The following is a presentation on how MOOCs could be incorporated into Community Engagement (CE) at the University of South Africa. Presenter: Denzil Chetty

2. SESSION STRUCTURE
01
02
03
04
The CE MOOC Imperative
The Unisa Open Learning (UOL)
Portal Trajectory
CE MOOC Development
Framework
CE MOOCs as an Integrated ODeL
product

3. PRELIMINARY COMMENTS
1. What are MOOCs?
o MOOC = Massive Open Online Course
o Massive implies that the course is scalable.
o Open implies access – free and no prerequisites.
o Online implies the digital delivery mode.
o Course implies the traditional conventions of a structured content/ pedagogy approach.
2. Global trends in MOOC implementation opportunities:
o Public knowledge consumption.
o Intervention for a skills enhancement or deficit/gap.
o Marketing tool (Higher Education Institutions).
o Community Engagement – Targeted social development/ programmes/ courses.
o Micro-credentialing as part of a learning path.

4. PRELIMINARY COMMENTS
3. Since the development of MOOCs in the early
2000s, we have witnessed an online learning
experiment evolve into a mass learning
opportunity.
4. At the end of 2018 – 101 million learners on 11
400 courses, produced by 900 universities.
5. Africa remains a greater consumer as opposed to
producer of MOOCs:
- Cost to produce MOOCs
- Lack of hosting platforms
- Competitive spaces
- Skills to produce MOOCs

5. PRELIMINARY COMMENTS
MOOC CONCEPTUAL TRAJECTORY/ EVOLUTION
CERTIFICATE OF
PARTICIPATION
OPEN COURSES – NO
FORMAL INCENTIVE
(Exploration Phase)
INSTITUTIONAL
INTEGRATION AND
RECOGNITION BY
CREDITING BODIES
MOOC BADGES

6. THE CE-MOOC IMPERATIVE
1. MOOCs are not a new initiative to CE.
2. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to accelerate the transitioning/ integration of MOOCs with CE.
3. Since the lockdown in South Africa, the University of Cape Town (UCT) noted an increase in the number of participants enrolling
for their MOOCs.
4. The Unisa Open Learning (UOL) portal statistics also shows an increase in online participation since the lockdown.
5. In addition, there has been an increased request from government and corporate society for developmental courses that could be
completed online during this period, as well as courses to serve as support mechanisms for different institutions.
6. This supported Alan Tait’s comments that the transition to MOOCs should be seen as “from an elite to a mass Higher Education
System” (https://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/294/313).
7. Open Education – “open” that supports the opening-up of education – i.e. low cost learning opportunity and flexible (Tait
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1185867.pdf).
8. Open – open as to people, places, methods and ideas (Tait https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1185867.pdf).
9. Incheon Declaration: Towards 2030 – A new vision for Education:
• Transform lives through education, recognizing the important role of education as a main driver of development and in
achieving other proposed SDGs.
• This new vision is fully captured by the proposed SDG4 – Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote
lifelong learning opportunities for all.

7. THE CE-MOOC IMPERATIVE: SHANGHAI OPEN UNIVERSITY
(CHINA)
1. Shanghai Open University (1960) – transitioned from Shanghai TV University to an
ODL model.
2. Sponsored by Shanghai Municipal People’s Government.
3. Aim : Develop a learning city for a learning society.
4. A socially-embedded institutional approach.
5. Uses open courses (MOOCs) to provide learning opportunities to anyone, at anytime,
and place, provide universal access to digital learning resources.
6. A Ubiquitous Learning Approach for CE.
7. Serves as the custodian of traditions through online culture – counter-hegemony to
modernization.
8. MOOCs online courses, integrated broadcasting.
9. Caters for 500 000 students.

