Dr Marcus O'Donnell discusses the value of MOOCs

1. MOOCING
About
Dr Marcus O’Donnell
Journalism/LTC
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2. The past few years have brought mounting
evidence that higher education stands at a
crossroads. As with any disruptive technology,
MOOCs have been viewed with enthusiasm in
many quarters and skepticism in some. However,
the underlying facts are inarguable: that the rising
cost of education, combined with the
transformative potential of online teaching and
learning technologies, presents a long-term
challenge that no university can afford to ignore.
MIT President L. Rafael Reif.
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3. sustaining v disrupting
innovation
Any industry has both sustaining and disruptive innovations. Most
people are very familiar with the former, which are meant to drive
up prices by delivering bigger, faster, stronger products and
services for the best customers. Disruption, on the other hand,
changes the nature of performance itself, usually driving down
prices. Together, these two vectors keep costs in line.
Higher education, however, has historically seen only sustaining
innovations. To outpace fellow institutions in the game of college
rankings, schools have improved classrooms, updated
technology, sponsored faculty research, increased administrative
overhead, and decked out residence halls and dining facilities.
Costs have spiraled out of control.
Clayton M. Christensen and Michelle R. Weise
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4. The learning landscape
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5. MOOC by
numbers
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6. where?
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7. Pros and Cons
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Why?

10. MOOC value proposition
• Attracting applicants and engaging alumni. Penn State’s GIS
Mapping MOOC led to a 400% increase in traffic to the GIS program
website.
• Creating communities of learners. In Penn State’s epidemiology
MOOC, learners from high school students to doctors and public
health professionals connected to discuss vaccinations and public
health.
• Using MOOC components in traditional courses. Penn State
professors have been using MOOC lectures and other resources in
their traditional face-to-face and online courses.
• Using MOOCs to advance research. Penn State professors are
also using what they learn from MOOC students for their own
research projects.
Pennsylvania State University’s online provost Craig Weidermann
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11. levels of engagement
Viewers “watch lectures, handing in few if any
assignments.”
Solvers “hand in assignments for a grade, viewing few if any
lectures.”
All-Rounders “balance the watching of lectures with the
handing in of assignments.”
Collectors “primarily download lectures.”
Bystanders are “registered for the course, but their total
activity is below a very low threshold.”
2014 Coursera study of 300,000 MOOC participants
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12. Album or Playlist - unbundling HE
MIT Report argues for modules over subjects:
• Students could retake any module they have trouble with before
moving to the next concept in a sequence.
• A modular approach would make it easier for professors to
teach a course together, since faculty members could tackle a section
rather than a whole course.
• Updating a module when new information emerges is
easier than redesigning an entire course.
MIT Report
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13. 6.9 million clicks - what works?
• Brevity (viewers generally tune out after six minutes)
• Informality, with professors seated at a desk, not standing behind a
podium
• Lively visuals rather than static PowerPoint slides
• Fast talkers (professors seen as the most engaging spoke at 254
words per minute)
• More pauses, so viewers can soak in complex diagrams
• Web-friendly lessons (existing videos broken into shorter chunks
are less effective than ones crafted for online audiences)
MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab study of EdX
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14. Lecturescape
Learning from MOOC design
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15. 15University of Wisconsin at La Crosse “UW-System College Readiness Math MOOC”

16. Hybrid design-just add MOOC?
MOOCs can successfully be used by traditional F2F courses as part
of a learning design
Does not affect learning outcomes
Does require very careful design
Student feedback is often contradictory:
• MOOC “seemed like a separate course.”
• “learned more in this course than a usual lecture course,”
Maryland Study
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