This work by Ted O’Neill @gotanda is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution--ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

Getting to the Point: The Least Educators Need to Know About

Massively OpenOnline Courses

Now

Ted O’Neillhttp://eltted.com @gotanda

Tokyo Medical and Dental University

IAFOR Asian Conference on Society, Education& Technology 24 October 2013

Thank you very much for attending this talk, or for downloading this presentation. And, thank you to the International Academic Forum for inviting me to speak at the Inaugural Asian Conference on Society, Education and Technology.<http://iafor.org/>.

Please do email me <gotanda@gmail.com>.

Image: cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo by Jessica Spengler: http://flickr.com/photos/wordridden/3117638263/

There is a huge educational technology bubble expanding in Silicon Valley and Wall Street.With 65 million venture capital funding for Coursera, and well over 100 million total for MOOC providers, there is a lot of pressure on educators. We need to know what we are facing.

cc licensed ( BY SA ) flickr photo by A Watters: http://flickr.com/photos/surreal_badger/8573233746/

This is how many of my friends and colleagues feel when I talk, tweet, or post about MOOCs, but throwing up our hands and saying “What?” isnʼT an effective strategy. We need to understand MOOCs to choose how and when to engage with them.

The problems are many. And, the more I look, the more I find.It is very easy to make a case that all MOOCs are destructive.

The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains Nicholas CarrEvgeny Morozov <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evgeny_Morozov>Andrew Keen The Cult of the Amateur <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cult_of_the_Amateur>

All make arguments that the Internet is dumbing us down and that amateur peer assessment may be devaluing the role of knowledgable and experienced teachers. Have you ever read the comments on a YouTube video or a popular news article?

But even if you take these arguments we are stuck with MOOCs and as educators.

Image: cc licensed ( BY SA ) flickr photo by A Watters: http://flickr.com/photos/surreal_badger/8573233746/

This image is a pretty good first look at what MOOCs are and how learning takes place in them. content in the form of texts and videos, tweets, blog posts, webinars and webinar recordings, tags, and Facebook updates are all part of the mix.

This image shows the network aspect of MOOCs, and each icon is a node in the “course” representing a connection, interaction, or new creative response. MOOCs and nodal learning in a network. Each node represents potential new learning and creation of new knowledge.

When most people hear the term MOOC, if it means anything to hem at all, they probably think of one of these corporate or institutional MOOC providers. They get all the attention, but are not the whole story. These are the newcomers. The real story is much more interesting.

How many people have...enrolled in a MOOC?then gone on to actually participate?completed?not sure if they have completed?

That last is a key question. MOOCs have been criticized for low completion rates, but thatis misleadingAlso, completion is not well defined in some MOOCs.

Coursera: Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller from Stanford University 2012 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CourseraedX: Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University in May 2012 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/edXUdemy: Eren Bali, Oktay Caglar, and Gagan Biyani in 2010. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UdemyUdacity: Sebastian Thrun, David Stavens, and Mike Sokolsky 2012 (first course 2011) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udacity

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo by Steve Jurvetson: http://flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/5577603704/

If you have not completed you are in good company.Sebastian Thrun, CEO of Udacity, recently admitted that he has yet to complete a MOOC.

Udacity's Sebastian Thrun On the Future of EducationBetsy Corcoran 3 April 2013https://www.edsurge.com/n/2013-04-02-udacity-s-sebastian-thrun-on-the-future-of-education

Image: cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo by Steve Jurvetson: http://flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/5577603704/

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo by M

athieu Plourde: http://flickr.com/photos/m

athplourde/8620174342/

Dave Cormier and Bryan Alexander coined the term MOOC for George Siemensʼ and Stephen Downesʼ course on learning theory in 2008 when they wanted to exemplify this learning theory in their teaching and opened their course to over 2,000 students.

Image: cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo by Mathieu Plourde: http://flickr.com/photos/mathplourde/8620174342/

M is for Massive

Stephen Downes has posited Dunbar's number as a kind of minimum threshold for massiveness. But, that 150 means 150 fully active participants.