8. THE CE-MOOC IMPERATIVE: CEDERJ (BRAZIL)
1. CEDERJ – Consortium of Universities for CE initiatives
2. Aim: To contribute to keeping people in the countryside of the state –
important to keep the population in their place of origin in order to foster local
development and exploit the potential of the region (economic development
of the state).
3. Advancing of technology in the democratization of education in a public and
free university, given the country’s situation of inequality.
4. Contribute to quality standards for courses (micro and mass open courses).
5. Remote and blended approach.
6. Skills transfer – vocational development courses = employment.
7. Caters for 100 000 students.

9. THE CE-MOOC IMPERATIVE: AFRICA IN CONTEXT
#AfricanMOOCRevolution: MOOCs, Development and African Higher Education – Insights from the
University of South Africa
Denzil Chetty
Abstract
As we reflect on the global higher education landscape, we are confronted with the increasing reality that integrating
technology in teaching and learning has compelled us to rethink our normative understandings of “access” to education. In a
continent such as Africa, where access to higher education is reserved for those who can afford it, thereby perpetuating the
increasing socio-economic divide, technology-mediated learning can usher an era that sees the democratization of education.
One of the critical proponents of opening access to education has been Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). However,
the potential of MOOCs as a transformative socio-economic agent has been plagued by questions of a sustainable business
model that offers free courses for massive public consumption. Against this background, I seek to argue for the
implementation of MOOCs within a “low-cost” business model that can contribute towards development in Africa. To do this, I
draw on a case study of the University of South Africa (Unisa), exploring the multifaceted complexities in implementing the
Unisa Open Learning (UOL) portal, which hosts a series of MOOCs.
Keywords: Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), development, open education, massification, higher education, open
courses, open pedagogy, democratizing education, lifelong learning, and Africa.
Alternation Special Edition 29 (2019) 278 – 307
Print ISSN 1023-1757; Electronic ISSN: 2519-5476; https://doi.org/10.29086/2519-5476/2019/sp29a13

10. THE CE-MOOC IMPERATIVE: AFRICA IN CONTEXT
#AfricaAGENDA2063 linked to SDGs
Well educated citizens and skills
revolution underpinned by science,
technology and innovation.
Education and science, technology and
innovation (STI) driven skills revolution.
Ensure inclusive and equitable quality
education and promote lifelong
learning opportunities for all.

11. CHALLENGES FACING MOOC IMPLEMENTATION:
❖ Costs for hosting a MOOC on one of the recognized platforms is too high for African universities.
❖ Criteria for acceptance on these platforms are based on Stanford, Harvard, etc.
❖ Integration of rich-multimedia is costly (compliance to international standards – such as videos).
❖ Low completion rates – does not justify value for money.
❖ Academic involvement in developing MOOCs - non incentivized, time consuming.
❖ Lack of understanding MOOC pedagogy and design approach – new phenomenon.
❖ Varied Instructor involvement.
❖ Accessibility – access as well as digital literacy levels varies.
❖ Incentives drive student enrolments – no incentives, less participation rate.
❖ Africa cannot compete with global providers – based on recognition of these institutions globally (preferred MOOC
provider).
❖ MOOC Agenda varies – does not speak to the African context.
❖ Institutionalizing MOOCs - How do we integrate MOOCs into the formal teaching space?
❖ Evaluation criteria = quality assurance mechanisms
❖ MOOC sustainability – what models can be used to cover the costs?
❖ Designing MOOCs for lifelong learning - shifting objectives within the institution.
THE CE-MOOC IMPERATIVE: AFRICA IN CONTEXT

12. THE UNISA OPEN LEARNING (UOL) JOURNEY

13. UNISA OPEN LEARNING (UOL) HISTORY
1. The UNISA OPEN LEARNING PROJECT began in 2015 as a
strategic project in the Office of the then Pro-Vice Chancellor.
2. In 2016, with the closure of the Office of the Pro-Vice Chancellor
the project was moved to the Department of Tuition Support and
Facilitation of Learning (DTSFL), where it currently resides.
3. The project initially was conceptualized as a MOOC Project.
However, in 2019 the objectives of the project was expanded to
include OER full courses (as per UNISA’s APP/ compact with
Council) and renamed UNISA OPEN LEARNING.
4. 2019 – 0-Rated Data
5. 2020 - DHET R1million securing cloud-hosting for next 5 years
6. 2021 – ADOVH Mini Studio for self-recording resources.
7. 2021-2022 – MOOC Badges

