the moocs arrive: how will extensive monetization impact open educational resources?

The MOOCs Arrive: How Will Extensive Monetization Impact Open

Educational Resources?

Robert E. CummingsUniversity of Mississippi, USA

Online Educa29 November 2012

Preliminary Draft Publication 18 October 2012.This work is licensed under a

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/





Preliminary Draft Publication 18 October 2012. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

Q: Why is there a sudden wave of U.S. interest in OER and Online Education?

A: University of Virginia.On 11 June 2012, UVA’s Board of Visitors removed its President. On 26 June 2012, after roughly two weeks of student and faculty demonstrations, the Governor of Virginia ordered the Board to reappoint the President.The squabble was triggered by MOOCs – Massive Open Online Courses.

Image Source: Inside Higher Ed


“Building A Search Engine”Sebastian ThrunFormer Stanford Research Professor. Currently Google Fellow. Developed Google’s self-driving car, Project Glass.

David EvansAssociate Professor of Computer ScienceUniversity of Virginia

Image Source: Charlie Rose

Image Source: University of Virginia


• Motivation was “Taking the University to the world,” and inspired by Khan academy.• Took a traditional class and put it online by flipping it: all content was placed on

Youtube the form of short lectures, linked by quizzes.• 160,000 students enrolled beyond Stanford.• 170 of 200 traditional Stanford students stopped coming to class, citing the fact that

videos were a “safer place to fail,” could be rewound, and were a more interactive way to learn.

• Digital media experience is structured around the learner, who doesn’t advance without mastery (compare to “C” grade in traditional education). Thrun says he received thousands of e-mails from students who “feel good about themselves” compared to traditional higher education experience.

• Communities of users spring up around courses to translate content, discuss, and tutor.

• Graduated 23,000 at Stanford level quality. Midterm and final exams. • Cost students outside Stanford 1 -2% of enrolled students’ cost.

http://www.udacity.com/

Unbundling of Multiple Elements• Learning theory: First OER were simply

filming lectures and placing them online, c.f., placing an early film camera in front of a play. Now we see the application of self-directed web interface.

• Credentialing: Earlier projects such as MIT Open Courseware, offered no credentials. Thrun broke that mold with his certificates.

• Costs: The world wants higher education, but only a slight percentage can move to a traditional campus.

• What is higher education? A chance to be mentored by a professor, wash your own laundry, make lifelong friends, and enter a new social club? Or a chance to learn skills for a better job?

Image Source: http://liangsun.org

Preliminary Draft Publication 18 October 2012. This work is licensed under a Creative

Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License


Characteristics of University Teaching(Adapted from Unlocking the Gates by Taylor Walsh)

Traditional Degree Programs

Online Degree Programs

Open Educational Resources

Massive Open Online Courses

Course Materials Course Materials Course Materials Course Materials

In-person Online Online FTF and Online

Enrolled students Enrolled students Non-enrolled students

Enrolled and Non-enrolled students

Credit-bearing Credit-bearing Non-credit bearing ? Credit-bearing

Instruction Instruction ? Instruction ? Instruction

Fee-based Fee-based ? Fee-based ? Fee-based

Example Projects(Adapted from Unlocking the Gates by Taylor Walsh)

Traditional Degree Programs

Online Degree Programs

Open Educational Resources

Massive Open Online Courses



http://www.udacity.com/


The Big QuestionsMichael Saylor, CEO of Microstrategy and author of The Mobile Wave: How Mobile Intelligence Will Change Everything, comments:

“In the fourth wave of computing, the internet wave, about 5% of the economy was automated. In the fifth wave, we’ll see 50% of the economy de-materialize. Things like a video camera, a tape recorder, a magazine . . . they used to be products. Now they’re icons on a screen. An education used to be a service provided by people. Education is now de-materializing to become something off Wikipedia, or Kahn Academy, or off of Youtube. And as those products and services de-materialize, there is a corresponding rise in software application networks, most of them emanating out of the United States, in English, denominated in dollars, oftentimes reflecting American or Western values.”

Image Source: Charlie Rose


The Big Questions

Phase 1: OER •Heretofore, our efforts within the traditional OER community have focused around moving information online. Let’s call that Phase 1 of OER.

Phase 2: OEP

•Once a substantial number of projects were freely available online, we started to look at under-utilization of these resources. Doing so required us to ask complex questions about the motivations of learners and the meaning of higher education. We had the content, but content alone did not attract a significant number of learners.

The Big Questions



Phase 3?

•Does the arrival of MOOCs signal a new third phase?

Projects such as Thrun’s “Building a Search Engine” have finally moved a substantial number of learners to freely available materials.

The Big Questions

But are those results replicable?

Will it promote non-traditional learning over traditional

Is the emergence of MOOCs the first example of Saylor’s 5th wave, or the complete “de-materialization” of education?



The Big QuestionsThe current state of OER is similar to that of a community who has experienced a radical scientific breakthrough.

One researcher -- Thrun , in our case -- has solved the OER to OEP problem with seemingly spectacular results.

He has published these results.

Now, we are in the position of trying to duplicate his experiment.

And in so doing, we are learning what is replicable, and what is not.




What Questions do MOOCs Create for the Traditional OER Community?

Opportunities:

•How could we use the popularity of MOOCs to increase awareness of traditional OER?

•What is the role of consortia who currently offer credentials with OER, such as OERu?

•What is the path for for-profits in higher eduication?

Threats:

•Will traditional OER be left behind?

•How does OER or MOOCs affect students currently enrolled in traditional higher education?

•How does traditional higher education credential OER learning?

•PLAR?


What Questions do MOOCs Create for the Traditional OER Community?

Weaknesses:Thrun’s project combined his reputation as a genius, Stanford’s reputation as a world wide leader in higher education, and a very marketable course topic to entice 160,000 students. How do we replicate all of these aspects of Thrun’s course? Do we need to?

Strengths:Hasn’t the traditional OER community already duplicated these very elements? Can we not duplicated Thrun’s results by simply calling attention to existing resources?


Works CitedDaniel, Sir John. “Making Sense of MOOCs: Musings in a Maze of Myth, Paradox, and Possibility.” Web. 1 Oct 2012.Saylor, Michael. Interview by Charlie Rose. Charlie Rose. PBS. 17 Oct. 2012. charlierose.com. Web. 18 Oct 2012.Sun, Liang. “My Certificates for CS101 And CS373 @ Udacity.” Next Spaceship: Computer, Technology, and Something Else. N.p. 24

April 2012. Web. 18 Oct. 2012.Thrun, Sebastian. Interview by Charlie Rose. Charlie Rose. 25 April 2012. charlierose.com. Web. 18 Oct 2012.Walsh, Taylor. Unlocking the Gates: How and Why Universities are Opening Up their Courses. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2011.Weller, Keith. Alchemist. n.d. Wikimedia Commons. jpeg file.

the moocs arrive: how will extensive monetization impact open educational resources?

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