What Makes a MOOC Massive?January 17, 2013Stephen Downeshttp://halfanhour.blogspot.ca/2013/01/what-makes-mooc-massive.html

O is for OpenOpenness is key

ContentEnrollmentCostDirection

Image CC Flickr user jacki-dee

O is for online.Take advantage of the affordances of digital technology to create complex networks of learning nodes.

Image: Image CC Flickr user jacki-dee

Image CC OLDS MOOC JISC http://www.olds.ac.uk/

Course

We all know what a course is, right?And if that is what is replicated, then what is the point?

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo by aussiegall: http://flickr.com/photos/aussiegall/5206084063/

Not just the directions and interactions, but the choice of tools is determined by the participants.Use Twitter, FB, Google+, blogs, even email. Users situate the course where it is comfortable for them.It is not situated in an institutional LMS.

Image: cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo by aussiegall: http://flickr.com/photos/aussiegall/5206084063/

Image CC Steve Jurvetson

Image Twitter Conversations Visualized Martin Hawksey http://octel.alt.ac.uk/course-discussions/twitter-conversation-visualised/

Participants in a MOOCs create two networks and most importantly take those two networks with them.

One network is the connected learning nodes.The other is the network of participants themselves. In some senses, I feel I that I have never completed this MOOC because I continue to exchange ideas with many of these participants long after the MOOC is “done”.

Image Twitter Conversations Visualized Martin Hawksey http://octel.alt.ac.uk/course-discussions/twitter-conversation-visualised/

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo by bixentro: http://flickr.com/photos/bixentro/2348232234/

There are two main classifications of MOOC

xMOOCsCorporate, content-based, potentially very large, well funded, bringing learners inside the institution. Emerged from software, and venture capital culture of Silicon Valley.

cMOOCsCommunity driven, interaction-based, inquiry, taking learners out of the institution. Emerged from psychologists, learning theorists, and digital humanities.

Image: cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo by bixentro: http://flickr.com/photos/bixentro/2348232234/

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Think of the term xMOOCs as analogous to TEDx, where a TED conference is set in a place and draws on the experts there. xMOOCs are set in institutions and may promote the leading or prestigious faculty there.

xMOOCs begin as collections of content and conventional activities such as quizzes, small group discussions, and essays or assignments for peer review.

Image: cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo by Dave: http://flickr.com/photos/agentdavidov/2921954993/

These are the big xMOOC providers.Also, now Google. Too soon to tell if the open platform, or the tech industry target is most important.

It's a bait and switch. The first taste is always free as they say in some industries.xMOOCs have appropriated the model by taking something closed and just calling it open and free.

edX is inching the right way towards creative commons and GPL.In tech they say "Open always wins." or "Open beats closed." I hope so.

cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo by James F Clay: http://flickr.com/photos/jamesclay/2890229556/

Who are xMOOCs good for?The incumbents: prestige universitiesStar facultyPrepared learners who need access (the proverbial precocious high school student who needs tensors, or the motivated student in a developing country)Those who want to fill in the gaps (the biology student who wants to take a flyer on poetry, or the adult who wants to really learn the Western CIv they forgot from college.)Positioned as a substitute for higher education courses, these are better as adjuncts to it.

“Thrun in a Wired Magazine interview: Thrun "imagines that in 10 years, job applicants will tout their Udacity degrees. In 50 years, he says, there will be only 10 institutions in the world delivering higher education and Udacity has a shot at being one of them."A Future With Only 10 Universities (Minding the Future, #OpenVA)Audrey Watters15 October 2013http://www.hackeducation.com/2013/10/15/minding-the-future-openva/

Image: cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo by James F Clay: http://flickr.com/photos/jamesclay/2890229556/

cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo by Chris Campbell: http://flickr.com/photos/cgc/473027823/

Who are xMOOCs bad for?

Students who are unprepared. MOOCs for remedial work?Ironically, people who can't afford to go to college, because they may not have the other supports.For profit online universities. Why pay when you can get the same for free or cheap?Workaday educators. English 101 and Calculus 2 puts bread on the table.Graduate students. When xMOOCs stumble, conveners seem to call in the grad students. I believe they are already overworked

Image: cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo by Chris Campbell: http://flickr.com/photos/cgc/473027823/

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Will MOOCs lower the cost of higher education?No.

