Cheryl Hodgkinson-Williams, (the Principal Investigator of the Research on Open Educational Resources for Development (ROER4D) project) and Andrew Deacon, from the Centre for Innovation for Learning and Teaching (CILT), presented a short seminar for the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Cape Town on OER and MOOCs.

1. OPEN, SESAME?:
OER AND MOOCS
Demystifying Open Educational Resources and Massive Open Online Courses
16 MAY 2014
Chemical Engineering seminar
Cheryl Hodgkinson-Williams, Andrew Deacon, Janet Small and Sukaina Walji

2. "Open Sesame"
(Arabic: ‫سمسم‬ ‫يا‬ ‫افتح‬ iftaḥ
yā
simsim, French: Sésam
e, ouvre-toi) is
a magical phrase in the
story of "Ali Baba and
the Forty Thieves"
in One Thousand and
One Nights. It opens
the mouth of a cave in
which forty thieves
have hidden a
treasure.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Sesame_(phrase)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Baba_and_the_Forty_Thieves

3. What “hidden treasure” is to be found in
Open Educational Resources (OER) and
Massive Open Online Courses
(MOOCs)?

4. UNDERSTANDING THE
EMERGENCE OF OPEN
EDUCATIONAL
RESOURCES (OER)
Section 1

5. What are Open
Educational Resources
(OER)?

6. Open Educational Resources
(OER)
 OER are teaching, learning, and research
resources that reside in the public domain or
have been released under an intellectual
property license that permits their free use
and, if specified, the re-purposing by others.
 Examples of OER include full courses, course
materials, modules, textbooks, streaming
videos, tests, software and any other tools,
materials, or techniques use to support access
to knowledge (adapted from Smith & Casserly,
2006: 8).

7. Precursors to OER
OER
Open Source
Software
Open Access
Learning Objects
Open Content

8. Key enabler of OER: Alternative
licensing
Previously copyright was binary: All rights retained or
public domain
Copyright
©
Public domain
PD
Now alternative licensing options such as the GNU
General Public License and Creative Commons
provide a range of options where some rights are
reserved
Copyright
©
Some rights reserved Public domain
PD

9. Degrees of Openness of CC
licensing

10. Early University OER
providers1999
Connexions, Rice
University
MIT Open
CourseWare

11. Early Private providers: Khan
Academy
(Note some materials are still
copyrighted)

12. Aggregators of OER
 OER Commons
 MERLOT
 Academic earth
 JORUM

13. Chemical Engineering –
Example 1
Open
Textbook

14. Chemical Engineering –
Example 2
Simulatio
n

15. Chemical Engineering –
Example 3
Video

16. Chemical Engineering –
Example 4
Tutorial

17. Launched on 12 February 2010

18. Chemical Engineering @ UCT
Resource
s for
schools

19. Where to from here for OER?
 Discover the potential “treasure” out there and …
 Reuse – use “as is” or copy verbatim
 Revise – adapt and improve the OER so it better
meets your needs by re-authoring, contextualising, re-
designing, summarising, repurposing, translating,
personalising, re-sequencing the content
 Remix – combine or “mashup” the OER with other
OER to produce new materials by decomposing, re-
mixing and/or assembling content to meet your
requirements
 Redistribute – make copies and share the original
OER or your new version with others … on UCT Open
Content

20. Where to from here for OER?
 Research: Watch this space ROER4D

21. EMERGING
UNDERSTANDING OF
MOOCS
Section 1

22. The coming of ‘MOOC’?

23. High profile MOOCs
https://wikipedia.org

25. Sebastian Thrun

26. Media hype
He’s thinking big now. He imagines that in
10 years, job applicants will tout their
Udacity degrees. In 50 years, he says,
there will be only 10 institutions in the
world delivering higher education and
Udacity has a shot at being one of them.
Thrun quoted in 2012 online report:
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/03/ff_aiclass/all/

27. MOOCs didn’t just appear

28. April 2012
http://edutechnica.com/moocmap

29. October 2012
http://edutechnica.com/moocmap

30. April 2013
http://edutechnica.com/moocmap

31. October 2013
http://edutechnica.com/moocmap

32. Participants

33. Completion Rates
http://www.katyjordan.com/MOOCproject.html

34. 6 million students / 54 staff

35. ● content is NOT free
● students can NOT support
each other
● MOOCs can NOT solve the
problem of educational
scarcity in emerging
economies
● Education is NOT a mass
customer industry
MOOC myths
● It's NOT all about money
● will NOT create a two-tier
educational system
● MOOCs are NOT inherently
inferior
● We've have NOT seen how
this plays out
Against (from Laurillard) For (from Educause)

36. COURSE LANDSCAPE
Section 2

38. Course offered simultaneously as a formal
and as a open course.
Small private open course nested inside a
MOOC
Massive Online Course: formal course
inspired by MOOC pedagogy
Students in a course taking a MOOC with
added local support and additional material
Massive Open Online Course
Formal course with lectures and
support.

