Presentation held by EADTU/Darco Jansen at EMOOCs2015, Mons, Belgium 19 May 2015

1. European MOOC strategies:
strength in diversity?
Darco Jansen
EMOOCs2015, 19May

2. MOOC movement dominated by the US
•MOOCs: predominantly US
-where it all started as of 2011 and expanded massively
-and which houses major providers Coursera, edX, Udacity
•Response in Europe is fragmented
- some universities joined US initiatives, others started themselves
- country/language-based platforms: FutureLearn (UK),
MiríadaX, UNEDcoma (Spain), Iversity (Germany), FUN (France),
OpenMOOC, OpenClassroom, EMMA-platform, MOODle, ...
•Governmental involvement: e.g. Opening up Slovenia, FUN, …

3. MOOCs collaboration in Europe
•EU launch (Sept 2013): Opening up Education
• Two major goals
• Innovate teaching and learning for all through ICT
• Reshape / modernize EU education through OER (for all
educational sectors and levels)
•EU-funded projects on MOOCs (from 2014…)
MOOCs for Web Skills

4. http://hechingerreport.org/californias-multi-million-dollar-online-
education-flop-is-another-blow-for-moocs/

6. Gaebel, M., Kupriyanova, V., Morais, R. & Colucci, E. (2014). E-learning in
European Higher Education Institutions: Results of a mapping survey
conducted in October-December 2013.
http://www.eua.be/Libraries/Publication/e-learning_survey.sflb.ashx
Allen, I.E. and Seaman. J. (2015). Grade Change: Tracking
Online Education in the United States. Babson Survey Research
Group and Quahog Research Group.
http://www.onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/gradelevel.pdf

7. Jansen, D. & Schuwer, R.
(2015). Institutional MOOC
strategies in Europe
Status report based on a
mapping survey conducted in
October - December 2014.
EADTU – HOME project
http://
www.eadtu.eu/documents/Publica

11. MOOC offering
•In the US the number of institutions
having a MOOC or planning to
introduce them has decreased from
14,3% (2013)
to 13,6% (2014)
•In Europe it has increased from about
58% in EUA study (2013)
to 71,7% in HOME study (2014)
EUA statement :
“interest in MOOCs has far
from peaked in Europe”
is simply true

13. http://www.openeducationeuropa.eu/nl/european_scoreboard_moocs
33% 47%37% 44%31%

14. http://openeducationeuropa.eu/sites/default/files/images/scoreboard/Scoreboard_April_2015.png

16. Biases in the surveys
•The US surveys (US 2013 and US 2014) are biased to the large
institutions
•The EAU study is biased in favour of institutions involved in e-
learning.
•The EU-2014 study (EADTU/HOME) is biased to those institutions
interested in MOOCs.
•All biased about what’s a MOOC. They decide themselves what’s a
MOOC !

17. Source:
SURF 2014
Open
Education
Trend
Report.

18. Definition MOOCs
•Proposal by EU-funded MOOCs projects:
MOOCs are online courses designed for large numbers of participants,
that can be accessed by anyone anywhere as long as they have an
internet connection, are open to everyone without entry
qualifications, and offer a full/complete course experience online for
free
•Recently validated by survey “Institutional MOOC strategies in Europe”
•Wikipedia: A massive open online course (MOOC) is an online course aimed at unlimited
participation and open access via the web. In addition to traditional course materials such as videos,
readings, and problem sets, MOOCs provide interactive user forums that help build a community for
students, professors, and teaching assistants
http://www.openuped.eu/images/docs/Definition_Massive_Open_Online_Courses.pdf

19. http://www.katyjordan.com/MOOCproject.html
MOOC are massive; record was 226.652 ‘participants’

20. http://www.bbc.com/news/education-
32721056
MOOC are massive: new record > 370.000

21. But relatively the record holder is a Lithuanian MOOC
Number of speakers (L1 + L2)
• English : 1200 million
• Lithuanian : 4,5 million
• Slovenian: 2,8 million
Number of enrollments
• Record English : 370.000 -> 0,0308%
• Record Lithuanian : 2009 -> 0,0446%
• Upcoming Slovenia MOOC
record if number of participants > 1249