“Free” will disappear or be costs shifted with assessment, accreditation, etc,The actual cost of teaching is not the driver of cost increases.

These are:Amenities to compete for studentsAdministration and management overheadSports teamsSignature building projectsPeripheral servicesInelastic demand coupled with easy access to credit

cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo by Iowa Digital Library: http://flickr.com/photos/uiowa/8047289330/

And this is already a pretty efficient model.

Image: cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo by Iowa Digital Library: http://flickr.com/photos/uiowa/8047289330/

From What are the BIG QUESTIONS in TEL?

Diana Laurillard London Knowledge Lab Institute of Education http://octel.alt.ac.uk/course-materials/

Basic MOOCs without professor intervention are cheap per student.MOOCs with significant faculty input do not scale and are not cheap.

If scaling up will not save money, and only new pedagogies can help? Where will these come from?Not from xMOOCs, but from cMOOCs, perhaps, if at all.

cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo by Paul Robinson: http://flickr.com/photos/happyfunpaul/3526869185/

Not really MOOCs and not really successful.44 vs 74 for college algebra29 vs 80 for remedial math

SJSU MOOC Study Reveals Achievement Gains but Low Retention RatesJohn K. Waters3 September 2013“three courses, which were structured as MOOCs, though they were limited to 100 students per class”

San Jose State U. Puts MOOC Project With Udacity on HoldSteve Kolowisch19 July 2013The Chronicle of Higher Educationhttp://chronicle.com/article/San-Jose-State-U-Puts-MOOC/140459/“The pass rates for the San Jose State students in those courses ranged from 29 percent to 51 percent.”“Those rates might seem quite low, but Ms. Desousa said they were "not bad" for her developmental math course, especially given the online format.” -Especially given the online format?

San Jose State’s MOOC Missteps Easy to SeeDiverse: Issues in Higher Education29 July 2013Anya Kamenetzhttp://diverseeducation.com/article/54903/

“However, that was not the case here. These were the pass rates for the three courses:29 percent passed the Udacity Remedial/Developmental Math course compared to 80 percent in the regular face-to-face version of the course. Only 12 percent of non-SJSU students in the Udacity version of the course passed.44 percent of San Jose students passed College Algebra compared to a 74-percent pass rate in the face-to-face version. Only 12 percent of non-SJSU students passed.51 percent passed the most difficult class, Statistics, compared to 74 percent for face to face.”

Udacity Project on 'Pause'Inside Higher Ed18 July 2013Ry Rivardhttp://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/07/18/citing-disappointing-student-outcomes-san-jose-state-pauses-work-udacity

MOOC mashup: San Jose State University -- Udacity experiment with online-only courses fizzlesKell Fujimoto and Elizabeth Cara19 July 2013http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_23688069/mooc-mashup-san-jose-state-university-udacity-experiment

“44 percent of San Jose students achieved the required C pass rate compared to a 74 percent C pass rate in the face-to-face version.”

xMOOCs overpromise and underdeliver.

Is it the end of the university lecture.

Is it really the end of the "sage on the stage"? If that is even a real problem.97% of MOOCs include video. *Many have significant video lectures from the organizersThe webinar featuring an invited expert is commonplaceIn place of the sage on the stage, I'm calling this the Celeb on the Web.And their stage has just gotten so much larger

Looking at responses to xMOOCsAmherst College faculty recently rejected joining EdX for these reasons:They poach tuition from middle and lower-ranked schoolsLead to the centralization of higher educationMake the star faculty system even worse **

* The Professors Behind the MOOC HypeSteve KolowichMarch 18, 2013The Chronicle of Higher Educationhttp://chronicle.com/article/The-Professors-Behind-the-MOOC/137905/?cid=wb&utm_source=wb&utm_medium=en#id=overview

**Why Some Colleges Are Saying No to MOOC Deals, at Least for NowSteve KolowichApril 29, 2013The Chronicle of Higher Educationhttp://chronicle.com/article/Why-Some-Colleges-Are-Saying/138863/

cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo by Kristina Alexanderson: http://flickr.com/photos/kalexanderson/6701174223/

cMOOCs are the “real” MOOCs

Cormier and Alexander coined the term MOOCs to describe George Siemensʼ and Stephen Downesʼ course on learning theory in 2008 when they wanted to exemplify this learning theory in their teaching and included over 2,000 students.

