What I have learned about MOOC design from participating in eLearning Experiences 2

The subject ELearning Experiences 2 has developed my skills and knowledge of MOOCs in multiple ways, for example when I first started I was aware in a broad sense of the concept of Massively Open Online Courses for free and open access to knowledge but had been influenced by the negative press in 2013 regarding massive student dropout rates (Lodge 2013) and cynical teachers (Usher 2013) to the point of being disengaged with the phenomenon of MOOCs

In terms of the 013092 e-Learning Experiences 2 subject objectives to begin I was unable to:

• describe the learning theories underpinning MOOCs to any level of sophistication
• connect my personal philosophy of the value of the benefits of a constructivist and connectivity approach in  eLearning  to MOOCs
• have any informed understanding of MOOCs as I had never actually participated in one
• design and implement a MOOC course if required.

My first step towards understanding MOOCs was to ‘learn from doing’ and consequently I choose to enrol into an iVersity MOOC on Gamification (Anon 2014). This experience gave me first-hand experience as a student and from this I was able to develop a number of personal insights that could never have been achieved from simply reading the academic literature on MOOCs. For example I was able to work through a number of topics on gamification, watching the tutor videos and reviewing the readings (iVersity MOOC: Gamification Design 2014) to discover that the design of  a MOOC was  comparable to a traditional eLearning courses I was used to. This removed some of the mystique of the MOOC medium for me.

Where I saw a point of difference between MOOCs and traditional eLearning courses was

• how easy it was to access and enrol into a MOOC course
• a key component was the use of social networking tools such as twitter, facebook and google plus to form learning connections with the tutors and other students.

From a design point  of view I found the (Cormier 2005) MOOC social networking framework very instructive to see how connnectivist pedagogical could be overlayed on my existing eLearning courses i.e.

1. Orient - Familiarise yourself with the location of materials, links and times of live sessions
2. Declare - Declare yourself via social media, blog, tag, tweets
3. Network - Follow other people, create a network and communicate thoughtfully
4. Cluster - Create a group of people to work with, form a community of kindred spirits
5. Focus - identify a meaningful purpose, link MOOC work to your life

The other design point of interest for me was the use of video in MOOCS which simulated the one to one tutor experience online to address (Koller 2012) the classic Blooms 2 sigma problem (Bloom 1984) whereby  it is known that students perform best with one to one tutoring, a video technique which I also plan to adopt in the design of my courses.

The innovative use of Peer assessment in MOOCs was also very informative in terms of my understanding how you can manage the assessment of vast numbers of students which would just not be possible for an individual tutor (Johnson et al. 2014). However many students (Like myself) choose not to put in the hard yards to peer assess other student’s work and I found it interesting to see how the MOOC innovations are evolving to deal with massive enrolments and peer assessment in the context of the practicalities of requiring motivated self-directed and social networking literate students.

For example new innovations at such as Selective Open Online Courses SOOCs (Anon 2013) have a two-step enrolment process which enable anybody to partially enrol into a MOOC course but students need to demonstrate baseline aptitude and performance to progress to full enrolment, ensuring the quality of candidates needed to form the learning communities  necessary for the MOOC model to work.

In conclusion participating in 013092 e-Learning Experiences 2 has given me a nuanced understanding of the positive possibilities of MOOCs which I will be able to incorporate within the design of the online courses I work on in the future.

References 

Anon 2013, Are we already entering a post-MOOC era?, ICEF Monitor, ICEF Monitor, viewed 14/5/2014 2014, <http://monitor.icef.com/2013/11/are-we-already-entering-a-post-mooc-era/>.

Anon 2014, iVersity: What is a MOOC?, Iversity.org, YouTube, viewed 13/5/2014 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_N_NHbC80E>

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Bloom, B.S. 1984, 'The 2 sigma problem: The search for methods of group instruction as effective as one-to-one tutoring', Educational researcher, pp. 4-16.

Cormier, D. 2005, Success in a MOOC, David Cormier breaks down the type student behavior required to succeed in a MOOC namely, 1 Orient, 2 Declare, 3 Network, 4, Cluster, 5 Focus., YouTube, <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8avYQ5ZqM0>.

iVersity MOOC: Gamification Design 2014, .

Johnson, L., Adams Becker, S., Estrada, V. & Freeman, A. 2014, 'NMC Horizon Report: 2014 Higher Education Edition', Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium, <http://www.nmc.org/publications/2014-horizon-report-higher-ed>.

Koller, D. 2012, What we’re learning from online education, Daphne Koller summarise lessons learnt from implementing the Coursera MOOC, YouTube, viewed 12/5/14 2014, <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6FvJ6jMGHU>.

Lodge, J. 2013, The failure of Udacity: lessons on quality for future MOOCs, The conversation, viewed 19/11/13 2013, <http://theconversation.com/the-failure-of-udacity-lessons-on-quality-for-future-moocs-20416 >.

Usher, A. 2013, An Avalanche of Nonsense, http://higheredstrategy.com/, <http://higheredstrategy.com/an-avalanche-of-nonsense/>.