innovative pedagogy at scale

Rebecca Ferguson & Mike Sharples

Institute of Educational Technology

The Open University, UK

Innovative Pedagogy at massive scale:Teaching and learning in MOOCS

ECTEL 2014, Graz, Austria

• Networked learning• Seamless learning• Personal Inquiry learning• Crowd learning• Geo-learning• Maker learning• Learning from gaming• Citizen inquiry• Rhizomatic learning

INNOVATIVE PEDAGOGY

250 million views per year

9 million active learners

7 million course learners

5 million OU registered learners

• Open University OpenLearn: − 5 million registered users, − 23 million visits, − 11,000 hours of learning

materials• iTunes U:

− 66 million downloads• YouTube EDU:

− 21 million views

MASSIVE SCALE

• FutureLearn• Company formed by

The Open University• Launched in October 2013• 40 partners, 37 universities• Over 550,000 registered

learners• Over 1 million course

registrations• New platform,

new pedagogy

http://about.futurelearn.com/blog/

INNOVATIVE PEDAGOGY AT MASSIVE SCALE

• 100,000 learners• Half the learners who start

the course contribute to discussions

• 178 countries− Spain, Myanmar (Burma),

Brazil, UK, China, Russia, Chile, Italy, Algeria, Ukraine …


How to design teaching, learning and assessment that improve with scale?

Some educational methods

degrade with scale

e.g. personal tutoring,

sports coaching

Some educational methods are

impervious to scale

e.g. lecturing

Which educational methods

improve with scale?

SCALING LEARNING

• For some networked systems the value of a product or service increases with the number of people using it

• The telephone system becomes more valuable to users as more people are connected

• In two-sided networks (e.g. educators, learners) each side needs to benefit from scale

• Learners find their opportunities to connect increase with scale

• However, teachers find it increasingly difficult to maintain control and support learners

• Need ways to manage and support learners

Metcalfe, R.M.: It’s all in your head. Forbes, 20th April, 2007. http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2007/0507/052.html

METCALFE’S LAW

• People are not just nodes in networks• Network information is relevant if it is – new– salient– timely– usable– understandable– appropriate– trusted– contiguous

• Need to help people to develop effective personal networks

PERSONAL NETWORKSDownes, S.: The Personal Network Effect. Blog posting, 4th November 2007. http://halfanhour.blogspot.co.uk/2007/11/personal-network-effect.html.

LEARNING AT MASSIVE SCALE

Direct instruction through video and slides

Can be made more active by e.g. embedding quizzes

No intrinsic benefit of scale

Can be made more social by e.g. viewer polls

Needs orchestration

Networked learning

Sharing of expertise

Intrinsic benefits of scale – the more learners the more expertise to share

Can be made more valuable through reputation management and badging

Needs mentoring

Supported open learning

Direct instruction, networked learning, and local tutoring

Costly, though costs do not increase with scale

Can be made more valuable through local expertise

Needs funding

FUTURELEARN LEARNING AT MASSIVE SCALE

Learning as conversation

Pask, Laurillard

Visible Learning

Hattie

Narrative learning

Social-networked learning

(adapted from Laurillard, D. (2002). Rethinking University Teaching. A conversational framework for the effective use of learning technologies. London: Routledge)

Medium for collecting data, model buildingand problem solving

Learner acts to build models and solve

problems

Partner acts to build models and assist in

solving problems

Sets goalsAdjusts model

ActsModifies actions

How questions and responses

Learner demonstrates understanding and problem solutions

Partner demonstrates understanding and

elaborates problem solutions

Offers theories and ideasRe-describes theories

Offers conceptions and explanationsRe-describes conceptions

Why questions and responses

Medium for mediating agreements

CONVERSATIONAL FRAMEWORK

Level of Actions

Level of Descriptions



problems

FutureLearn videos, text, computer code, HTML 5 simulations


Educator demonstrates understanding and





FutureLearn videos, text, and quizzes


Learner demonstrates understanding and





FutureLearn comments and replies



problems

Learner acts to build models and assist in

solving problems




FutureLearn comments and replies, linked to media


Learner demonstrates understanding and






Partner demonstrates understanding and elaborates problem

solutions





FutureLearn small-group discussions: ArgueGraph, Jigsaw learning etc.



problems

Learner / Partner /Educator acts to build models and assist in

solving problems





Learner / Partner / Educator demonstrates

understanding and elaborates problem

solutions





FutureLearn learning

Mentoring

Orchestrating

Orchestrating

Data collection and analysis• 18 courses from 14 universities• Courses from October 2013 to February 2014• Course materials, emails and discussions• Grounded approach to analysis• Emergent themes in the data

WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR PEDAGOGYOF TEACHING AND LEARNING AT MASSIVE SCALE?

