Unisa keynote Innovation in ODL Research Teaching and Learning March 2014 This presentation content is the same as I have presented at Unisa but due to copyright issues that had been identified later I have changed some of the images

1. © University of Reading 2008 www.reading.ac.uk
School of Systems Engineering
Massive Open Online
Courses (MOOCs)
Dr. Tharindu Liyanagunawardena

2. Agenda for today
• A Glance at MOOCs
• Current Developments
• Participation in MOOCs
• Appeal for Developing Countries
• Opportunities and Challenges
• Learner Persona Analysis
• Platform Support
• Summing up
2

3. What is a MOOC?
3
Image: Mathieu Plourde http://www.flickr.com/photos/mathplourde/10425003764/sizes/l/

4. 4
Massive Open Online Courses
• MOOCs open up learning opportunities
– Think Again: How to Reason and Argue,
Duke University on Coursera – 226,652
– Social Psychology, Wesleyan University
on Coursera – 200,000+
– AI 2012, Stanford University on Udacity
– 160,000 from 209 countries

5. • Large numbers sign up for MOOCs
– From around the world
• … but
• EdX
– 2.7% from Least Developed Countries
– 29% female (Ho, et. al 2014)
• Coursera
– OECD 65.3%, BRICS 14.8%,
– Other Developing 19.9%
– 41% female
– 79.4% Bachelor’s degree or
higher level of education
(Christensen, et. al 2013)
5

6. Brief History
• Connectivism and Connective Knowledge 2008
(CCK08)
• Facilitators
– George Siemens
– Stephen Downes
• University of Manitoba, Canada
– 25 paid enrolments (for credit)
– ~2,200 non-credit, non-fee paying students
• Multiple Learning Spaces
– More than 12 different tools and technological environments
(Fini 2009)
– from a VLE (Moodle) to 3D environments (Second Life)
6

7. A timeline
7
(Yuan &Powell 2013)

8. Coursera
8

9. edX
9

10. FutureLearn
10

11. Rwaq
11

12. Xuetangx
12

13. Other Language support
• Rwaq (Arabic)
• Xuetangx (Chinese)
• Mirianda X (Spanish, Portugues)
• Many more.....
• 28 MOOC Platforms identified
http://openeducationmooc.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/mooc-
platforms-december-2013.html (as of December 2013)
13

14. • 2008-2012
14
Liyanagunawardena, Adams & Williams (2013)
Systematic Review of
Literature

15. Participation in MOOCs
• Have you participated in a MOOC?
• Some MOOCs
– Edfuture
– OLDS-MOOC
– Open Education
– Learn to Program
– Begin Programming
– Social Network Analysis
– Introduction to Forensics Science
– History and Future of (Mostly) Higher Education
• Lost count!
15

16. MOOC Completion Rates
• 'Completion rate' is typically defined as the number
who earned a certificate of completion or 'passed' the
course
– Katy Jordan
MOOC Completion Rates: The Data
http://www.katyjordan.com/MOOCproject.html
16

17. Some Completion Rates
• Think Again: How to Reason and Argue
– 2,274 Minimum Grade, 3,048 with Distinction
– 5,322 / 226,652 2.35%
• Social Psychology
– ~8,000 Completed
– 8,000 / 200,000  ~4%
• AI
– ~20,000 Completed
– 20,000 / 160,000  ~12.5%
17
https://www.coursera.org/course/thinkagain

18. Dropout
• This is what we see in reports
– “Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have an expected
90% dropout rate which is not considered a problem” (Londeore,
2013)
• But what is ‘dropout’?
• 100 minus completed % ?
• Then what is 100% ?
– Only 50-60% of enrolled come to the first class
• What about learner intentions?
• Inadequate attention to defining dropout?
(Liyanagunawardena, Parslow & Williams 2014)
http://www.survey.bris.ac.uk/reading/mooc_dropout
18

