MOOCs began in 2011 with large enrollments but issues with assessment and accreditation. While they provide benefits like brand awareness and education democratization, their sustainability is unclear given high production costs of hundreds of hours per hour of video content. MOOCs reach massive scales but face-to-face education is also massive globally. Reusing MOOC material in blended learning shows promise. Learning analytics must address student heterogeneity across courses and institutions.

1. a bit about MOOCs:
past, present and future
Alan Dix
Talis and University of Birmingham
http://alandix.com/academic/talks/uxday-2017/

2. Tiree
Tiree Tech Wave
23-27 March 2017
University of
Birmingham

3. today I am not talking about …
• intelligent internet interfaces
• visualisation and sampling
• small device – large display interactions
• fun and games, virtual crackers,
artistic performance, slow time
• physicality and product design
• creativity and Bad Ideas
• modelling dream, regret,
the emergence of self

4. … or even lots of lights
http:/www.hcibook.com/alan/projects/firefly/

5. REF
analysis
musicology
data
open data
islands &
communities
Alan walks
Wales OR …

6. Mathieu Plourde {(Mathplourde on Flickr) - http://www.flickr.com/photos/mathplourde/8620174342/sizes/l/in/photostream/

7. first MOOC?
Sept/ 2011, Sebastian Thrun’s
Intro. to Artificial Intelligence
160,000 signups
… but for what?
TAs doing assessment … but issues of accreditation
filmed in his basement …

8. … and then …

9. benefits
brand awareness (overseas student recruitment)
development consultancy (platform providers)
democratisation of education (… but who pays?)
sustainable?

10. use?
‘drop out’ often 90-99%
but does that matter?
success as accomplishing own goals
N.B. FutureLearn and P2PU a lot better
democratisation?
most students graduates and western

11. life before the MOOC?

12. … before the
MOOC

14. let’s have a go

15. online HCI course
ran early 2013
to gain experience
with ‘MOOCs’
and reusable materials
now hosted at OER site
interaction-design.org
Human–Computer
Interaction

16. low cost production
talk-over slides
+ head & shoulders video
+ additional resources
development
~ 3–4 months
~ 25 hours video
academic sharing quality

17. reuse in flip / blended learning
Autumn 2014 course
mix of UG3 & MSc
portion of course (4 weeks)
mixing video with face-to-face
Spring 2015 course
masters students only
single session

18. different mixes
basics + integration
preparatory videos on ‘basics’ followed by
integrative lecture (chalk & talk!)
2 fully flipped
videos followed by discoursive F2F
videos followed by group discussions
2 part & part
all material on video, some also taught in class
N.B. noticable attendance fall-off when told in advance!
70 students
20 students

19. Talis lighthouse pilot
universal player
micro-analytics …
individual course
resource
student

20. analytics – who read/viewed what
typically about 1/3 watch everything, 1/3 some,
1/3 none at all!
used stats to ‘encourage’ students in class
N.B. did not look at individual
student analytics
students did not seem
phased by this level of
analytics

21. analytics – how much
journal paper PDF
recommended reading
most students just
read beginning
in class explained
structure of paper

23. every one loves a MOOC
(well they did in 2013!)
but what does it cost?

24. Effort: Glasgow University FutureLearn
Two courses:
Right vs Might
360 hours academic + 800 hrs learning technologist
(development only)
2.5 hours of video + supporting resources
656 participants (first run)
Genomics
2236 hours academic (development only)
6 hours video + supporting resources
747 participants (first run)
Source: Building and Executing MOOCs: A practical review of Glasgow’s first two MOOCs
J. Kerr, S. Houston, L. Marks, A. Richford (2015)

25. Comparison
• MOOCs
– 400 hours development time per hour video
– 700 participants per run (time amortised)
– £29 statement of participation (~15% takeup)
• Traditional Classroom
– 2–4 hours preparation per hour lecture
– 50-200 students per lecture (time repeated)
– £9000 fees (for ~ 200-300 hours lectures)

26. Bottom line
MOOCs vs classroom
10 times as many students
100 times the effort
1/30 payment / student–hour

27. other estimates?
$39K to $325K per MOOC
$74-$272 per completer
Source: Resource Requirements and Costs of Developing and Delivering MOOCs.
Hollands and Tirthali (2014)
Udacity ~ $200K per course
EdX ~ $250K design + $50K per run
Source: Why MOOCs Aren't So Cheap ... for Colleges. Fiscal Times (2013)
High quality video ~ $4K per hour (1)
~ $2.5K–10K per minute (2)
Source: (1) MOOCs: Expectations and Reality Hollands and Tirthali (2014)
(2) What does a corporate web video cost? Fox (2010)

29. massive
does size matter?

30. what is scale?
Seminar – 10s of students
Lecture – 100s of students
MOOC – 10,000s of students

31. … but …

32. 1 0 0 million
new tertiary students
every year
face to face learning …

34. growth … total tertiary students
2010 – 180 million
2025 – 260 million
40%

35. face to face
learning
is @ scale

36. Talis Aspire Reading List
store and structure
course resources
embedded in VLE
connects with course
management and
learning analytics

37. Talis Aspire Reading Lists … scale …

38. Talis lighthouse pilot
universal player
micro-analytics …
individual course
resource
student

39. scale
up and down

41. reuse offline?

42. reuse and online ’content’
online ‘content delivery’:
senior mgt pressure since 1990s
principally for cost saving!
reuse:
LOs, SCORM, Tin-Can API
we all know it’s good 
in HE use still limited
Jorum
https://pixabay.com/en/headstone-cemetery-grave-graveyard-312540/
http://iwantmyanime.deviantart.com/art/Stork-Commission-180796355

43. small is beautiful
video length:
often suggested 4 mins or even 2 mins
smaller resources improve engagement (Ferriday)
we saw 10 mins OK  but 20 mins too long 
=> need better ways to create, edit and
manage smaller videos
both for in-class and flipped use

44. small things matter
already added end as well as start times in Player
maybe need better
fade-in – fade-out
for audio
sharing portions
not just whole videos
narrative matters

45. all digital?

46. semantic textbook
– data meets text
book
MCQs
videos
slides

48. learning analytics
big data for education

49. MOOC scale
lots of students
following the same course
large volumes of homogeneous data

50. heterogeneity
courses and
institutions
individuality
learning styles
patterns of viewing
cross-institutional
issues
ownership and
privacy

51. abstracting heterogeneity ?
individual traces  classes of behaviour
 big data analysis  pedagogic feedback

52. reality more complex

53. … and very messy
lots of work still to do!

54. both user and researcher
~ 3 ½ mins
skim to
page 21
1 min skim
to page 14
50 secs on
pages 14&15
25 secs on
page 21
skim
to end

56. in summary
MOOCs (potential) benefits
… but costly … sustainability?
face to face is also massive!
(re)use MOOC-like material in class?
analytics of heterogeneity

57. beer …