Massive participation offers learners• Support from a wide range of other learners• Resources provided by those learners in the form

of discussion and links• Range of diverse cultural perspectives

Advantages of massive

ADVANTAGES OF MASSIVE FOR LEARNERS

Improving Your Image: Dental PhotographyUniversity of Birmingham

Elias Adan Gimenez Feliu

I'm one of the very few photographers in an area trice as big as Scotland (the Paraguayan Chaco), where 8

different cultures live together. There's no record-keeping or proper research done with regards of dental treatment, specially among the most remote areas on

the country. I believe there's huge opportunities to enhance the dental service through the powerful medium that photography provides, by providing

material for research and education. Mainly to inform central and local government and other decision makers, about the realities the region faces, but

specially to educate patients (elderly and children) dental workers and other professionals, that sometimes

have to travel hundreds of kilometres on very bad roads, in order to reach a small town with no proper

facilities but where people in need of proper treatment live.

SUPPORT, RESOURCES AND A VARIETY OF PERSPECTIVES


Massive participation offers educators• Affective benefits• Potentially increased access to resources• Motivation to develop teaching practices

ADVANTAGES OF MASSIVE FOR EDUCATORS


Corpus Linguistics: Method,Analysis and Interpretation

Lancaster University

I am very passionate about the study of language based on naturally occurring speech and writing. So

getting more people to know about it and be able to do it is my goal

Practise what you preach, as they say. So I have decided to do some reflective learning and blog about my

experience with our Climate Change MOOC. Web Science: How the Web

is Changing the WorldUniversity of Southampton

ENJOYMENT, RESOURCES AND MOTIVATION


Massive participation offers society• Potential to develop tools and resources• Potential to develop professional practice• Increased access to higher education• Potential for global impact

ADVANTAGES OF MASSIVE FOR SOCIETY


Corpus Linguistics: Method,Analysis and Interpretation

Lancaster University

It has been great to test AntConc with so many new users! In response to the many helpful comments

Laurence has received, he is making a new version of the software available in

week two.

I am particularly keen for the MOOC to reach audiences that

don’t have access to the learning experience we provide here at

Leeds – such as those in Nepal, which features prominently as one

of our case studies Fairness and Nature: When Worlds CollideUniversity of Leeds

DEVELOPMENT, ACCESS & IMPACT

MOOCs provide the opportunity to widen access

to our world-class

universities and to meet the

global demand for higher education

British Minister of State for Universities

and Science


Challenges of massive participation include• Need the skills to learn together online• Need to be able to search for and locate

trustworthy support and resources• Widening access brings in inexperienced learners• Educators may be overwhelmed by workload

CHALLENGES OF MASSIVE


Fairness and Nature: When Worlds CollideUniversity of Leeds

We have provided a short video to highlight a few points to help make your learning experience effective and enjoyable. The

video includes:Preparing to learn […]

Listening and reflecting […]Making notes […]

Communicating with others

SUPPORTING INEXPERIENCED LEARNERS TO LEARN TOGETHER ONLINE

Challenges of massive

Introduction to Forensic Science

University of Strathclyde

You have been actively engaged in the discussions, which is excellent,

thank you, but with more than 23,000 participants it means that our responses and comments risk getting lost. One way to ensure we keep in touch with all of you is by

sending out our weekly email – like this one

LOCATING TRUSTWORTHY RESOURCES


Introduction to Forensic Science

University of Strathclyde

This will be primary school material for some of you and exactly the opposite

for others. It is just not possible to tailor the material to each of you […] If it

appears too technical, forget the detail and concentrate on the higher level principles; if you think ‘yes I know all about that’ we’d encourage you to be an active participant in the learning

community

ENGAGING LEARNERS AT DIFFERENT LEVELS


Good Brain, Bad Brain: Basics

University of Birmingham

I have been amazed and impressed by the level of interest and input – 1800 of you

have posted at least one comment. If you posted something hoping to get a reply but

haven’t then I am sorry, but me and my four mentors have been doing our best to monitor what’s going on in between doing

our usual activities.

HIGH LEVELS OF ENGAGEMENT – MANAGING WORKLOAD


We can design to increase the benefits and reduce these challenges by• Creating learning designs that take the benefits

into account• Making it straightforward to ask questions and

receive answers• Providing ways of filtering and navigating

resources• Designing for accessibility

LEARNING DESIGN AND PLATFORM DESIGN

DESIGNING FOR MASSIVE FROM THE START

Learning design and platform design

Learning design tools help educators to plan for massive as they consider different types of learning activity, including:• delivered• reflection• collaboration• conversation• networking• browsing• assesssment

ASKING QUESTIONS, GETTING ANSWERS


FILTERING RESOURCES


ACCESSIBILITY


• Exploit the knowledge of peers• Use recommender tools to promote expertise and

enable trustworthy support• Employ expert educators, equipped with live

analytics, as a valued scarce resource • Use social network tools, such as filtering and

following, to enable ‘education 2.0’• Build on the benefits of many cultural and

cognitive perspectives• Help learners to develop enduring social learning

networks

TEACHING AND LEARNING AT MASSIVE SCALE

[email protected] [email protected]

www.futurelearn.com

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

innovative pedagogy at scale

Education

futurelearn learning

scale learners

theorieswhy questions

responseshow questions

responsesoffers conceptions

theoriesoffers conceptions

mediawhy questions

massive scalelearning