conference: April 3-5, 2013, Boston MA

Presented by:

Gary W. Matkin, Ph.D, DeanUniversity of California, Irvine

Carin Nuernberg, DeanBerklee College of Music

THE SUPPLY OF OER IS HUGE AND GROWING

OCWC

• 280 Members

• Over 30,000 Courses

YOUTUBE

• Over 700,000 videos on Education channel

iTUNESu

• Over 500,000 courses/learning materials

OER

PUBLIC DEMAND FOR LOWER COST EDUCATION IS INCREASING

Average tuition in higher education

increased 27% over the last 5 years

Graduates leave college with an average debt of

$27,000 U.S. student debt is approaching $1

trillion, exceeding credit card debt

MOocs Seemed to link these two

driving elementsby adding the

possibility of quality to the equation

OER

Demand for

Lower Costs

THE CONNECTION BETWEEN OER AND CREDIT

DISCOVER

• UCI OCW• YouTube

EDU• iTunesU• Coursera• edX• Merlot• Connexio

ns

CHOOSE LEARN ADOPT

• Open Course Module

• Full Open Course

• Full Open Curriculum

LEARNKNOW DO

• Preview• Supplemen

t• Assess

Learning• Certify

Learning• Gain

Academic Credit

• Get Job

WHY DID BERKLEE AND UCI JOIN COURSERA

• UCI• Natural outgrowth of commitment to open

education developed over the last 10 years• Open education is a natural part of a public and

land grant mission

• Berklee• Continue commitment to providing free access to

curriculum and promoting the value of music education

• Build awareness of college and its online programs• Learn from this “disruptive” offering—social

learning, peer review, Coursera platform

WHO MADE THE DECISION?

• UCI• The Dean of Continuing Education, Distance

Learning and Summer Session supported by Distance Learning and Open Education staff

• Berklee• Plan developed within Continuing Education

Division, approved by senior administrators of the college, in consultation with board of trustees

HOW WERE THE COURSES SELECTED?

• UCI• Because of time limitations, well developed

online courses with willing faculty were chosen

• Berklee courses were selected based on:• Popular subject areas within online school• Their compatibility with (not duplication of)

existing Berklee Online courses • Strong faculty who have developed online

courses before and have a strong presence on camera

WHAT ARE THE ROLES OF THE FACULTY

• UCI• Faculty agree to having their courses put on Coursera and

adapt them to Coursera platform• They are paid a small amount to “teach,” according to the

minimal requirement by Coursera for the first offering

• Berklee• Faculty develop course outline and lesson plans, including

announcements, quizzes, and peer review assignments, in consultation with an instructional designer

• With video production team, faculty shoot video segments in campus video studio and review all footage

• Faculty monitor forums with support from instructional designer and Berklee Online customer support

• Faculty are paid an authoring fee, in addition to a teaching fee for the first offering

Courses offered and sign ups?

UCI COURSES SIGN UPS

Personal Financial Planning

90,303

Algebra (ACE Credit) 45,480

Micro Econ for Managers

36,857

Pre-Calculus (ACE Credit)

36,262

Intro to Biology 16,459

Principles of Public Health

16,642

Science to Superheroes

12,038

TOTAL (3/18) 254,041

Courses offered and sign ups?

BERKLEE COURSES SIGN UPS

Introduction to Guitar 75,855

Songwriting 64,780

Introduction to Music Production

53,552

Introduction to Improvisation

31,623

TOTAL (3/27) 225,810

Results

• UCI• Course completion rate is 8%, which is at the

high end of Coursera's average range which is 6-8%.

• BERKLEE• First two courses will not yet be complete, but

Carin to add retention info here

Cost and funding

• UCI• Courses were already developed as fully online

courses. Cost between $8,000 - $10,000 to adapt the courses to the Coursera platform mainly in “re-chunking” the courses into smaller “bites”

• Funding came from online operating income

• Berklee• Courses are new offerings, developed as “lead-ins”

to instructor-led, 20-student courses offered through Berklee Online. Cost is about $20,000 per course.

• Funding came from online operating income.

Instructional design elements implemented

• UCI• Focused on right-sizing lecture material• Learner engagement with content: focus-present-

review design, self quizzes, animated voice

• Berklee• High production values—3 camera shoots, extensive

post-production• Video chunked in short, bite-sized segments where

possible• Quiz questions embedded in video to test

recall/reinforce learning• Social, collaborative learning

Proprietary assets removed

• UCI/Berklee• Assets within Coursera fall into the following

three buckets:• We own them (UCI or Berklee)• They are already under creative commons

licensing• They are owned by a publisher, but we have

explicit permission to utilize them

Why are students enrolling in moocs?

• Want a skill or set of knowledge to be successful in an academic setting (e.g., they need algebra to prepare for college pre-calculus)

• Need skills to be successful in a professional setting (many public health practitioners took UCI public health class to stay current in ideas, research and trends; many students in Berklee courses aspire to be in the music industry)

• Failed the subject in an academic setting and want to prepare for the retake of the subject (UCI had one student failed algebra 3 times in community college and is taking its MOOC before she attempts it a 4th time)

• Reputation of faculty member (Berklee songwriting professor gives clinics and seminars around the world, known entity)

Why are students enrolling in moocs?

• Supplement their own personal knowledge (UCI had many people over the age of 60 in microeconomics and public health; Berklee has many music hobbyists)

• Connect and collaborate with other people around the world interested in the subject (we had hundreds of Facebook groups start up associated with PFP and public health)

• Homeschooled children in English speaking countries (they flocked to Dennin’s Physics course and loved it)

• Instructor in an academic setting and who wants to refresh or deepen their knowledge of a subject

Faculty intellectual property issues

• UCI• Coursera contract rewritten to place UCI

between faculty and Coursera• UCI signs a licensing agreement with faculty

• Berklee• Faculty sign separate contract with Berklee• Berklee owns IP• Faculty earn royalty on Berklee Online courses

they author, may see increase in enrollment due to Coursera courses

Next steps

• UCI• Continue to 3 of 7 courses through Coursera• 2-3 more may be added in the future

• Berklee• Introduction to Guitar and Introduction to

Improvisation launching April 22• Two additional courses slated for the upcoming

fiscal year

Lessons learned

• Really good content and instructional design makes a big difference; be careful with repurposed courses and/or materials

• Students want to connect to one another and the instructor; must provide ample opportunities specific to the Coursera setting and with social media tools for this

• Faculty need to understand their role clearly; they serve the Coursera students more than they teach them

• Strong support staff are critical, especially for the first iteration of any course

• Faculty and support staff need to be careful not to overreact to student concerns; many issues work themselves out within the community

Lessons learned

• Staff should be monitoring discussion activity once per day to catch any course design issues, especially in the first iteration of the course.

• Students provide a great deal of support and encouragement to each other. There are high performers who devote a great deal of time to helping others.

• Craft peer assessments very carefully, with the understanding of the diversity of your audience in mind. Provide examples that students can model.

• Build in some flexibility with due dates, particularly in the early lessons, to accommodate students who enroll late.

• Overall, remember every student is in a different time zone, has a different reason for taking the course, and brings his/her own perspective to the course.

QuestionsTo contact Gary Maktin email gmatkin@uci.edu

To contact Carin Nuernberg email cnuernberg@berklee.eduDownload presentation at slideshare.net/upcea2013