What can MOOCs mean for the corporate world?

by Bert De Coutere from the Center for Creative Leadershipfor Online Learning webinars

Here’s a question:

Nice to meet you!

Bert De Coutere lives in Belgium, works for the Center for Creative Leadership, blogs on homocompetens.blogspot.com and is one third of the core team behind LeaderMOOC.net.

WHY ARE WE TALKING MOOC TODAY?Here a MOOC, there a MOOC, everywhere a MOOC MOOC

Poll: MOOC experience

Who particpated in a MOOC before?

– What are you talking about?– I did not participate in any MOOC– I participated in a MOOC on Coursera, EdX or

Udacity– I participated in a MOOC on canvas.net– I participated in a cMOOC / other MOOC

AB

C

D

E

A MOOC example

Usually a MOOC runs over a number of weeks and offers short video, readings, discussion and assignments.

MOOCs are the talk of the town... at least in the education world

My feed reader explodes with MOOC related posts. Much is written about it, little (but more and more) is researched or validated at this point.

Sometimes I think academic education and corporate training live in parallel universes...

• Did you know: around 70% of participants in MOOCs have a degree• “When combined with the fact that MOOCs to date have not been applied for academic

credit, it is apparent that the primary usage of MOOCs has been for professional development or lifelong learning.” (M Feldstein)

So that is why we in the ‘corporate parallel world’ should take a look at the other side and learn what the MOOC experiences in the academic world can mean for us...

What we will talk about today.

The state of the MOOCThe state of the MOOC is that we are making sense out of it all as we move along the

hype cycle. Is it a bubble or here to stay?

What’s in a word?In the MOOC alphabet soup, the acronym means different things to different people.

What could it mean for your organization?

Imagine a corporate MOOCCorporate interest in MOOCs has only just begun and may lead to yet another MOOC

family. When do MOOCs make sense in a corporate setting?

THE STATE OF THE MOOCHere a MOOC, there a MOOC, everywhere a MOOC MOOC

Recent headlines indicate MOOCs are still on the rise – and still controversial. MOOCs seem to have spread faster than any previous learning technology.

The MOOC existed before the MOOC mania started.

MOOC history lesson: about cMOOC and xMOOC

As with any disruptive innovation, moods swing from one side...

Revolution or dissillusion?

“We are moving away from the model in which learning is organized around stable, usually hierarchical institutions (schools, colleges, universities) that, for better and worse, have served as the main gateways to education and social mobility. Replacing that model is a new system in which learning is best conceived of as a flow, where learning resources are not scarce but widely available, opportunities for learning are abundant, and learners increasingly have the ability to autonomously dip into and out of continuous learning flows.” - Marina Gorbis (IFTF)

As with any disruptive innovation, moods swing from one side to the other...

Revolution or dissillusion?

As with any disruptive innovation, moods swing from one side to the other...leaving us with a lot of FUD

Fear, uncertainty &doubt.

Poll: Where on the hype cycle do you think MOOCs are right now?

A

B

CD

E

The MOOC hype cycle: getting passed the path of disillusionement

It’s not because it is a hype it is not worth exploring.

The hype cycle learns the predictable pattern, and 2013 grows into the year of the MOOC scepticism. That’s healthy.

“I’ve said this many times over the past six months: If 2012 was the year of the MOOC, 2013 will be the year of the anti-MOOC.”(George Siemens)

Let’s illustrate one of the major FUD discussions

Who also completed a MOOC?A - Never participated in a MOOCB - Enrolled but never participatedC - Participated but never finishedD - FinishedE - Finished and got credits

AB

C

D

E

Reframing our expectations: the emerging new ‘normal’ for MOOCs

Only about 10% will finish the course. Is that bad? There are a lot of lurkers. Is that bad? We can’t judge new formats with old mindsets, metrics or expectations.

State of the MOOC: we are finding things out as we move along. Experimentation is at full swing.

We get more data on participation and participants which gives us a baseline to work from. In areas such as business models experimentation is ongoing.

WHAT’S IN A WORD?MOOC, xMOOC, cMOOC, BOOC,

An attempt to a definition

What’s MOOC to you?

“MOOC is a fuzzy term, it doesn’t really mean

anything” (Chris Patton)

What’s in a name?Are you a cMOOC or xMOOC fan?

Massive Open Online Courses

What do each of the four terms at a minimum mean?People are starting to play with the words.

Maybe a good way to categorize MOOCs is to look at purpose and pedagogical approach.

Taxonomy : 8 different MOOCs based on pedagogy• transferMOOCs• madeMOOCs• synchMOOCs• asynchMOOCs• adaptiveMOOCs• groupMOOCs• connectivistMOOCS• miniMOOCSs

More important than the definition is to ask what is really different from before. And even more important: why does it (seem to) work this time?

Start with everything you know about distance learning, focus on your area of strenght and take it from there...

"The idea of a MOOC is not so new, only the scale

is different.“(Inge de Waard)

IMAGINE A CORPORATE MOOC

Imagine there's no classesIt's easy if you try

No blackboard in front of usAbove us only the cloud

Imagine all the peersLearning for today...

Imagine there's no diplomasIt isn't hard to do

Nothing to cram or flunk forNo accreditation tooImagine all the peers

Learning live on the job...

