Presentation at the 44th Canadian Society for the Study of Education (CSSE) Conference by Dave Cormier and Bonnie Stewart. A review of MOOCs from their coining in 2008 to practical uses in the field of Higher Education. Discusses MOOC narratives of solutionism, disruption and unbundling. Includes MOOCs as open access, open accreditation, Niche MOOCs and important trends on the horizon.

1. EDUCATION ON THE OPEN WEB:
Teacher Education, K-12 Education,
& Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)
Bonnie Stewart & Dave Cormier
University of Prince Edward Island
Association of Canadian Deans of Education
2016 Congress of the Social Sciences & Humanities

2. Or…How I
Learned
to Stop
Worrying
& Love
the MOOC

3. @cogdog

4. The Story:
MOOC Histories
MOOC Narratives
MOOC/Open Models
for Education
MOOC Futures

5. A Brief History of MOOCs
2008 – CCK08
2011 – Stanford AI
2012 – year of the MOOC
2014 – Sanity returns
2016 – Growth

6. By NeedCokeNow - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27546041
2008 2011 2012 2013 – 2014 2015-2016 …?
MOOCs on the Gartner Hype Cycle

7. Massive Open Online Courses
http://www.flickr.com/photos/garymacfadyen/6860003781/

8. 2010 Study:
McAuley, Stewart,
Siemens & Cormier
•MOOCs embody digital practices
•Harness & contribute to
knowledge abundance
•Are participatory, networked &
distributed
•Generate knowledge &
connections that extend beyond
course
•Share the processes of knowledge
work, not just the products

9. early
2012…

10. http://www.flickr.com/photos/gforsythe/8028605773/

12. late
2013…
“We have a lousy product.”
http://www.fastcompany.com/3021473/udacity-sebastian-thrun-uphill-climb

13. MOOCs are over.
Everybody go home.

14. WAIT.
Slope of Enlightenment?!?!

15. MOOC Narratives
http://www.flickr.com/photos/felmarah/5078680202

16. MOOCs make visible the
‘education is broken’ refrain of
disruption, solutionism, & unbundling

17. 1. Disruption
https://www.flickr.com/photos/94342662@N00/3869483214/

19. 2. Solutionism
“Technological solutionism” is the…tendency
to identify simple answers “before the
questions have been fully asked” or the
problems fully articulated.
Take, for example: “the Internet has changed
everything about how we teach and learn.”
Thus, “education is broken.” And from there,
“technology will fix it.”
- Audrey Watters, 2013

20. http://www.slideshare.net/willdonovan/eotw-workshop-v3

21. 3. Unbundling

23. …& the power of mass media &
recognized brands

24. But narratives shift as MOOC
providers struggle to find
business models.

25. So what does this have to do with
us?

26. With all their issues, MOOCs still offer
flexibility to faculties & institutions.

27. MOOC / Open Models:
Stories from the field

28. Stories from the field
What do you mean open?
2012 MOOCs
Remedial moocs
Marketing moocs
Brand moocs
Contract MOOC
Research/community moocs
https://www.flickr.com/photos/missrogue/3353012785

29. http://www.flickr.com/photos/lljohnston/7576247296/sizes/c/in/photostream/
University of Edinburgh
Open as access

30. xMOOC

31. cMOOC

32. http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcobellucci/3534516458
• Loss leader
• Conversion
Why
would
we do
this?

33. Opening participation & new
niches for sharing expertise

34. Yawn…

37. http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcobellucci/3534516458
Why
would
we do
this?
• Community
outreach
• New funding
sources
• Showcasing niche
expertise

38. Opening Accreditation

42. http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcobellucci/3534516458
Why
would
we do
this? • Theorizing ‘school’
• International partnerships

43. Open Research

45. http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcobellucci/3534516458
Why
would
we do
this?
• Networked
participatory
scholarship
(Veletsianos
& Kimmons, 2012)

46. MOOC Futures

49. Deconstructing School

50. MOOCs for teacher education &
professional development

51. Networked Development

52. K-12 Applications
• Higher ed credits for high school students
• University prep classes for high school students
• K-12 courses/AP offered across a district
• Supplemental hybrid or blended learning (a class
joins a specific MOOC together OR content from
MOOCs gets repurposed by K-12 teachers)
• Special interest
courses can
be offered even to
remote learners.

53. Faculty of Ed Applications &
Possibilities
• Showcase niche program or faculty specializations
by offering an intro MOOC
• Coordinate common program offerings across
province or country
• Attract funding in new policy / issue sectors
• Encourage networked participatory scholarship
among faculty & students
• Provide pedagogical leadership throughout higher
ed on good learning practice

54. Challenges
• Cost/time
• Minimal revenue
• Working in the
open
• The need for
brand (personal or
public)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/magnopere/109128943/

55. If a MOOC is a solution,
what’s the problem?

56. MOOCs are looking more and more like
‘online learning’
‘Suddenly all of this work is dismissed because
MOOCs represent a year zero for online
education, and therefore everything you have
done previously cannot be counted.
It’s a landgrab – some of this confusion is
accidental…but in other cases it is more
deliberate. By claiming that MOOCs invented
online learning they look to be the inheritors of
its future.’
-Martin Weller, The Open University, May 2016

57. Presence (Garrison, Anderson & Archer, 2001)
= key to ALL good online offerings

58. Online = people

59. There is no such thing as
a digital native.

60. http://dubioblog.com/2012/01/08/how-to-learn-the-how-learning-domains/
Learning is Multi-faceted

61. Presence is Multi-faceted. So are
good MOOCs.
http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/761/building-an-online-learning-community

62. …& sometimes you can’t beat f2f

63. Thank you.
@bonstewart
bstewart@upei.ca
@davecormier
davcormier@upei.ca

64. Further MOOC Reading
• http://blog.edtechie.net/mooc/appropriate-use-of-moocs/
• http://www.thesociologicalreview.com/blog/is-it-a-bird-is-
it-a-plane-no-it-s-a-superprofessor.html
• https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/04/28/researc
h-facebook-may-keep-students-in-moocs.aspx
• http://qz.com/650283/coursera-is-offering-a-way-to-get-a-
real-masters-degree-for-a-lot-less-money/?
utm_content=buffer8f37f&utm_medium=social&utm_source=f
acebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
• http://robinderosa.net/uncategorized/my-open-textbook-
pedagogy-and-practice/