14. UNISA OPEN LEARNING (UOL) STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES
1. The UNISA OPEN LEARNING model is based on
three strategic objectives:
❖ The first strategic objective is that value
proposition drives the MOOC project as
opposed to the need for mere innovation.
❖ Secondly, the implementation of MOOCs must
create opportunities for expanding access to
high quality educational opportunities for
African students.
❖ Thirdly, the implementation of MOOCs should
focus on addressing the skills deficit in UNISA’s
students to ensure increased throughput and
success rates.

15. THE UNISA OPEN LEARNING (UOL)MODEL: xMOOCs
1. xMOOCS = based around a more traditional
classroom structure.
2. Combination of text, pre-recorded video
lectures, tests and quizzes, or other
assessments.
3. xMOOCs centers around a lead facilitator as
opposed to students producing knowledge on
their own (cMOOCs).
4. xMOOCs focuses on knowledge transfer and
duplication.
5. Employed by Harvard, MIT and Stanford (to list
a few).
6. Traditional hosting platforms: Coursera, edX,
Canvas, Udacity, etc. employ the xMOOC
approach.
MOOC poster April 4, 2013 by Mathieu Plourde licensed CC-BY on Flickr,
explores the meaning of "Massive Open Online Courses" aka MOOCs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_open_online_course#/media/File:MOO
C_poster_mathplourde.png

16. THE UNISA OPEN LEARNING (UOL)MODEL
ONLINE OPEN COURSE
CONTENT
INTEGRATED BIG BLUE
BUTTON - WEBINARS
MOBILE COMPATABILITY/
MULTIPLE DEVICES AND
OPERATIONAL PLATFORMS
INTERDISIPLINARY AND
INTEGRATED COLLABORATION
SPACE
MULTIMEDIA INTEGRATION
DIVERSE ASSESSMENT
METHODS AS/FOR LEARNING

17. THE UNISA OPEN LEARNING (UOL)MODEL: CE-MOOCs
APPROACH
CONTACT
SESSIONS
(WORKSHOPS)
ONLINE
COURSE
CONTENT
WEBINARS
(VIDEO-
CONFERENCING
SESSIONS)

18. UNISA OPEN LEARNING (UOL) DELIVERABLES
1. The UNISA OPEN LEARNING model is based on a three-
pronged deliverable approach:
❖ Category 1 addresses the skills deficit among our students,
for example Academic Writing Fundamentals 101 – which
looks at technical aspects of academic writing,
understanding plagiarism, and basic referencing techniques.
Due to its interdisciplinary nature, this MOOC serves as a
student reference point for many disciplines within the
institution. In addition, the MOOC platform hosts three First-
Year Experience (FYE) MOOCs, which focuses on student
orientation and preparedness for the UNISA ODeL
environment, and a Student Preparedness Assessment
Diagnostic Test (SPDAT) MOOC to identify areas of student
learning difficulty (i.e. digital literacy, academic literacy, and
numeracy).

19. UNISA OPEN LEARNING (UOL) DELIVERABLES
❖ Category 2 focuses on a lifelong learning component, with
the aim of exposing students to new cutting edge trends in
the tuition space, such as I-SET Robotics and
Communication Media (Design and Layout).
❖ Category 3 serves to extend the teaching and learning space
through the development of focused content MOOCs that
form part of the formal curriculum. For example Self-
Coaching 101 offered by the Department of Social Work,
World Religions and New Religions offered by the
Department of Religious Studies and Arabic. This approach
offers two benefits to the university. It allows registered
UNISA students to engage with a larger and more diverse
cohort of students on the MOOC space (i.e. a community of
learners), and creates “awareness” of the formal content that
is being taught within UNISA.