19. MOOCs are Different
Traditional Courses
• Enrolment and tuition
fees charged
• Registration frozen before
commencement
MOOC
• No fee (for basic offering)
• Generally registration
open while course is
offered
• Can drop in-out
• ‘Risk free’ exploration
• Different engagement
contract
19Photo: AJ Cann http://www.flickr.com/photos/ajc1/7566869868/sizes/m/
“drop outs represent risks and
challenges of Openness and
inclusion” (COL, 2013)

20. Empirical Evidence
Typical Coursera MOOC
• Enrolments 40,000-
60,000
• Free
• First class – 50-60%
returned
• Completion – 5%
Signature Track Scheme
• US$30-100
• Completion 74%
• Suggests financial stake
provide additional
incentive to complete
20
‘retention in MOOCs should be evaluated within the context
of learner intent’ (Koller et, al., 2013: p62)

21. Appeal for Developing
Countries
• Open – how open?
• Free – really?
• Opportunity
– Learning
– Researching
– For us to be heard
Must read work of Laura Czerniewicz – University of Cape Town
• Prestige?
– ‘[i]n Uganda, it’s quite possible that a few Coursera certificates, even if
they don’t add up to a real degree, might in fact be worth more than a
degree from Ankole Western University [..] because the prestige of the
western universities from which those certificates will come is so much
higher than that of the local universities, and will offset the fact that
they don’t quite add up to a real degree’ Usher (2013).
21

22. MOOCs in Developing
Countries
• 24th
February 2014
• Internet.org Announces SocialEDU
• A pilot initiative in Rwanda
– Free content
– Free data
– Affordable smartphones
– Localized, social educational experience
– A government that supports innovation
http://newsroom.fb.com/News/808/SocialEDU
22

23. • École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL),
Switzerland
– MOOCs for Africa a Unique Opportunity
– EPFL – Blended form of delivery 95% + completion rates
23http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxp1p-pqpls

24. • African Management Initiative (AMI)
– The first Massively Open Online Course (MOOC) designed by
Africans for Africans
– Business education tailored for African SMEs and young
managers and/or knowledge workers
– Longer-term vision for the AMI Virtual Campus
• EducateMe360 – Education Is A Right And Not A
Privilege
– Indian Trust
– Open Source
24

25. • unX
– MOOCs in Latin America
– http://www.redunx.org/
– Spanish Platform
• MOOC.org
– Open edX
– Google
– MOOC platform for anyone to use
25

26. Review on MOOCs:Health &
Medicine
• A review of Health & Medicine MOOCs
• 01st
Jan 2013 – 31st
Dec 2013
• 98 MOOCs
• 70% - North American
• Only 2 MOOCs offered by Universities in Developing
Countries
– St. George’s University, Grenada – West Indies
– Shanghai Jiao Tong University - China
26
Liyanagunawardena, T.R. & Williams, S.A – MediMOOC Work in progress

27. Learner Personas
27
• Raj
– 35 Years
– IT Professional
– Bangalore city apartment
– Hindi, English & French
– People Management
– Potential opening in
Managerial capacity

28. • Dian
– 26 Years
– Secondary School Teacher
– School has the state of art
computer facilities
– Lives in Kuala Lumpur
– Malay & little bit of English
– No IT Skills
– Wants to find teaching material
to improve the course she
teaches (‘History of Malaysia’)
28

29. • Eric
– 23 Years
– Dropped out of College
– Bujumbura (Burundi)
– Only Speaks Kirundi
– Some IT Skills
– No access to computers
or Internet
– Gets electricity 3 days a
week
– Wants to improve his
employability
29

30. • Sunil
– 65 Years
– Retired Director of a Government
Department
– Lives in Galle (Sri Lanka)
– Sinhala & English
– Learning to use a computer
– Has Internet access to home
– Wants to learn about Disaster
Management in his spare time
30

31. What challenges will they
face?
• Language
• Digital Literacy
– IT skills
– Critically analysing digital content
• Physical Access to computers/Internet
– Equipment access
– Data download (costly in some parts of the world)
• Cultural issues
– Who’s perspective of History
– Ability to apply Western Management practices
– ‘Cultural Translation’ (Nkuyubwatsi 2014)
31