You may say I'm a dreamerBut I'm not the only one

I hope someday you'll join usAnd the world will be as one

Imagine no proprietary knowledgeI wonder if you can

No need for access or obedience A brotherhood of man

Imagine all the peersInnovating all the world...

You may say I'm a dreamerBut I'm not the only one

I hope someday you'll join usAnd the world will learn as one

Let’s now move to the corporate parallel universe

Which of the MOOC features is most problematic for the corporate world?• Massive• Open• Online• Course

A

B

C

D

The million dollar question. Shall we ‘wait and see’ or ‘do and find out’?

The FUD is different at the corporate side.

How different are MOOCs when we look at them with corporate eyes?

What we don’t care so much about• Degrees and credits• Disrupting and

disintermediating the academic model

• Student semesters• ...

What speaks to us on the corporate side

• Scaling up • Cost efficiency – more with

less• Will it sell or cannabalize

our business? (providers) • ...

Jay Cross organised a hangout on MOOCs and corporate...

Are MOOCs and business by definition incompatible?The proof of the pudding is not in talking about the recipe.

Poll: what do you dream about?

What are important areas for your training department?– Reaching more people with our programs– Keeping costs down– Let customers and partners learn how to use our

products and services– Build up your brand in emerging markets– Stop duplicating effort across the industry– Other: in chat

ABC

D

E

We want a lot of people to learn to use our products, don’t we?

Example of the Google Power Search MOOC.The obvious candidate for corporate is always a ‘marketing’ purpose.

Imagine all the MOOCs

• What do we need to scale up? • What do we need to open up?• What can’t we do on our own?• What do we need networked learning for?

So what will it take to run a succesful MOOC in a corporate context?

MOOCs are another tool in the box, along with many other formats.MOOCs are unlikely to be a good fit in a context of control, small-scale, self-centered around institutions or experts,... There are plenty areas that would fit.

Final poll

So do you think your organisation should be looking at MOOCs?– Yes– NoYES

NO

Key questions

• What can the corporate world learn from the MOOC experiences of the education world?

• What does it take to design and run a MOOC?

Shameless promotion of our MOOC

www.leadermooc.netSee you in Chicago to talk about designing MOOCs!

MORE

Session descriptionMOOCs are the talk of the town in the higher education space, but what can they mean for corporate training? In this session we’ll go over• The ‘state-of-the-MOOC’ : the MOOC phenomenon has taken the higher

education world by storm, and seems to trigger as much debate as participants. What are the emerging trends, platforms, proof of impact, statistics and business models?

• What’s in a word? : What does MOOC mean to you? What is the essence behind the acronym? What could it mean for corporate training?

• Imagine all the MOOCs : A few imaginary cases for MOOCs in corporate settings

• What will it take? : What do we need to introduce a successful MOOC in corporations? Some golden advice given to us by early MOOC adopters as we were designing our LeaderMOOC (coming in September)

Sources• Source:

http://mfeldstein.com/moocs-beyond-professional-development-courseras-big-announcement-in-context/• http://mfeldstein.com• http

://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/04/education/edlife/massive-open-online-courses-are-multiplying-at-a-rapid-pace.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

• http://www.forbes.com/sites/georgeanders/2013/07/10/coursera-hits-4-million-students-and-triples-its-funding/

• http://storify.com/derekbruff/prof-leaves-mooc-mid-stream• http://

onlinelearninginsights.wordpress.com/2013/02/05/the-mooc-honeymoon-is-over-three-takeaways-from-the-coursera-calamity

• http://www.educause.edu/eli/events/eli-online-spring-focus-session/2013/2013/everything-you-think-you-know-about-moocs-could-be-wrong

• http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/07/09/higher-ed-leaders-urge-slow-down-mooc-train• http://allmoocs.wordpress.com/2013/04/16/gartners-hype-cycle-as-springboard-mooc-and-public-policy• http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/2013/07/08/neoliberalism-and-moocs-amplifying-nonsense• http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.be/2013/04/moocs-whos-using-moocs-10-different.html• http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/12/a-must-have-educational-technology.html • http://www.educause.edu/sites/default/files/library/presentations/ELI134/OL01/FeldsteinHill_Everything%2BY

ou%2BThink%2BYou.pdf• http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.be/2013/04/moocs-taxonomy-of-8-types-of-mooc.html• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGaUfWkJdi4&feature=player_embedded • https://twitter.com/search?q=%23qmooc• http://homocompetens.blogspot.be/2013/03/this-one-has-mooc-in-title.html

For more information• Chronological overview of MOOCs in 2012:

http://www.hackeducation.com/2012/12/03/top-ed-tech-trends-of-2012-moocs/

• Insights on MOOC participants: http://mfeldstein.com/insight-on-mooc-student-types-from-eli-focus-session/

• 20 strategies to increase MOOC interaction: http://ignatiawebs.blogspot.be/2013/03/mooc-research-20-strategies-to-increase.html

• The most thorough description to date of university experience with MOOCs http://mfeldstein.com/the-most-thorough-description-to-date-of-university-experience-with-mooc/

• Coursetalk – MOOC reviews and learning http://coursetalk.org/

Sustainable business models are still a work in progress