1. What is Necessary and what is Contingent in Design for Massive Open Online Courses? George Roberts Marion Waite Jenny Mackness Elizabeth Lovegrove 20/07/2012 HEA/JISC OER Phase 3 – OERs for PGCERTs strand project: “OpenLine”

2. Outline The higher ed buzzword of the year… (Bon Stewart) Questions MOOC background – Old MOOCs, New MOOCs – Our MOOC First Steps into Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (FSLT12) Design considerations Evaluation Discussion

3. Questions What do you need (platform – and other - components) to conduct a MOOC? – And, what is nice-to-have but not necessary? How are those aspects related to the subject of the course? What guidance can be offered about appropriate design for conducting MOOCs? Can we arrange the room for discussion

4. MOOC BACKGROUND Old MOOCs, New MOOCs Our MOOC First Steps into Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (FSLT12) Design considerations … the key difference between the two kinds of MOOCs is one of underlying of ideology (Peter Sloep http://bit.ly/LBwImp )http://bit.ly/LBwImp

5. Old MOOCs from 2008 MOOCs were … were intended to be a challenge to the traditional notion of a course (Jenny Mackness) Explicit pedagogical perspective – Social constructivist, dialogic, actor networks Distributed, open source platform components – Wikis, WordPress, Moodle Intentional social media conversations – Twitter, Facebook, Blogs Open challenge to institutions – Access, environment, IPR, assessment

7. New MOOCs from 2011 When the cavalry charge is being led by the most prestigious higher ed institutions … it is hard to imagine it will all blow over… (Bon Stewart) Tacit pedagogical perspective – Instructivist, cognitivist, pragmatic, realist, – Authentic: employment oriented Consolidated platforms – Incidental social media Institutional counter-position – Elite, neo-colonial (?) The other kind of MOOC embraces a simple business ideology, and as such is almost the antithesis to the first kind. Peter Sloep http://bit.ly/LBwImp http://bit.ly/LBwImp

9. Recipient-design Learner centred focus Social-constructivist “old” MOOCs – Focus on the process of learning itself – Take a radical, recipient-design approach based on Autonomy, diversity, openness, networks, interactivity, connectivity

10. Learning processes Aggregate – Filter, select and gather information meaningful to the individual, Remix – Interpret this information bringing one’s own perspective and insights, Repurpose – Refashion it to suit individual purposes, and then Feed forward – Share it with other participants, to learn from each other

11. Referee design Topic focus Instructivist “new” MOOCs – Certain approach to subject-area knowledge – Characterised by referee design focus on Learning outcomes, Subject knowledge, Codified by authorities, Interpreted by the instructor

12. Learning processes Didactic – Exposition through video, audio and text Structured – Guided discussion with facilitation Practical – Exercises simulations, laboratories – Work-based Assessed – Multiple choice, short answer

13. Two kinds of platform But what about the technology? (Audry Watters) Instructivist MOOCs – Consolidated or unified approach presents all the course elements in a single “wrapper” Constructivist MOOCs – Distributed approach uses a selection of available tools in their “native” guise.

14. Our MOOC First Steps into Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (FSLT12)

15. Some Data 160 Registered 60 active participants – 20 assessed places – 12/14 completed assessment 19 participants consented for ‘research & evaluation

16. Three topic areas We learn from each other, in conversation First steps curriculum UK Professional Standards Framework (UKPSF) Open Academic Practice

18. First Steps Curriculum Open content (http://bit.ly/NC7pPu )http://bit.ly/NC7pPu Asynchronous discussion forums Derived from New Lecturers Programme – 6 topics Supporting Learning Reflective Practice Teaching Groups Feedback Lecturing Evaluation

19. http://bit.ly/NC7pPu

21. UKPSF Descriptor Level 1 (Associate Fellow) – Threaded throughout Areas of Activity – Design and plan learning activities – Teach and support learning – Engage in continuing professional development Core Knowledge – Subject knowledge – Teaching methods – Use and value of appropriate learning technology

22. Open Academic Practice Programme of guest speakers Live synchronous (and recorded) audiographic sessionsrecorded – Introduction to open academic practice – Role of openness in transforming practice – Theory pedagogy and community – Open educational resources (OER) and their impact on teachers

23. Assessment Activities Diagnostic/formative Summative 1.Initial reflective statement aligned with UKPSF 2.Collaborative annotated bibliography 3.Microteaching

25. Learning outcomes Were not specified at the course level! – “The course aims to develop and extend your knowledge, understanding and skills of teaching and learning in higher education.” – “A key principle of the course is learner autonomy” – “… encourage participant interaction and open sharing of resources, learning, thoughts and ideas.”

