Wha’s a MOOC?

A Personal Reflection

Jon Harman

                                               :  h$p://uk.linkedin.com/in/jonharman1075                          :  @kao:coddchild      

2008

I was awake a lot at night

2008

Choices, choices…..

or

Back in 2008

Learning Technologists were like…..

https://vimeo.com/85465281

Learning was King

More interesting > a delivery concept

But  the  apocalypse/  avalanche/  storm  [insert  change  narra6ve]  

had  started  !  

Sebastian Thrun Did Proclaim!

Innovative disruption was nigh….

It was…….

and EVERYONE was…….

https://vimeo.com/85465282

All over so quick?

déjà vu ? “Promoters of instructional technology and ‘distance learning’ advanced with ideological bravado as well as institutional power…. They had merely to proclaim ‘it’s the future’ to throw skeptics on the defensive and convince seasoned educators that they belonged in the dustbin of history…..and sound bites about the imminent demise of the ‘sage on the stage’ and ‘bricks and mortar institutions.’”

David Noble, Digital Diploma Mills: The Automation of Higher Education (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2001)

So what did we learn ?

http://followersoftheapocalyp.se/education_is_broken/

https://vimeo.com/85465651

(Presentation within a Presentation)

Were we good at design and planning before?

•  The majority of staff responding to a 2009 survey believed that the process of creating a course was becoming more complex

•  50% believed that it was becoming harder for them to understand how all the parts of planned learning & teaching fit together and almost 75% agreed that there was a need for clearer methods of representing the structure and key components of a course.

•  There was strong belief in the educational potential of ICT (87%) but confidence that this potential would be realised was weaker (50%)

Cross, S., Clark, P. and Brasher, A. (2009). Survey of staff perceptions, practice and attitudes of learning design. Available http://oro.open.ac.uk/32037/

So Pedagogy?

MOOCs Through a Learning Design Lens

The MOOC Learning Design Project (Weller et al): http://ld.h817open.net/ld1/

The MOOC Learning Design Project (Weller et al): http://ld.h817open.net/ld1/

!!

Laurillard (2013)

Isn’t This:

Still This:

45%  of  students    "did  not  demonstrate  any  significant  improvement  in  learning"  

during  the  first  two  years  of  college  in  the  US.      -­‐  Arum  &  Roksa

Digital  tools  and  challenges  to  ins6tu6onal  tradi6ons  of  learning  –  Saljo  (2010)  

to learn something is to be able to convert information stored in the expanding external symbolic storages of our social memory into something that is new, interesting and consequential for a practice or an issue. The implications of such a metaphorical construction of learning will have to be worked out within the educational system and its instructional practices. It does not follow from a mere introduction of new technologies.  

Completion Rates Headlines!

Do enrollment numbers relate to completers? Yes - the more people who enrol then the lower the percentage who complete.

Activity Important! – well there is a significant negative correlation between number of active users and the percentage who complete

University reputation has no effect on completion rates

Does the course length have an impact on completion? The longer your course, the lower the percentage who see it through.

http://nogoodreason.typepad.co.uk/no_good_reason/2013/12/completion-data-for-moocs.html http://www.katyjordan.com/MOOCproject.html

K.Jordan (2013)

Certification/ Prior Learning Headlines!

5% of all registrants earned a certificate of completion. 35% never viewed any of the course materials. 54% of those who “explored” at least half of the course content earned a certificate of completion. 66% of all registrants already held a bachelor’s degree or higher. 74% of those who earned a certificate of completion held a bachelor’s degree or higher.

Harvard & MITx: 1st Year of Open On Online Courses (2014) http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2381263

Mo:va:on  Dynamics  

http://pushingattheedges.wordpress.com/2014/01/25/moocs-content-curation-learning-what-motivates-me/

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience - Csikszentmihalyi (1990)

Coursera Partner Institutions: $50k to run/ produce a MOOC

Mid 2012: VC Funding round for Coursera = $22 million

Mid 2013: Further Funding round for Coursera = $40 million

General rule: Don’t dilute shares unless you need the money

Coursera’s Burn Rate: $1.5 - $2million/ month

Signature Track: Single Revenue stream = $1million in 1st ¾ of 2013

Expenditure: $1.5 - $2million/ month Income: $100k per month.

http://higheredstrategy.com/the-future-of-moocs-coursera-and-edx/

…and Sebastian Thrun Did Whisper….

“not many people complete MOOCs, and making them pay is a good incentiviser, so he's making Udacity an elearning corporate training company.” http://nogoodreason.typepad.co.uk/no_good_reason/2013/11/stop-me-if-you-think-youve-heard-this-one-before.html

Where do MOOCs take us ?

Digital  Publishers  &  Content  

MOOCs  &  PlaVorms  

replicable content from the interaction and assessment pole

interaction and assessment from the replicable content pole. U

nive

rsiti

es?

Learning  Analy6cs  &  Adap6ve/Personalisa6on  Tools  

Learning  Design  &  Pedagogy  Profiling  Tools  

! !

Have we reinvented the Wheel?

A shift from the class seen as an event; to the class seen as a designed (and somewhat replicable) learning environment. It subverts traditional models of labour, and has the potential to radically change what we mean by education.

Learning and Performance Support Systems

http://halfanhour.blogspot.no/2013/12/learning-and-performance-support-systems.html

A new $19 million 5-year initiative at the National Research Council lead by Stephen Downes

Learning as a Cloud Service – will create a distributed learning layer, which is a mechanism for working with data no matter where it is stored, through desktop, mobile and other devices. Resource Repository Network – will create a resource graph of learning/training resources data from multiple sources and multiple formats including live and dynamic data such as workplace data, plant instrumentation, or market information. Personal Learning Record – will define how we represent, capture, and leverage user activity, including ratings, test results, performance measures, and the like, in a distributed learning and work environment. Automated Competence Development and Recognition – whereas existing recommender systems depend on manually defined metrics and taxonomies, this system will detect new and emerging competences and automatically assess employee performance. Personal Learning Assistant – will develop an integrated learning appliance, a mechanism for looking up or finding references or resources inside other programs or environments.

http://halfanhour.blogspot.no/2013/12/learning-and-performance-support-systems.html

Maybe Certification becomes less important?

What is a Higher Education for?

http://www.slideshare.net/PSFK/psfk-presents-future-of-work-report

http://www.lawwithoutwalls.org/lwow-x/ http://apolyglotworld.com/add1signup http://www.curatr3.com/massive-open-online-courses/

My Online Learning Journey Continues……

e: kaoticoddchild@gmail.com Skype: kaoticoddchild

That’s  All  Folks!