23. Lithuanian MOOC: Information Technologies
By Kaunas University of Technology, partner of
• Started 31 October 2014, duration 6 weeks
• Own platform (Moodle based)
Participants:
• enrollments: 2009
• participants in the first week:1450 (72%)
• participants that completed the MOOC: 625 (31%)
• with a formal certificate (to be paid for): 307 (16%)

24. Examples MOOC certificates
•Iversity
• Certificate of Accomplishment
• Certificate Supplement
• Certificate Track (with a final graded course
project)
•Coursera
• Verified certificates
• Specialization certificate by doing Capstone project
(only after several verified certificates)
•EdX
• honor code certificates of achievement
• verified certificates of achievement
• XSeries certificates of achievement.
•Future Learn
• Statement of Participation
• Statement of Attainment

26. http://poetsandquants.com/2015/05/06/coursera-ceo-employers-
recognizing-the-value-of-online-learning/3/

28. http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/mooc-test-
agreement-between-futurelearn-and-pearson/2020145.article

29. Costs for participants, per MOOC
FutureLearn: £110
Coursera: varies, typical $50 - $100
But not part of a formal qualification from a University

30. Costs for full-time students per credit
Annual tuition costs students
• UK: £9000 a year
• Belgium: €835
• Germany: €0 a year
Completing 15 ECTS each year
• UK: £600 per ECTS
• Belgium: €56 per ECTS
• Germany: €0 per ECTS
MOOC typically between 1 and 4 ECTS

31. http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/education/eurydice/documents/facts_and_figures/fees_support.pdf

32. MOOCs are an alternative for
full-time students UK, US, …
But MOOCs are too expensive
for full-time students in
Europe (outside UK)
Are MOOCs mainly a solution
- for part-time students?
- for CPD?

33. http://blog.openclassrooms.com/2015/04/french-
president-hollande-announces-unlimited-access-to-
openclassrooms-for-all-jobseekers/

34. Reflections on MOOCs (survey HOME / EADTU)
•European institution more involved in MOOCs than the US
•The number of European institutions with MOOC involvement is increasing
•MOOCs are perceived as a sustainable method for offering courses in Europe.
•In Europe the institutions are increasingly developing a positive attitude to
MOOCs and have positive experiences for the added values of MOOCs.
•Most dominant objective in all studies is to increase institutional visibility and
using MOOCs for reputation reasons.
•In the US using MOOCs for student recruitment is seen as the most important
primary objective of institutions, while in Europe it is rather to reach new
students and creating flexible learning opportunities

35. http://econ.st/1yrDHlV

36. Europe must “seize this moment”
The “Porto Declaration on European MOOCs”
- embracement of openness for all
- a collective European response
- strengthening of collaboration of universities across Europe.
It is essential that a cohesive and collaborative effort is adopted in
Europe to counteract the risks and to fully realise the opportunities of
open and online education (including equity, inclusion, etc.)

37. Diversity as a strength?
“When I see the cultural diversity that exists today, I feel that we must
defend it, and we need Europe, because otherwise we are going to
live in a society with a single model, the Anglo-American model.”
Jean-Pierre Raffarin
“Diversity: the art of thinking independently together.”
Malcolm Forbes
“It is difference of opinion that makes horse races.”
Mark Twain

38.  Decentralised model for MOOC platforms (ECO, OpenupEd)
 Central platform supporting many languages (EMMA)
 Translation / language services (EMMA)
 Developing additional pedagogical&didactical approaches (e.g., sMOOC)
 Quality label for MOOCS embracing diversity in approaches (OpenupEd)
 Training teachers and others in developing MOOCs (ECO)
 Questionnaire for MOOC participants including intention, motivation,
impact (MOOCKnowlegde)
 Benchmarking institutional and governmental MOOC strategies (HOME)
 Building on expert networks (HOME)
 Regional support centres for open education and MOOCs (SCORE2020)
 Removing barriers to learning both at the entry into learning and along
the learning path
 Focusing on inclusion, social mobility, equity

39. Using diversity as a strength!
Many European platforms and many MOOC service providers
Developing a ‘framework’ for cohesive and collaborative effort
Pro-active coordination for diverse MOOCs services for all
Embrace different solutions – objectives – target groups – pedagogical
approaches – languages – etc.

40. Thank you!!!
Darco.Jansen@eadtu.eu
Coordinator
Coordinator