Dr. George Veletsianos Canada Research Chair in Innovative Learning & Technology

Associate Professor School of Education and Technology

Royal Roads University

The messy realities of learning and participation in open courses

Canada's Collaboration for Online Higher Education and Research Conference (COHERE) October 24, 2013

School of Education and Technology http://tinyurl.com/RRUMALAT

What does this have to do with Open Learning & Open Participation?

Key takeaway #1:

•  No single narrative can describe what happens in open learning environments

Key takeaways #2 to #4

•  The MOOC phenomenon is a symptom of chronic failures/issues

•  We lack a complete understanding of what happens “on the ground” with open learning/participation

•  The realities of open learning/participation are messy.

•  We need more research on experiences & practices associated with openness

The MOOC

•  My experience with MOOCs

•  What do MOOCs represent?

•  MOOCs are not just courses

•  I prefer the terms “MOOC phenomenon” because MOOCs represent something broader than massive open online courses.

•  What is that something?

The MOOC phenomenon as a symptom

•  MOOCs are “the billion $$ solution to a problem we haven’t identified yet.” (Siemens, 2013) –  A historically accurate perspective.

•  “The history of our field is replete with bandwagons, new technologies that were the temporal panaceas... Bandwagons are solutions in search of problems” (Choi & Reeves, 2013).

•  “[C]omputer-based ITS have been solutions in search of problems. This has resulted in a variety of misguided or unnecessary lessons that do little more than pay homage to the latest technological trend” (Hooper & Hannafin, 1991).

If the MOOC phenomenon is not a solution, what is it?

•  A “symptom of a larger problem” (Marquis, 2013)

•  A “symptom of the HE crisis” (Kendzior, 2013) •  A “symptom of the absence of educational

ambition among politicians” (Newfield, 2013) •  “A symptom of change” (Stewart, 2013) •  A symptom of “the seismic shifts that are

taking place in our profession” (Taylor, 2012) •  A symptom of “society’s degraded approach

to knowledge” (Leddy, 2013) •  “One symptom of openness” (Batson, 2013)

If the MOOC phenomenon is not a solution, what is it?

•  I propose that the MOOC phenomenon is a symptom of: – Economic pressures – Political pressures – Privatization pressures – Educators’ failures to create their own solutions

for educational problems – Lack of impact of educational technology

research on learning design – Lack of impact of educational technology

scholarship (to share our findings, to make meaningful contributions to practice).

Yet, the MOOC phenomenon has made some contributions

•  Elevated the profile of online education •  Raised the profile of free (perhaps open?)

education •  Elevated the profile of teaching (Collier,

2013) •  Exerted pressure on HE institutions to

innovate •  Provided impetus for more collaboration

within HE (e.g., at the institutional level)

Hence…

The MOOC phenomenon

What happens “on the ground” with open learning/participation?

•  Caveat – Open courses vs. “Open” courses vs. Open

learning/participation

•  Learners report – benefiting from open course participation

(Hilton, Graham, Rich, & Wiley, 2010) – Facing a number of obstacles (Mackness et al,

2011)

What happens “on the ground” with open learning/participation?

•  Institutional MOOCs demonstrate low completion rates, <10% (Jordan, 2013)

•  Big Data & Learning Analytics research question traditional understanding of “completion” – Learners exhibit varied participation behaviors

(e.g., auditing, completing, disengaging, sampling) (Kizilcec, Piech, & Schneider, 2013)

– Koller et al. (2013) argue that participants may not necessarily intent to complete a course

What happens “on the ground” with open learning/participation?

•  How does the research on scholars’ online participation inform research on open online learning? –  Networked Participatory Scholarship: “scholars’ use of participatory

technologies and online social networks to share, reflect upon, critique, improve, validate, and further their scholarship” (Veletsianos & Kimmons, 2012)

–  What do scholars do on Twitter? (Veletsianos, 2012) –  What activities and practices do scholars enact online and what does

that tell us about identity (Veletsianos, 2013) –  What tensions arise when participating in online networks (Veletsianos &

Kimmons, 2013; Kimmons & Veletsianos, under review)

What happens “on the ground” with open learning/participation?

•  We lack an evidence-based understanding of experiences with all open forms of learning/scholarship •  Majority of the research on open online learning

conducted to date has been survey-based, focused on learner behavior, and guided by tracking online behaviors

•  Reports from institutional offices are helpful, but we need in-depth studies

What happens “on the ground” with open learning/participation?

•  Need multiple methodologies: •  Macro (Kizilcec, Piech, Schneider, 2013)

•  Auditing, Completing, Disengaging, Sampling •  Micro (Ota, 2013)

•  “[I was] left with a partial sense of accomplishment and feelings of hollowness and incompleteness.”

•  In the frenzy surrounding the rise of “edtech” and MOOCs, it seems that student voices and experiences are rarely considered.

What is it like to participate in open online learning?

Veletsianos, G. (2013). Learner Experiences with MOOCs and Open Online Learning. Hybrid Pedagogy. Retrieved on Sept 29, 2013 from http://learnerexperiences.hybridpedagogy.com.

Results

•  Learners –  questioned institutional/instructor commitment, –  identified a need for improved instructional design, –  praised responsive MOOC instructors, –  criticized instructors who were not visible, –  valued course flexibility and denounced course rigidity, –  appreciated the opportunities for open learning.

Results

•  Learners –  questioned institutional/instructor commitment, –  identified a need for improved instructional design, –  praised responsive MOOC instructors, –  criticized instructors who were not visible, –  valued course flexibility and denounced course rigidity, –  appreciated the opportunities for open learning.

Results

•  Learners –  questioned institutional/instructor commitment, –  identified a need for improved instructional design, –  praised responsive MOOC instructors, –  criticized instructors who were not visible, –  valued course flexibility and denounced course rigidity, –  appreciated the opportunities for open learning.

Results

•  Learners –  questioned institutional/instructor commitment, –  identified a need for improved instructional design, –  praised responsive MOOC instructors, –  criticized instructors who were not visible, –  valued course flexibility and denounced course rigidity, –  appreciated the opportunities for open learning.

Results

•  Learners –  questioned institutional/instructor commitment, –  identified a need for improved instructional design, –  praised responsive MOOC instructors, –  criticized instructors who were not visible, –  valued course flexibility and denounced course rigidity, –  appreciated the opportunities for open learning.

Results

•  Learners –  questioned institutional/instructor commitment, –  identified a need for improved instructional design, –  praised responsive MOOC instructors, –  criticized instructors who were not visible, –  valued course flexibility and denounced course rigidity, –  appreciated the opportunities for open learning.

Results

•  Learners –  questioned institutional/instructor commitment, –  identified a need for improved instructional design, –  praised responsive MOOC instructors, –  criticized instructors who were not visible, –  valued course flexibility and denounced course rigidity, –  appreciated the opportunities for open learning.

Summary

•  The realities of open online learning are different from the hopes of open online learning.

•  We only have small pieces of an incomplete mosaic of students’ learning experiences with open online learning.

Where do we go from here?

Design experiences – not products.

What do we want open learning experiences to look like?

What systems can we design to realize these experiences?

Thank you!

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