20. UNISA OPEN LEARNING (UOL) BUSINESS MODEL AND ICT
INFRASTRUCTURE
1. To ensure a feasible business model that underpins cost-effectiveness and
sustainability, UNISA opted for a MOOC platform that is in-house as opposed to a
MOOC hosting provider. An open source Sakai Learning Management System is
deployed as UNISA’s official MOOC portal (i.e. UNISA Open Learning -
https://mooc.unisa.ac.za). Since, the official UNISA Learning Management System
– myUnisa – is also a Sakai-based platform, the MOOC portal offers familiarity for
UNISA students and serves to orientate potential UNISA students to the UNISA
learning portal.
2. The UOL Portal is hosted on a separate server, thus offers greater stability.
3. DHET Funding Proposal – Employ a cloud-based hosting solution.
4. Open Platform – ensures equitable access.
5. MOOC space – 0 Rated Data/ Reverse billing to institution.
6. Mobile compatible
7. Visibility of academics and academic content.
8. Visibility of Unisa ensures public recognition of work done.

21. UNISA OPEN LEARNING (UOL) COL REVIEW
“However, there are a number of excellent initiatives taking
place. The panel was impressed with the series of MOOCs that
have been developed, particularly those that aim to address
skills readiness among new students such as Academic Writing
Fundamentals and First-Year Experience MOOCs. The panel
noted that these MOOCs have added value beyond the skills
and knowledge development of targeted students, in that they
can be accessed globally and can be used to promote UNISA’s
contribution to lifelong learning within an African context.”
COL REVIEW PANEL

22. UNISA OPEN LEARNING (UOL) 2019 ENROLMENTS
Total Number of Enrollments: 160 496 students
• ADOVH MOOCs on Pedagogy and Assessments (DHET UCDP)
• ADOVH MOOCs on Core Skills for Online Learners (DHET UCDP)
• Academic Integrity MOOCs
• E-Tutoring MOOCs (DHET UCDP)
• Cyber Safety MOOC (CSET/ DBE/British High Commission/
Department of Communication and Digital technologies)
• Social Work MOOC
• I-SET Robotics MOOCs (Texas Tech University)
• Online Acceleration M&D Basic Skills MOOC
• Communication and Media MOOC
• World Religions MOOC
• New Religion MOOC
• Digital Literacy MOOC
• YALI (SBL) MOOC
New MOOCs
Digital Literacy for Teachers (DBE)
Coding and Robotics MOOC (DBE)
Knowledge Management and Retrieval MOOC (University of Georgia)

23. CE-MOOC DEVELOPMENTAL FRAMEWORK (QA)
Step 01:
Apply
for
Admissi
on to a
CE
Cohort
Step
02:
Complet
e
MOOC
Form
Step
03:
Outline
a
Project
Plan
with
Delivera
bles
(Dates)
Step
04:
Develop
Storybo
ard
(Text)
Step
05:
Develop
Multime
dia
Resourc
es
Step
06:
Upload
Content
Online
Step
07: Pilot
Site
Step
08:
Revise
(if
needed)
Step
09:
Sign-off
&
Publish
Step
10:
Reflecti
ons/
Lessons
Learned
NB: THE PROCESS BEGINS WITH AN APPLICATION FOR ADMISSION TO A CE-MOOC COHORT

24. CE-MOOC DEVELOPMENTAL PROCESS: LESSONS LEARNED
1. DURATION: The shorter the course, better completion rates, better student response.
2. MULTIMEDIA: Too much text, greater drop-out rate and lower student participations.
3. LANGUAGE: Language must be simple and accessible.
4. MOBILE DESIGN: 80% of participants access the site of a mobile device.
5. ASSESSMENTS: Must include assessments. It allows for learning to be assessed and gives more meaning.
6. AUTOMATED ASSESSMENTS: Use of MCQs with automated feedback encouraged.
7. FACILITATOR PRESENCE: The presence of a facilitator is very important. This creates the impression of student contact.
8. DIVERSE STUDENTS: As an open course, you enroll diverse students. Some are knowledgable in the niche, some merely
take it for interest sake.
9. OBJECTIVES: Must state clear objectives of the course. What will the student get out of it?
10. AFRICAN CONTEXT: Design for students in the African context (as majority) but accommodating global participation.
11. SCENARIOS: Must be relevant, current and relatable.
12. NEVER STATIC: A Course cannot be the same for 3 years, there must be new developments/ additions/ revisions – make
current.
13. STRUCTURE: Must be outlined with a clear structure, clear learning design.