In a cMOOC the network of learners is both the course and the learning outcome of the course. The network remains and is the learning itself.

The connectivist MOOC is the "real thing" and I think has the greatest potential.

Built on the affordances of the network.They are way to evade control of admissions offices.Work for the university but teach the world and bring the world into your course.

Image CC Steve Jurvetson

Image Twitter Conversations Visualized Martin Hawksey http://octel.alt.ac.uk/course-discussions/twitter-conversation-visualised/

The cMOOC as emergent phenomenon.

Patterns of Engagement in Connectivist MOOCsColin MilliganAllison LittlejohnAnoush MargaryanMERLOT Journal of Online Learning and TeachingVol. 9, No. 2, June 2013http://jolt.merlot.org/vol9no2/milligan_0613.htm

Connectivism also addresses the challenges that many corporations face in knowledge management activities. Knowledge that resides in a database needs to be connected with the right people in the right context in order to be classified as learning. Behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism do not attempt to address the challenges of organizational knowledge and transference.

Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age December 12, 2004 George Siemenshttp://eltted.com/2013/02/11/siemens-connectivism-and-faith-in-management/

Is connectivism driven by a corporate culture that has problems?

If 20th education was patterned by military and industrial needs, will 21st century education simply replicate post-industrial models of work to satisfy a need for an atomized cloud of on demand knowledge workers?

OTOH, young people do want to be prepared to get good jobs. And we all need to learn to handle information overload.

So with those qualifications, if we take the connectivist view, it does imply significant changes in pedagogy. For myself, I feel I have have experienced this, but the data is not conclusively there yet. The way to establish that is to engage on the connectivist terms, and to carry on. Practice will lead to understanding.This is where some of us may come in over the next few years.

Hybrid Pedagogy Inc. under CC BY-NC 3.0 License

The connectivist MOOCS have a homegrown enthusiasm, driven by a learning community, not by VC cash. Rather than a contained provision of education, they are closer to the action of learning. They come from practicing academics from the digital humanities, psychology, and literature, not software development and AI. They are truly bottom up naturalists, not top down industrialists. They experiment and that is where new pedagogy or “moocagogy” will come from.

“We havenʼt learned anything new about online learning from MOOCs (especially Courserian and Udacian MOOCs) because we keep the lion in the cage. The kind of learning we need to have happen in MOOCs canʼt be contained -- not in neat and tidy discussion fora, video lectures, and standardized assessments. We must start by observing learning in its natural habitat with a hunterʼs blind, good binoculars, and plenty of rations. MOOCs are anthropological opportunities, not instructional ones.”

MOOCagogy: Assessment, Networked Learning, and the Meta-MOOCJuly 22, 2013Sean Michael Morris and Jesse Stommelhttp://www.hybridpedagogy.com/Journal/files/MOOCagogy.html#sthash.uFfeW4ej.dpuf

OLDS MOOC JISC

Success stories

#change11http://change.mooc.ca/

Open Learning Design Studio OLDS MOOC JISChttp://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/elearning/embeddingbenefits2012/oldsmooc.aspx

DS 106http://ds106.us/

A Domain of Oneʼs Ownhttp://umwdomains.com/

ETMOOC Educational Technology and Mediahttp://etmooc.org/

Linux Open Source

Mimi Ito Digital Youth Project documents interest-based play online (fan fic remix etc.)http://hastac.org/node/1806

Wikipedia

Each of these exhibit many of the same qualities as cMOOCs.

cc licensed ( BY SA ) flickr photo by Alan Levine: http://flickr.com/photos/cogdog/7155294657/

“Open means never having to say youʼre sorry”Title and image: cc licensed ( BY SA ) flickr photo by Alan Levine: http://flickr.com/photos/cogdog/7155294657/

Tecc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo by WayneKLin: http://flickr.com/photos/waynel78/4421046395/xt

David Wiley @opencontent

“What exactly is most unique / special about MOOCs?Letʼs unpack the acronym back to front:- Courses. Well, weʼve had these for a few hundred years. At least. Many of these are not MOOCs.- Online courses. Well, weʼve had these for decades. At least. Many of these are not MOOCs.- Open online courses. Well, weʼve had these for several years now, too. Many of these are not MOOCs.- Massive. Hmm. This seems new. Ish.”

