Report on my experiment on DOCCs (Distributed Online Collaborative Course) using Cathy Davidson's Coursera MOCC, The History and Future of Higher Education. Syllabus here: https://canvas.instructure.com/courses/815685/assignments/syllabus

1. Experimenting between
MOOCs and DOCCs
Adeline Koh @adelinekoh
Tuesday, March 18, 14

2. MOOCs: The Explosion
• First courses in February 2012 by
Sebastian Thrun (then of Stanford)
• Major players: Udacity, Coursera,
Harvard’s EdX
• Promises:
• scale,
• making education affordable
• global reach
• Criticisms
• Not good pedagogy, as it is
primarily content-based and
lecture-based
• Low retention rates
• New Scientist article in March
2014: Who takes MOOCs?
Educated, Employed, First
World Men. http://
www.slate.com/articles/
health_and_science/
Tuesday, March 18, 14

3. Anti-MOOCs: FemTechNet’s DOCC
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4. DOCCs: Emphasis on building community rather than content delivery:
a specifically feminist pedagogy
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5. Cathy Davidson’s #FutureEd Coursera MOOC turned into a DOCC
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6. Similar to #FemTechNet: encourages creation of community through
feedback, peer grading
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7. Used #FutureEd in my MA level course, Introduction to Digital
Humanities. Link to syllabus: http://tinyurl.com/kohdh
Tuesday, March 18, 14

8. • Student learning about the industrial model for education rather than
specialized, individual-focused education that is peer driven
• Students working on:
• Coming up with their own “Class Manifesto”
• Remixing the Syllabus
• Coming up with their own “grading contracts”
Most Valuable Exercises
Tuesday, March 18, 14

9. Highlights: Class Manifesto
• “AMST 5011 is an experimental graduate level course committed to identifying,
evaluating, creating and rethinking solutions to educational challenges that our
changing society faces in the twenty-first century. We aim to seize opportunities
to fully realize and harness the possibilities of twenty-first-century literacies,
which we define as the mindsets, skills, and collaborative techniques needed to
make full use of the Internet as a space of learning. We believe that the Internet
and technology are changing how individuals and communities understand
themselves and the world around them, and that this connected age offers a
tremendous opportunity to make teaching, learning, and knowledge more
accessible, more affordable, and more meaningful for everyone involved. AMST
5011’s purpose is to examine the ways in which technology influences
educational dynamics and to collaboratively propose and share new
possibilities for the Information Age so that we--scholars, teachers, and
students--can best respond collectively to the challenges this new
paradigm poses for learning.”
Tuesday, March 18, 14

10. Highlights: Class Manifesto
• AMST 5011 Class Goals and Practices for the Semester (Spring 2014)
• Create an evolving individual online presence aimed at advancing our digital literacy to
exemplify the possibilities of technology in higher education
• Collaborate in a constructive manner as we assign, guide, and assess the work of peers.
• Practice judicious time management in assigning tasks to others and completing our own.
• Arrive to class on time, fully prepared to participate, having completed assignments on time.
• Represent ourselves and the class both online and face-to-face as engaged scholars who
are committed to advancing the above principles.
Tuesday, March 18, 14

11. Highlights: Grading Contract
• Contract Grading + Peer Evaluation: Explanation and Contract
Evaluation Method:
You determine your grade for this course by fulfilling a contract that spells out in advance
the requirements as well as the penalties for not fulfilling the terms of your contract.
Learning together giving and receiving feedback is the core concept of our class.
Every student will be responsible for submitting to Professor Koh anonymous peer-
grading of his classmates twice this semester, a midterm evaluation (due by March
7th) and the final (due by April 23d). A peer grader will evaluate the work of his / her
classmates using Satisfactory / Unsatisfactory descriptive evaluation format (up to 300
words). The unsatisfactory midterm peer assessment is intended to provide the
opportunity for a student to improve his / her performance by the final evaluation. In case
of a student receiving an Unsatisfactory peer evaluation, recommendations for
improvements are to be determined by the peers collaboratively. The goal is for everyone
to produce satisfactory work, and the peers will work with each student to achieve that
goal.
Tuesday, March 18, 14

12. Highlights: Grading Contract
• Contract Grading:
The advantage of contract grading is that, the student, decides how much work
he / she wishes to do this semester; if the work is completed on time and
satisfactorily, the student will receive the grade for which he / she contracted. This
means planning ahead, thinking about all of the obligations and responsibilities
this semester and also determining desired grade in the course.
Tuesday, March 18, 14

13. Results
• Most empowered class of students I’ve ever had the experience of teaching
• Great commitment to work that goes over and above the other classes that
I’ve taught
• Collegial classroom environment
• Amazing levels of engagement
Tuesday, March 18, 14

14. Challenges
• Faculty “loss of control”
• Giving up power, stepping outside of the classroom when students work
on these documents
• Faculty fear of lacking “rigor” etc. versus student empowerment, plus
emphasis on collaboration
• How to move beyond these issues?
Tuesday, March 18, 14

15. Finally... I leave you with a Youtube video created by my student William Albertson
as part of his work for the class. Available here and on his website, http://
wpastocktondh.com/
Tuesday, March 18, 14