26. Platform elements WordPress Moodle – With a tabbed interface thanks to Joe Rosa Collaborate – Thanks to Sylvia Currie and the SCOPE community Blog aggregator – With bespoke CSS - Also thanks to Joe

27. Questions What do you need (platform – and other - components) to conduct a MOOC? – And, what is nice-to-have but not necessary? How are those aspects related to the subject of the course? What guidance can be offered about appropriate design for conducting MOOCs? Can we arrange the room for discussion

28. EVALUATION

31. Evaluation purpose Feedback to funders – Development of OERs – Adoption of open academic practice by participants – Professional development for new lecturers Course Evaluation – What worked well? – What could be improved?

32. Evaluation methodology UREC approval Online course evaluation questionnaire Online synchronous focus groups Face-to-face/online semi-structured individual interviews for target group Other (tbc) e-mail interviews, blog, twitter, discussion forum analysis

33. Some comments I thought the organization of the MOOC was excellent, clear schedules, and great support. This MOOC surpassed my expectations in terms of content and engagement. The "live virtual classrooms" really made the difference. It was a challenging as much as enriching experience. Challenging because it was the first time for me to engage with a MOOC…; enriching because I learnt a lot from the experience on a number of different levels It was illuminating and empowering at the same time to learn in such a clear way the value of CPD, reflection and what professionalism means.

34. Some more comments As I am very new to the MOOC learning, I was at first a bit lost as it was such an multi-channel learning, incorporating listening, reading, discussion, thinking etc all most at the same time Exhausting and quite stressful to enjoyable and rewarding in equal measure Having initially felt overwhelmed by the 'on- line' learning experience, I feel that I have gained new knowledge and understanding in relation to the benefits of collaboration and interactive learning. Having taken a number of MOOCs this one encouraged my participation at a more thoughtful level than previous sessions.

35. And more… I don't like the use of different sites - it is very confusing. I missed three days posts because I did not realise that I had to sign up to all forums. assessed students were the real students and we other on the border The micro teach was not clear and the organisation was a little late somehow it was strangely difficult to find what I was looking for on the course pages. In retrospect it all worked well but I remember feeling at the time a bit lost as regards the Moodle site.

36. #FSLT 12 Focus Groups Organization of MOOC – How to support navigation thorough and across the platforms Assessment – How can we best meet the needs of assessed & non-assessed participants? – Equity & Criteria Use of technology/activities – Balance of synchronous & asynchronous activities & best use of each Inclusive Practice – Common phenomenon in MOOCs for participants to feel ‘lost’ and ‘unsupported’. – Intended audience of #FSLT12 was ‘the novice’. How could we have been more inclusive throughout?

37. Focus Group

38. Organisation of MOOC/ Navigation ‘getting over that initial concern’ ‘personal efforts’ ‘establish participant audience’ ‘becoming part of the community’ ‘extends beyond a normal course’

39. Assessment ‘more clarity’ about link with pedagogy of MOOC and Microteach’ ‘Rich peer feedback’ ‘Microteach requires thought & preparation’ ‘opportunity to practice with new technologies’ ‘lots of new skills developed’ ‘high quality outputs’ ‘chance to observe varied examples of online teaching’ ‘illuminated diversity of other participants’ ‘vets’ very impressed with ‘newbie's’

40. Inclusivity Openness not an immediate concern for ‘newbie's’ Pragmatic approach to sharing & collaboration Convenient and flexible way to learn about teaching and learning in HE Good challenge to prepare Microteach for diverse audience New literacies required for active participation Informal networks established for buddying Future potential for ‘vets/alumni’ as volunteers to support a cohort

41. Other outcomes OERs RADAR YouTube http://bit.ly/Q9fEqOhttp://bit.ly/Q9fEqO Other resources (Jenny’s table)

42. Limits of navigation

43. Questions What do you need (platform – and other - components) to conduct a MOOC? – And, what is nice-to-have but not necessary? How are those aspects related to the subject of the course? What guidance can be offered about appropriate design for conducting MOOCs? Can we arrange the room for discussion

44. Thoughts & reflections A controlled classroom environment isn’t a bad thing (Krauss) Overall ‘an evaluation success’ ‘FSLT12 combined best aspects of a closed online course with the best aspects of openness in a MOOC and put them together’ (Jenny Mackness) – Assessment created a common focus – What aspects of the course might have exemplified open academic practice? – How does this impact on new lecturers courses? – What about the 75% of participant views that have yet to be captured?

45. Thank you George Roberts Marion Waite Jenny Mackness OCSLD, Oxford Brookes University June 2012 groberts@brookes.ac.uk