openness, online universities, moocs and beyond

Terry Anderson,Professor,Centre for Distance Education

Feb. 2013

Openness, Online Universities, Moocs and Beyond

UNESCO Chair in E-LearningRound Table

Drivers for Openness• Drivers for Openness

– Open Scholarship– Experimentation, extensive use of ICT for competitive and learning advantage– Enhanced social and community service– Recession and the continuing escalation of costs of higher education

• Pedagogy of MOOCs– cMOOCs and Connectivism– XMOOCs and instructivism– sMOOCs social constructivism

• My MOOC recommendations– Credit for learning- anywhere/anyhow– MOOCs as movie trailer– “First One Free” Marketing

Definitions of Open on the Web (From Google)

• affording unobstructed entrance and exit; not shut or closed;

• affording free passage or access; • open to or in view of all;• accessible to all; • assailable: not defended or capable of being defended• loose: (of textures) full of small openings or gaps; • start to operate or function• not brought to a conclusion; • not sealed or having been unsealed

Open

• Ouvert – as in open door and no prerequisites• Gratis – as in no tuition fees• Libre – as in Free speech, ability to use, re-use,

remix

In what sense is UOC OPEN??

Openness

• A compelling sociological, psychological, legal and technological movement.

OER Developments at our institutions

• From Open Educational Resources to a culture of use and production of OERs

• EU Project POERUP (Policies for OER Uptake) policies of government and major institutional initiatives on OERs

• New private sector entrants – Pearson’s – resources, plus recommenders, plus data mining

Education technology

• Marginalized use• Resistance by teachers, students• Frustrations with past failures, and dashed

expectations• BUT Increasing capacity, new affordances,

increased usage in all aspects of networked society

Education was Based on Old Models of Scarcity

P. Banbury 2009

Ed Tech Today

• Mr Google in every pocket• Blended Classroom

– Blending best of classroom and online• Online Courses from most universities

– Access , Time and Place shifting• Flipped Classroom

– Content acquisition alone, at home– Learning objects, Khan Academy, Itune University– Classroom for collaboration

• Simulations, Massive Games, viral social networks

Enhanced Community Service Expectation

• Increased expectations– Degree inflation– Lifelong learning mandate– 21st Century skills– Too high tuition fees (at least in North America)– Value for taxpayer?

But What about MOOCs??

Dave Cormier’s What is a MOOC?

• All MOOCs are not the Same!!

MOOC Common Features

• Mooc is a course• Defined Curriculum or content?• “Big Data” mining potential• Substitute student-content and perhaps student-

student for student-teacher interaction • Maybe asynchronous, synchronous, mixed• Paced or self-paced• Up-sell of auxiliary products• Emerging credential options

» Invigilated exams, badges, private certification

cMOOCs (Connectivism)

• Content as a starting point, learners expected to expand and amplify through their own creations and connections

• Chaotic and emergent – ”course with no centre”• Role of Learner: “Learners expected to create, grow, expand

domain and share personal sense making through artifact construction” George Siemens

• Role of teacher: “Rather, what we are saying through this structure is that we, the course authors, will be studying these materials. And people are welcome to come along for the ride.” Downes

• “derived from a theory of learning based on engagement and interaction within a community of practitioners, without predetermined outcomes, and without a body of knowledge that we can simply ‘transfer’ to the learner.” Stephen Downes

Downes/Siemens cMOOC model

Downe’s Design for cMOOcs• Aggregation – from list of all possible and

resources, participants choose their own learning objects

• ReMix – Participants translate new information into relevant contexts

• Repurpose the work of other participants• Feedforward, archive in digital and open

formats for others to benefit

http://halfanhour.blogspot.com.es/2013/05/mooc-resurgence-of-community-in-online.html

20

Connectivist freedoms

• Locationwhere?

• Subject

what?• Time when?

• Approachhow (pedagogy, process)?

• Pace how fast?

• Sociabilitywith whom (if anyone)?

• Technology using what (medium/tools)?

• Delegability to authorize responsibility to another

setnet

group

notional levels of choice once a typical ‘course’ is in progress

cMOOCs conclusions

• Revolutionary, not evolutionary• Redefine role of teachers, learners and

education institutions• Too disruptive for teachers, students or

governments??

xMOOCs

• Traditional Teaching model (1st generation instructivist pedagogy)

• Canned video and computer marked quizzes and essays replacing student-teacher interaction

MOOC Participation Rates??

