Taking the Plunge with Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) Professor Jeff Haywood, University of Edinburgh, UK 1 OERtest Workshop, EFQUEL, Granada 6 September 2012

What is a MOOC? There are two basic types of MOOC [ xMOOC = xMOOCs emphasize content mastery, centralizes courses on one website and uses automated grading tools to support hundreds of thousands of students cMOOC = cMOOCs are more social and focused on deriving meaning of the learning experience with others….they allow students to participate through blogs, RSS feeds and other decentralized methods We are going to offer xMOOCs, but with an element of cMOOC in some of them, especially in arts/socsci courses OERtest Workshop, EFQUEL, Granada 6 September All MOOCs are open to anyone – no mandatory qualifications They are fully online. They may or may not use OER materials, ie may used licensed or commercial materials, and so may not be open in that sense They dont offer credits (but see later..)

OERtest Workshop, EFQUEL, Granada 6 September

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Why is University of Edinburgh doing this? Reputation – early adopter of educational technology Exploration of a new pedagogical space to inform practice Wish to reach as widely as we can with our courses Sharing experiences with peer universities Fun! OERtest Workshop, EFQUEL, Granada 6 September

What does it involve? (quite a lot...and money too) Choosing courses/professors Deciding on duration/study hours/degree cycle-stage/ Deciding on the legals – agree & sign contract, setting fee levels & distribution, agreeing certificate text….. Make sure the University Court approves! Creating publicity materials for the website Dealing with media interest Providing instructional design, esp automated-scaleable assessment Designing & testing courses Providing video/audio recording/editing facilities Organising QA process based on normal Providing teaching assistants OERtest Workshop, EFQUEL, Granada 6 September

What next for Edinburgh? Finish constructing the courses, QA them, offer them, teach them, review them, refine them, re-offer them (for N months?) Start the 2 nd set of courses, hopefully with experience from 1 st set Hold constant for a period – ie no uncontrolled expansion Review fully after approx 3 years to decide where to go next!! OERtest Workshop, EFQUEL, Granada 6 September

Unanswered questions about MOOCs… What are the demographics of learners in different MOOCs? Why are they taking them? What do they do with the learning? What helps them stay the course? Can they be made economically sustainable? Will services spring up around them (tutoring, sales of books, credentialisation etc)? OERtest Workshop, EFQUEL, Granada 6 September

9 Credits for MOOCs is arriving….