Presentation given at Online Educa Berlin - Dec 6 2013

1. What we learned from our
pilot
Bert De Coutere
Center for Creative Leadership
Online Educa Berlin 2013

2. Nice to meet you!
Bert De Coutere lives in Belgium, works for the Center for Creative
Leadership, blogs on homocompetens.blogspot.com and is one third of
the core team behind LeaderMOOC.net.
What we learned from our
pilot.

3. Why we felt we had to do this.
Ignore MOOCs
Have an opinion
or
Just do it.
or
What we learned from our
pilot.

4. What we really wanted to find out.
1. Does the MOOC format work for leadership development?
And not just insights, but all the way to behavior change…
2. If so, who does it work for?
What did they achieve? Why did it work for them?
3. Who did it not work for?
Who are they and why did it not work out?
4. How can we improve so more people benefit from the MOOC?
How to make LeaderMOOC work out for more people?
5. Oh, and what is a sustainable model for offering MOOCs?
Show me the money.
What we learned from our
pilot.

5. What we did – project timeline
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
January
March
April
June
July
August
Sept-Oct
November
December
Start of project with discovery interviews
Design week – decide between 4 alternatives
Testing out various platforms
information site and intake survey online
Canvas.net registrations open and build-up to course
Production time: video shoots, creating all content
8 weeks of serious MOOCing
Announcing all winners, granting badges, little habits
Our conclusions and recommendations
What we learned from our
pilot.

6. What we did – consider the context
It’s not about being pure.
No repurpose.
Not academic.
It’s about what works.
Build for purpose.
Corporate training.
It’s not about a diploma.
It’s not about the star.
It’s not risk-free.
It’s about more effective
behavior.
CCL is its people.
It is a pilot after all.
What we learned from our
pilot.

7. How we did it.
What we learned from our
pilot.

8. Nothing really new, just more of it.
Rather
New
What we learned from our
pilot.

9. So what?
(Warning: limited audience interaction ahead.)
The answer to life, the
universe and everything.
M for massive dropouts
How far can we go?
The raw data
Educational Darwinism
Learning outcomes
Show me the money
It’s what you do with it.
Maybe this will work.
In search of a business
model
Technology matters.
Three experiments.
M for massive work
The after-MOOC
<insert incredibly
insightful question
here>
No traffic jams on the
extra mile.
The cult of the wicker-man.
Anything else
What we learned from our
pilot.

10. We are sitting on a mountain of
data
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Intake survey
Demographics survey
Mid-MOOC survey
Learning Agility checkpoint discussion
End of course evaluation
What would you tell
them?
Grades of assignments
Discussion forum content
What we learned from our
The answer to life, the
universe and everything.
The raw data
pilot.

11. Some numbers…
• Over 4800 people have enrolled in LeaderMOOC. Some have been very
active, some haven't done much.
• We produced 80 videos that together were watched over 26000 times or
for an estimated duration of over 1700 hours.
• On our most busy day we had over 60000 page views. On normal days we
have between 5000 and 10000.
• We had over 1900 assignments turned in, and peer reviewed.
• We awarded 75 badges to people asking for them and earning them.
• We counted almost 4800 posts in the 99 topics of the discussion forum.
• We gave away 10 prizes each week, including guidebooks, books and Life
explorer sets. One winner won a seat in one of our classes. Five people
won a goal setting session.
• The end-of-course evaluation got a satisfaction of 88% and a NPS of 61%.
• The top 10 of countries participating were: United
States, Canada, India, United
Kingdom, France, Belgium, Spain, China, Germany and Australia.
What we learned from our
pilot.

12. Who are they?
• We are Mostly Professionals at
the Start or in the Midst of our
Career
• We come from all over the world
• We want Tips, Insights and
Support
• We Plan to Spend Between 1 and
4 Hours per Week
• For a Lot of Us this Is a New
Experience
What we learned from our
pilot.

13. Dropouts are very real.
This is the baseline.
M for massive dropouts
Educational Darwinism
What we learned from our
pilot.

14. Dropouts are very real.
We raised the bar (and dropout numbers).
What we learned from our
pilot.

15. Dropouts are very real.
We raised the bar (and dropout numbers).
46% of people actually show up at the start of the MOOC.
After 2 weeks it stabilizes to around 11%
Gradually that goes down to 2.9% after 8 weeks.
Around 30% hand in their assignment in the first week.
That grows to 74% of active students in the last week.
58% of those who handed in the last assignment earned
the badge (or 1.6% of all enrolled people)
What we learned from our
pilot.

16. For those it works for, we get as far
as a similar classroom experience
How far can we go?
Learning outcomes
If the student is ready
the MOOC will arrive
Time. It is something you
make, not something you have.
The illiterate of the 21st century will not be
those who cannot read and write, but those
who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.
What we learned from our
pilot.

17. Show me the money
In search of sustainability…
In search of a business
model
This was a passion-driven project.
#1. Steal from the
rich, give to the
poor
#2. The ones who’s
boxes you tick, pay
#3. Do you want
fries with that?
#4. Pay for praise
#5. Pretty please?
#6. Old-fashion “just
pay”
In full or for premium
features.
What we learned from our
pilot.

18. The experience isn’t seamless.
It’s what you do with it.
Technology matters.
• Technology HAVEs and CANs
• Canvas.net platform and
assistance
• People prefer one window on
the MOOC
• Discussions worked very well
• Most questions about peer
review feature
What we learned from our
pilot.

19. Three experiments worth
mentioning
Maybe this will work.
Three experiments.
Mystery week
Wisdom of the Crowd
What we learned from our
Anchor
pilot.

20. Designing and running a
MOOC takes a lot of work
M for massive work
No traffic jams on the
extra mile.
• “If you ignore your course, so will your
students.”
• Don’t make the e-learning 1.0 mistake to
produce and throw over the fence
• Daily interactions in the forums, especially in
weeks 1-2 community building is essential
• Hours spend: +/- 1000 hours by core team and
many, many more people volunteered
What we learned from our
pilot.

21. The after-MOOC
So what?
The cult of the wicker-man.
• Extra activity one month after
end date:
– 6% of video views
– 3% of discussion posts
– (Assignments and enrolments
disabled)
What we learned from our
pilot.

22. So what?
Worked well…
Even better if…

24. Behind the MOOC
• For more, see the article series ‘behind the
MOOC’ on homocompetens.blogspot.com
What we learned from our
pilot.