• Coursera Course Computational Investing, January 6, 2013 by Tucker Balch ,

• 53,265 enrolled • Completed the course:

– 4.8% of those who enrolled– 18% of those who took a quiz.– 39% of those who submitted the first project.

Duke University 33% registered students never logged on!

• “The students who drop out early do not add substantially to the cost of delivering the course”. The most expensive students are the ones who stick around long enough to take the final, and those are the ones most likely to pay for a certificate. Daphne Koller, Founder Coursera

• MOOCs substitute student-content interaction and in some cases student-student interaction for expensive student-teacher interaction.

The Interaction Equivalency Theorem Anderson (2003)

• Thesis 1. Deep and meaningful formal learning is supported as long as one of the three forms of interaction (student–teacher; student–student; student–content) is at a high level. The other two may be offered at minimal levels, or even eliminated, without degrading the educational experience.

• Thesis 2. High levels of more than one of these three modes will likely provide a more satisfying educational experience, although these experiences may not be as cost- or time effective as less interactive learning sequences.

　　　　　　See http://equivalencytheorem.info/ 27

28

Instructivist freedoms

• Locationwhere?

• Subject

what?• Time when?

• Approachhow (pedagogy, process)?

• Pace how fast?

• Sociabilitywith whom (if anyone)?

• Technology using what (medium/tools)?

• Delegability choosing to choose

setnet

group

From Dron, J. & Anderson, T. (2012) Keynote Networked Learning Conference

Social MOOC (sMOOCs)

• Use of social networks to:– enhance student-student interactions

• MeetUps, • Google Hangouts, • SecondLife, • recommendation systems

– Enhance student-teacher interactions• Recommendation systems• Asynchronus voice and video• Learning analytic feedback

30

Social constructivist freedoms

• Locationwhere?

• Subject

what?• Time when?

• Approachhow (pedagogy, process)?

• Pace how fast?

• Sociabilitywith whom (if anyone)?

• Technology using what (medium/tools)?

• Delegability choosing to choose

setnet

group

notional levels of choice once a typical course is in progress

xMOOCs cMOOCs UOC Educ Model

Pedagogy instructivist connectivist constructivist

Social Structure individual network group

Delegatability high low medium

Length Varies varies fixed

Focus Content Process learner

Anderson, T., & Dron, J. (2011). Revista Tecnología para el aprendizaje a través de tres generaciones de pedagogía a distancia mediada por tecnología. Mexicana de Bachillerato a Distancia, 6. Retrieved from http://bdistancia.ecoesad.org.mx/contenido/numeros/numero6/visionInter_01.html.

xMOOCs UOC

Accessibility 3 2

High Quality Content 2 2

Teaches Network literacy 2 3

Time Management 1 3

Content based on student context 1 3

Cooperation, internationalization 1 2

Cost to student 3 2

Accreditation 1 3

Rigorous, critical reflective work 2 3

Teacher, Mentor interaction and Assessment

1 3

Student and teacher use of & control of data

2 1

MOOC challenges to Online University

• Undercuts student costs• New online alternatives• Super star professor• Challenges the value of student-teacher and

student-content interaction• Reduces value of degree accreditation• Pressure to credential external learning

My Own recommendations:Enhanced assessment of open learning acquired anytime/anywhere

• University of London since 1858• Huge demand for authentication and certification

of knowledge• Meets integration and mobility goals of EU• Unique opportunity for UOC• Pioneered by WGU, North Dakota State,

Athabasca and others.• Remote invigilation needed anyways• Whole new market for UOC

Recommendations (cont.)

• MOOCs as social service– Targeting particular social or government needs– Demonstrating expertise and value add of modern

university

Ned Corbett – Man with the magic lantern, U of Alberta

MOOCs as Open Educational Resources (OERs)

• Very useful for remedial or exploration by registered students

• Allows more student control of pacing than traditional course

• Decrease in length of Coursera MOOCs

Recommendations:MOOCs as exposure to online learning

• Am I ready for University?• First unit of EVERY course as a MOOC??• How good are our courses??

• Prof. Renner:"MOOCs may well be the last stand in defense of academic freedom if knowledge is to increasingly belong in the public domain, and not increasingly become a commodity. ……We must own and use MOOCs to elevate general public knowledge to be an effective civic moderator of wealth, power and belief.

• Slides on SlideShare:

• https://landing.athabascau.ca

• terrya@athabascau.ca• Terrya.edublogs.org