32. • Copy right
– Can Dian use content from a MOOC to teach in her course?
• Learner support
– Sunil, Eric and Dian may need lot more support initially
• Style of T&L
• Accreditation and recognition?
• ...
32

33. What form of support is
there?
• Platform Support
– Coursera
– Prof. Andrew Ng – co founder Coursera at EMOOCs2014
• Mobile App
• Allow download of content
• Internationalization of the site
• Translation Partnerships
• Discoverability
• Coursera Financial Aid
• Learning Hubs programme
33

34. Summing up
• MOOCs and their spread
• Appeal for Developing Countries
• Opportunities and Challenges
• Our learners and their needs
34

35. Bibliography
• Christensen, G., Steinmetz, A., Alcorn, B., Bennett, A., Woods, D., & Emanuel, E.J. (2013). The MOOC Phenomenon:
Who Takes Massive Open Online Courses and Why?, Retrieved from
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2350964
• Commonwealth of Learning, (December 5, 2013). PCF7: Alan Tait Makes Case for Open Universities as Agents of
Empowerment and Transformation, PCF7 News Flash,
http://www.col.org/SiteCollectionDocuments/PCF7-Bulletin_Day3.pdf
• Fini, A. (2009). The Technological Dimension of a Massive Open Online Course: The Case of the CCK08 Course
Tools. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 10(5).
• Ho, A. D., Reich, J., Nesterko, S., Seaton, D. T., Mullaney, T., Waldo, J., & Chuang, I. (2014). HarvardX and MITx: The
first year of open online courses (HarvardX and MITx Working Paper No. 1), Retrieved from
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2381263
• Koller, D., Ng, A., Do, C., & Chen, Z. (2013). Retention and Intention in Massive Open Online Courses. EDUCAUSE
review, May/June 2, 62–63.
• Liyanagunawardena, T. R., Adams, A. A., & Williams, S. (2013). MOOCs: a Systematic Study of the Published
Literature 2008-2012, International review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 14(3), 202-227.
• Liyanagunawardena, T., Williams, S. and Adams, A. (2013) The impact and reach of MOOCs:a developing countries’
perspective. eLearning Papers (33). ISSN 1887-1542
• Liyanagunawardena, T. R., Parslow, P. and Williams, S. (2014) Dropout: MOOC participants’perspective. In: EMOOCs 2014,
the Second MOOC European Stakeholders Summit, 10-12 th February 2014, Lausanne, Switzerland, pp. 95-100.
• Londeore, C. (September 17, 2013). Tales of MOOC Dropout, http://www.hybridpedagogy.com/journal/tales-of-a-mooc-
dropout/
• Nkuyubwatsi, B. (2014). Cultural Translation in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), In: EMOOCs 2014, the
Second MOOC European Stakeholders Summit, 10-12 th February 2014, Lausanne, Switzerland, pp.122-129.
• Usher, A. ( March 7, 2013). African Higher Education Offshore Education: MOOCs in Africa, Higher Education
Strategy Associates, http://higheredstrategy.com/offshore-education-moocs-in-africa-2/
• Yuan, L., & Powell, S. (2013). MOOCs and Open Education: Implications for Higher Education - A white paper, JISC
CETIS (Centre for Educational Technology & Interoperability Standards). Retrieved from
http://publications.cetis.ac.uk/2013/667 35

36. Thank you
36
Dr. Tharindu R. Liyanagunawardena t.r.liyanagunawardena@reading.ac.uk
Please take part in the survey at
http://www.survey.bris.ac.uk/reading/mooc_d
ropout

37. 37
http://harvardx.harvard.edu/harvardx-insights/world-map-enrollment
Back

38. 38
Back
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/12/10/coursera-launches-ios-app-let-students-
learn-go-says-android-app-coming-soon/#!xMmOn

39. 39
https://d396qusza40orc.cloudfront.net/students%2FScreen%20Shot%202013-10-30%20at%2011.47.34%20PM.png
Back

40. An Example
40

41. 41

42. 42

43. 43