25. CE-MOOC DEVELOPMENTAL MAPPING
What is the
purpose of
this MOOC?
Who are my
target
audience?
Type of
MOOC:
Facilitated or
Self-taught?
Assessment
or Learning
Activities
Duration
Quality and
Assurance
Mechanism
Multimedia
Integration

26. CE-MOOC AS AN INTEGRATED ODEL PRODUCT
CORE OPEN EDUCATION:
• Access: refers to the removal or lowering of barriers for
the learner to study.
• Content: refers to the free (gratis) online availability of
teaching, learning and research materials, with or
without an open license.
• Pedagogy: refers to the use of technologies for opening
up the range of pedagogical methods.
• Recognition: refers to both the process of issuing a
certificate, diploma or title which bears formal value and
also to the process of formally acknowledging and
accepting a certificate, diploma or title issued by a
third-party accredited institution.
• Collaboration: refers to any practice or policy of an
organization that prompts the exchange of knowledge in
the format of open content, free (gratis) content or open
access research, and the exchange of open educational
practices and tools.

27. CE-MOOC AS AN INTEGRATED ODEL PRODUCT
• Strategies and business models: constitute the
detailed planning of the open education activities of an
institution.
• Technology: refers to the technological infrastructures
and software which facilitate opening up education in its
different dimensions.
• Quality: refers to the level of excellence of an
institution’s open education offer.
• Leadership: refers to the promotion of sustainable open
education initiatives via a ‘leadership of excellence and
transparency’ approach which encourages both
top-down and bottom-up efforts.
Andreai Inamorato dos Santos, Yves Punie and Jonatan Castano Munoz “Opportunities and
Challenges for the Future of MOOCs and Open Education in Europe”
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/38632272.pdf

28. CE-MOOC AS AN INTEGRATED ODEL PRODUCT
1. RESEARCH POSSIBILITIES:
• Research if the CE-MOOC contributed towards bridging a knowledge gap/ degree of knowledge transfer – i.e. conducting a
Baseline Assessment and Post-Assessment.
• Research participant experience with the content through integrated design of Reflection Reports.
• Research the Learning Analytics through the Statistics Tool (Time participant spends on content, section, etc.)
• Research the needs and preferences of different users – user experiences.
• Ethical Clearance Implications.
2. TEACHING POSSIBILITIES:
• Interdisciplinary MOOCs – collaborative project development.
• Integrated assessment design: Assist with staff assessing across disciplines.
• Integration of content/ findings in the formal curriculum.
• Broader visibility of course content (formal courses), where aspects of the MOOC fit within the structured course content.
3. COLLABORATION PROSPECTS
• Other institutions
• Government
• NGOs
• Corporate

29. CE-MOOC SUPPORT PROVIDED BY UOL PROJECT
1. Support by the UOL Project will be provided for CE initiatives via the
Division for Community Engagement and Outreach.
2. Support to conceptualise the MOOC – how to package existing content
into an online course content.
3. Support to complete the MOOC Registration Form.
4. Support to upload content online (via Division for Community
Engagement and Outreach).
5. Support on Assessment Tools.
6. Support to monitor and provide online statistics when needed.
7. Support with post-implementation review process.

30. ADOVH MINI STUDIO (AUTOMATED)

31. MOOC BADGES - BADGR

32. MOOC BADGES - CREDLY

33. https://mooc.unisa.ac.za