39. Wrapped MOOCs at UCT
Time Topic
Group meets every -Monday for 5
weeks
Critical Thinking in Global Challenges
https://www.coursera.org/course/criticalthinking
Group meets every -Thursday for
5 weeks
Principles of Written English
https://www.edx.org/course/uc-berkeleyx/uc-berkeleyx-colwri2-
2x-principles-1348
Group meets every -Monday for 6
weeks
Understanding Research: An Overview for Health Professionals
https://www.coursera.org/course/researchforhealth
Group meets every second
Wednesday for 5 weeks
Model Thinking
https://www.coursera.org/course/modelthinking
Group meets every Monday for 6
weeks
Design and Interpretation of Clinical Trials
https://www.coursera.org/course/clintrials
Group meets every Wednesday
for 10 weeks
Data Analysis and Statistical Inference
https://www.coursera.org/course/statistics
Group meets every Thursday for
6 weeks
University Teaching 101 *NEW*
https://www.coursera.org/course/univteaching101

40. WHAT COULD MOOCS
LOOK LIKE AT UCT?
Section 3

41. MOOC categories
C1 Teaching
Showcase
C2 Gateway
Skills
C3
Graduate
literacies
C4
Professional
Showcase
C5
Research
showcase
High-profile ‘rockstar’ MOOCs
on general interest topics.
Typically showcasing
undergraduate teaching
Help prepare
students for
undergraduate
study and
introduce skills
required.
Help prepare students
for postgraduate
study and develop
general skills and
expectations.
Support continuing
education and
showcasing
professional careers
and qualifications.
Showcase
research and
special interest
topics that may
attract
postgraduate
students

42. A general interest high profile course that showcases the institution by means
of an engaging subject or personality led. Likely to be of global interest and
matches a popular understanding of high profile MOOCs
Category 1 Teaching Showcase

43. Provide foundational or enhancement skills, which students could take these prior to
applying or attending an institution but could also replace some campus-based teaching for
'bottleneck courses' or non-core. Likely to be of local interest, either within the institution or
at a country-wide setting.
Category 2 Gateway Skills

44. Post-graduate level courses to support application or programmes of
study focussed on building postgraduate literacies. Likely to be of local or
national interest.
Category 3 Graduate Literacies

45. Geared towards vocational skills development, re-tooling and professional development;
they could be offered in conjunction with other organisations or professional bodies. Likely
to be of local interest, although some specialised topics may be globally relevant. .
Category 4 Professional
showcase/development

46. Specialised and targeted than category one courses as they assumes
some existing background in the topic, but are still geared towards general
or leisure learning. Likely to have global appeal.
Category 5 Showcase research/specialisms

47. MOOC categories summary
MOOC Category Institutional purpose and examples
1 – Teaching
showcase
Showcase teaching and showcase faculty; general interest
topics at an undergraduate level.
2 – Gateway
skills
Prepare students; assist with bottleneck courses or provide
supplementary assistance
3 – Graduate
literacies
Help prepare students for postgraduate study and develop
general skills and expectations.
4 – Professional
showcase
Support continuing education and showcasing professional
careers and qualifications.
5 – Research
showcase
Showcase research and special interest topics that may
attract postgraduate level of interest.

48. MOOCs can be OER

49. Where to from here?
 CILT position paper - under review for journal
 Enroll for a MOOC - check www.class-central.com/
 Draw MOOCs into classroom - ask your students
about their experiences?
 Set up a study group - or join the CILT unstudy
group
 Scoop-it curated links
http://www.scoop.it/t/moocswatch

50. References
 Hodgkinson-Williams, C. & Gray, E. (2009).
Degrees of Openness: The emergence of
Open Educational Resources at the
University of Cape Town. International
Journal of Education and Development using
Information and Communication Technology
(IJEDICT), 2009, Vol. 5, Issue 5, pp.101-116.
 Smith, M.S. & Casserly, C.M. (2006). The
promise of Open Educational Resources,
Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning,
38(5), 8-17.

51. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution
4.0 International License.
Written by
Andrew Deacon
Andrew.deacon@uct.ac.za
Janet Small
Janet.small@uct.ac.za
Sukaina Walji
Sukaina.walji@uct.ac.za
Cheryl Hodgkinson-Williams
cheryl.hodgkinson-williams@uct.ac.za
Graphics by Rondine Carstens
rondine.carstens@uct.ac.za