The Most Unique Thing About MOOCs – And Where Creative Effort is Most Neededhttp://opencontent.org/blog/archives/2903David Wiley on JULY 31, 2013

Image: Tecc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo by WayneKLin: http://flickr.com/photos/waynel78/4421046395/xt

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo by USFS Region 5: http://flickr.com/photos/usfsregion5/3598029211/

What should you do if (when) your institution asks you to run a MOOC?Run!But seriously, make sure your institution understands the demands and supports you.Most do it on top of paid duties.Giving away our work to our institutions, devalues our profession.

Who has enough time for this?100 hours to prep before the mooc beginsHours and hours per weekJob suffers

The Professors Behind the MOOC HypeSteve KolowichMarch 18, 2013The Chronicle of Higher Educationhttp://chronicle.com/article/The-Professors-Behind-the-MOOC/137905/?cid=wb&utm_source=wb&utm_medium=en#id=overview

What if you want to organize a MOOC?This is much more interesting. Thankfully, Martin Hawksey has provided an excellent set of tools.@mhawkseyhttp://mashe.hawksey.info/

(M)OOC in a Box: Turning WordPress into an Open Course Readerhttp://mashe.hawksey.info/2013/03/mooc-in-a-box-turning-wordpress-into-an-open-course-reader-octel/

#ocTEL- an open online course recipe using WordPresshttp://mashe.hawksey.info/2013/04/octel-an-open-online-course-recipe-using-wordpress/

Twitter Archiving Google Spreadsheet TAGS v5http://mashe.hawksey.info/2013/02/twitter-archive-tagsv5/

Image: cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo by USFS Region 5: http://flickr.com/photos/usfsregion5/3598029211/

mooc.ca... provided by Stephen Downes and George Siemens as a place to host MOOC news and information

www.hybridpedagogy.com... A Digital Journal of Learning, Teaching, and Technology ebook “Learner Experiences with MOOCs and Open Online Learning”

openculture.com/free_certificate_courses... 625 MOOCs offered by leading universities with certificates or completion statements (mostly xMOOCs)

connectivistmoocs.org... Fewer options, but truly open.

There are so many MOOC listings out there and more everyday.These highlight cMOOCs. The xMOOCs have a bigger press budget.

Veletsianos, G. (2013). Learner Experiences with MOOCs and Open Online Learning. Hybrid Pedagogy. Retrieved from http://learnerexperiences.hybridpedagogy.com.

https://courses.edx.org/register

Do try it.Find a MOOC that suits your interests and sign up. Whether you fully engage and “complete” or just lurk, the experience will do an educator good.

You may find some excellent teaching materials.I use online tools frequently, but I hadnʼt been on the other side of the desk in more than 8 years. Experiencing online learning is important for keeping perspective.Finding your way in a cMOOC will put you close to where pedagogy may be developing. Put your mark on it, or at least think about where this is going.

I guarantee you will learn something new and something about teaching and learning.

Thank you

This work by Ted O’Neill @gotanda is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution--ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

IAFOR Asian Conference onSociety, Education & Technology 24 October 2013

Ted O’Neill http://eltted.com @gotandaTokyo Medical and Dental University

Thank you very much.Please do contact me...by email at <gotanda@gmail.com>at my blogs <http://eltted.com> or <http://www.coetail.com/gotanda/>or on Twitter @gotanda

Visit my Diigo Group “IAFOR MOOC Links” and login for annotated articles.<https://groups.diigo.com/group/iafor-actc-mooc>.