MOOCs: More Questions Than Answers

MOOCs: More Questions Than Answers

ASERL April 23, 2013

Catherine Murray-Rust

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Combination of information about MOOCs at Duke from Deborah Jakubs and Lynne O’Brien, information about MOOCs at Georgia Tech, and comments/questions about

Library resources to support MOOCsAcademic credit and degree approvalsChanges in classroom education

This presentation This presentation

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Some of the MOOC Companies/PartnershipsSome of the MOOC Companies/Partnerships

Coursera—partners with 62 global universities, does not plan to offer degrees, revenue is generated from licensing courses and job placements, $26 million

Udacity—no traditional university partnerships yet, partners with San Jose State to pilot for-credit online courses, focus on computer science and business, revenue generated from job placements, $21+million

edX—Harvard and MIT are founding partners, plus ten university partners including the University of Texas system, revenue source unknown, $60+ million, including $5 million from UT and Berkeley

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Duke UniversityDuke University

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MOOCs at DukeMOOCs at Duke

• 11 courses developed and taught in 2012-13 (2 re-launched so far)

• 13 Duke faculty (and 1 UNC) from 13 departments and 5 schools

• 623K (non-unique) registrations across all Duke courses

• Significant positive feedback• Rapidly changing technology

and educational models

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• Center for Instructional Technology consultants & tech support

• Librarians • Scholarly

Communications intern• Assessment specialist• Liaison to OIT, Provost’s

Office, other groups

Library:

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Looking aheadLooking ahead

• Experimenting with for-credit courses that have some of the same library challenges as MOOCs

• Additional 15 – 20 MOOCs next year• Shifting to more experimental models• Promoting open access publishing and use of open

access materials• No boundaries between course, textbooks, library

resources, learning activities

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Georgia TechGeorgia Tech

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Georgia Tech’s MOOC ExperienceGeorgia Tech’s MOOC Experience

• Udacity– Three courses under development

• Coursera– registration underway for eight courses, enrollment to

date is over 300,000– Three Gates funded general education courses are ready

to be released, English Composition, Physics 101, and Introductory Psychology

– 10-15 more courses under development– Non-exclusive agreement

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Georgia Tech PartnersGeorgia Tech Partners

• Center for the 21st Century University• Distance Learning and Professional Education• Council on Educational Technology• Provost’s Office• Office of Information Technology• Center for Teaching and Learning• Library (to a limited degree so far)

Issues of sustainability, organization, scale, and funding

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Access to Library Resources Access to Library Resources

Concerns about students not having access to the best sources and new forms of scholarly communication because of pay walls, corporate agreements, and export controls

Growing awareness of rights issues in MOOC communityDiscussions about licensing directly from publishersReliance on open access sources may encourage faculty to

be more aware of retaining their rights and depositing publications in an open repository

Lawsuit potential

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• American Council on Education – Five courses approved for credit

• State university systems– California proposal – Less expensive college degrees – State funding being used for out of state/international

students– Disaggregating degrees ?

• Regional accrediting bodies are beginning to weigh in– SACS (if it includes academic credit, we are involved)– NC—may have to reapprove degrees

Course Credit and Degree ApprovalCourse Credit and Degree Approval

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Two Cheers for Web U! (A.J. Jacobs)Two Cheers for Web U! (A.J. Jacobs)

• Professors B+• Convenience A• Teacher-to-student interaction D• Student-to-student interaction B-• Assignments B-• Overall experience B

– New York Times, Sunday April 20, 2013

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Changing Classroom Education? Changing Classroom Education?

Just as librarians need to re-imagine what a library is

without books, faculty need to redefine how they use face-to-face classroom time

Seven mini-hub experimentsFlipped classroomsProblem-based learningEmbedded librarians