edX MOOC The Wave of the Educational Future Fawcett Dunstan OMDE

What kind of OCoP is this?  EdX is a non-profit massive open online course (MOOC) and was founded by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University in May  Its mission is to offer high quality online college-level courses at no charge to students worldwide.  The focus is on learning and research.

What is its history?  Anant Agarwal, the president of edX, taught the first course on edX for MIT on circuits and electronics, and 155,000 students enrolled from 162 countries. He is a professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT.  There several executives who are in charge of certain aspects of edX, including making the structure scalable, applying technology to optimize learning, marketing, and overseeing legal, financial, and educational services.

What is its History?  EdX was preceded by several MOOCs, including:  The ALISON Company, founded in 2007, and which is regarded as the first MOOC.  Udacity, a for profit university, which was founded in 2011 to mirror Stanford University’s AI course.  Coursera, which was developed to offer two Stanford University courses, but now offers courses from many universities (“edX,” 2013).

What makes this OCoP successful?  EdX has 1.2 million users (“edX,” 2013), and these huge numbers are a key factor in proving its success. The opposite of success would be “dead and abandoned online communities (Harasim, 2012, p. 150).  It is highly interactive. The lessons are interactive, and there are virtual environments and simulators for students to practice real-life scenarios. The discussion feature allows students to communicate with others about projects (edX, 2013).

What makes this OCoP successful? (Continued)  Although edX’s model is more traditional, in that the faculty’s knowledge is at the center of the learning platform (Siemens, 2012), the students do contribute to advancing knowledge by participating in labs, simulators, and essay writing (edX, 2013). The first course, developed by its president, featured students building virtual circuits in an online lab.  In this way, then, the knowledge that students are acquiring is “dynamic” in that it rests in the learning, relationship between the students in the class, and the tools that they use to advance that knowledge (Harasim, 2012, p. 143).

What DE theories contribute to this success?  Both the Online Collaborative Theory (OCL)and the Connectivist Theory underpin the edX learning model. Students are digitally networked with other students around the world, as well as with their instructor, and knowledge is disseminated. This online collaboration with others, which stresses created knowledge and using digital communication tools, is at the heart of the Online Collaborative Theory (Harasim, 2012, p. 81). Students participate in online peer grading, and in discussion forums, students can post and evaluate inquiries and explanations to each other and teaching assistants. It seems similar to this OMDE 610 course.

What DE theories contribute to this success?(Continued)  Additionally, in a collaborative framework, the tutorial videos simulate small-group campus discussions.  These learning activities in edX, which advance the dissemination of knowledge, is also a feature of the Connectivist Theory (Siemens, 2012).  Downes (2005) describes connective knowledge as the knowledge of one source becoming the knowledge of another source. In this way, the knowledge from the professor at edX is distributed to the masses that he or she teaches. It is connective.

What DE theories contribute to this success?(Continued)  Another feature of edX that is supported by both the OCL and Connectivist Learning Theories is its emphasis on innovation. The fact that students from all over the world may have access to Ivy League professors from the nation’s most prestigious universities, free of charge, is innovation enough, but the learning is quite innovative with videos, wikis, game-like labs, and 3D molecular builders (edX, 2013).

What DE theories contribute to this success?(Continued)  Innovation is an important aspect of OCL, and “the new ways of doing things as well as doing new things” is at the theory’s focus (Harasim, 2012, p. 82). Siemens (2012) refers to this type of innovation as “multispaced” because of the many different technologies that are used in MOOCs. EdX is innovative in that it incorporates many different types of technologies.

How does it function?  Harasim (2012) discusses indicators that signal successful functioning of Online Communities of Practice (OCoP):  Quantitative data—Is it the OcoP functioning and alive? EdX is active, with thousands of students in classes at a time.  Social indicators, which include a sense of community, interaction, and student satisfaction— EdX, like many other MOOCs, has a large student body in each course, but students engage with each other on the discussion forums, and many do peer-to-peer assessments.

How does it function? (Continued)  While user satisfaction seems to be one of the indicators for success, according to Harasim (2012), it is not clear how satisfied students are with edX. The fact that many students are still enrolling in edX courses may indicate some level of satisfaction.

How does it function? (Continued)  Intellectual indicators, which include developing ideas, organizing ideas, and reflecting—although edX is built on a more traditional model, where the instructor is at the center of learning, and the students learn from the instructor, there is still quite a bit of idea generation, idea organization, and reflection in discussion forums.

How does it function? (Continued)  Moderator discourse—in edX, the moderator is at the center of the course, and there are video clips with the instructor introducing the week’s topic. It is not evident the extent to which the instructor moderates the online discussions, however.

How does it function?  Technological indicators—Harasim (2012) indicates that online community forums are necessary for student involvement, and edX has made the discussion forums one of the main places for students to interact with each other online (edX, 2013). Wikis are also used for group projects, and a space called “Meetup” is used for students to socialize and interact with each other.

How does this OCoP contribute to learning and building knowledge?  EdX, along with other MOOCs, is revolutionizing how accessible higher education is to people worldwide. With the enrollment of the first edX course topping over 150,000 (with learning anywhere, any time—and free), edX is transforming the traditional forms of learning. Ivy league professors from Harvard University and MIT, who would normally be out of reach to average or poor students, are now just a click away with edX.

How would you monitor or assess the success of this OCoP?  One of the first ways that I would monitor or assess the success of edX is checking in to see if it still alive at five-year intervals. As Harasim (2012) notes, there are many abandoned learning communities online (p. 150).  Another way that I would assess the success of edX is from the student satisfaction surveys when they become available. Harasim (2012) mentions that user satisfaction supports social and intellectual indicators (p. 152).

How would you monitor or assess the success of this OCoP?  Still another indication of success would be if students continue to enroll in edX in large numbers and an emphasis on community building continues and is managed well despite the large class size (Harasim, 2012, p. 153).  Finally, another indication for me on the success of edX is whether or not the courses that students take and the certificates they receive actually lead to being hired at desirable workplaces. In other words, I would like to see employers actively recruiting workers who are successful in these edX courses.

Conclusion  EdX is a good alternative to traditional higher education, and the price cannot be beaten, but further studies are needed to show how many students actually complete the courses. Additionally, more answers are needed on what students do with the knowledge that they gain from taking these courses. Do they use the knowledge to gain better pay, better jobs, or just more knowledge for personal satisfaction?

References  Downes, S. (2005, December 22). An introduction to connective knowledge [Web log post]. Retrieved from  EdX. (2013, September 17). How it works. [website]. Retrieved from works. works  Harasim, L. (2012). Learning theory and online technologies. New York: Routledge.  Siemens, G. (2012). What is the theory that underpins our MOOCs? (2003, June 3). [Web log post]. Retrieved from theory-that-underpins-our-moocs/. theory-that-underpins-our-moocs/  Edx. (2013, November 5). In Wikipedia. Retrieved from