Designing and Running a MOOC

Designing, developing, and running (massive) open online courses George Siemens, PhD September 4, 2012 Presented to: University of South Africa

What is a MOOC?

“I think this could be big the way Google was” Image source: Noah Berger for The Chronicle

But the deals Coursera announced Tuesday may well prove tobe an inflection point for online education, a sector that hastraditionally been dominated by for-profit colleges knownmostly for their noxious recruitment practices and poorresults.

http://www.hybridpedagogy.com/Journal/files/MOOC_MOOC.html

“Especially disturbing is that none of the major MOOCproviders have hired anyone trained in instructional design,the learning sciences, educational technology, course design,or other educational specialties to help with the design oftheir courses. They are hiring a lot of programmers…” http://edtechdev.wordpress.com/2012/05/04/whats-the-problem-with-moocs/

Defining MOOCsMassive (maybe)Open (sort of)Online (yep)Course (sort of)

A bit of (recent) history:2007:- David Wiley: open wiki-based course- Alec Couros: Social media and Open Education2008:- CCK08- Slew of other open courses2011:- Stanford AI births Coursera and Udacity

Phil Hill, 2012

Current landscape:xMOOCs: Coursera, EdxcMOOCs: DS106, CCK08/09/10/12

Coursera, edX:Formal (traditional) course structure and flowCCK:Content as a starting point, learners expected tocreate/extend

Coursera/edX:Traditional relationship betweenteacher/learnerFormal, structured teaching/content provision.Learners expected to duplicate/master whatthey are taught

CCK-style MOOCs:Changed relationship between teacher/learnerDistributed, chaotic, emergent.Learners expected to create, grow, expanddomain and share personal sensemakingthrough artifact-creation

Coursera/edX:Centralized discussion forum supportCCK:Distributed, often blog-based, learner-createdforums and spaces

Learners generally complete some level ofactivity for formative and summative evaluation(quizzes, assignments, papers, create artifacts)in open online courses.Evaluation is either automated (Coursera),instructor graded (CCK), or peer-commented (tosome degree, all open courses)

cMOOCs:

Content is fragmented (not confined to a course)Knowledge is generativeCoherence is learner-formed, instructor guidedDistributed, multi-spaced interactionsFoster autonomous, self-regulated learners

Technology for running MOOCs is still underdeveloped

Need to have MOOCs from different parts of the world (export, not only import)

What happens in a MOOC?

Fini, 2009

Kop, 2011

EduMOOC Rodriguez, 2012

How to plan and run a MOOC in 9 easy stepsTopic, audienceFind someone to teach withDetermine ContentPlan spaces of interactionPlan interactions (live, asynch)Plan *your* continued presenceLearner creation (activities)Promote and shareIterate and improve

1. Topic & AudiencePick an area:- of personal interest and expertise- with appeal or demand for learning/discussion- what you already teach, just do it in the openWho are you targeting?- students?- academics/peers?- anyone with a pulse?

2. Find someone to teach withNever teach aloneTry a colleague form a different country,different region, or with different viewsBring in guest speakers, video interviews

3. Determine contentUse open articles if possibleUse multimedia resources (youtube, others)Search conference recordings/proceedingsUse: video, interactive presentations, text,simulationsLeave room for learners to create/shareTreat content as a starting point for learningconversations, not as the exclusive intent of thecourse.

4. Plan spacesDistributed spaces (tags)Centralized (forums? Daily email?)Decentralized format (blogs, social media,wherever)

5. Plan interactionsSynchronous (record so people in other timezones can view)AsynchronousTrails (Diigo)Tags

6. Plan your continued presenceIn an open course, you are not the central node,but you remain an important nodeBe active in forums, blogs, twitter, email,whatever.Don’t try and dominate the conversation. But beactive.

7. Learner creations and activitiesLearners should create stuff – i.e. artifacts ofsensemakingPromote the value of peer feedback

8. Get the word out: promotion and sharingThe usual routine: your students, colleagues,listservs, etc.Get it out to your networks (Twitter, FB,conference presentations)

9. Iterate and ImproveIf you’ve designed your course for fluidity, youwill add/change as you go.Listen to your course participants. They’ll let youknow what to improve.Blog your thoughts and reflections so others cantemper your thinking

Set your expectationsSize doesn’t matter. If you have 15+ people, you have acourse.It will take more time that you can possibly imagineIt will be extremely rewardingIt will change how you view teaching/learningYou’ll find yourself saying things in faculty meetings that willscare your peers and administrators (like “courses are dead”or “let’s open up all our teaching”)

http://edfuture.net/ October 8-November 16, 2012

http://open.mooc.ca/ Starts September 10, 2012

http://lakconference.org

gsiemens @ gmail Twitter Skype FB Whereverwww.elearnspace.orgwww.connectivism.cawww.learninganalytics.net

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Designing and Running a MOOC

by gsiemens on Sep 04, 2012

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