The Development and Implementation of a MOOC Platform Model from a Technical and Educational Perspective

The Development
and Implementation
of a MOOC Platform Model from
a Technical and Educational
Perspective
Student: Eng. Vlad MIHĂESCU
Supervisor: Prof. dr. eng. Radu VASIU

Contents
Motivation
Research Questions
MOOC Overview, Technologies and Research
MOOCs in Romanian Higher Education
Proposed Model
The UniCampus Demo
Conclusions and Contributions
PhD Thesis Defense - Vlad Mihăescu 218 Feb 2016

Motivation
MOOCs - important impact on education
The timing is right – global context
Beneficial influence of eLearning technologies
Limitations of Romanian education
» A Romanian MOOC could improve
Romanian education
(assumption)
18 Feb 2016 PhD Thesis Defense - Vlad Mihăescu 3

Research Questions
Is there a need for eLearning solutions and MOOCs in
Romania?
Can a MOOC improve education in Romania?
How can you measure the usability of a MOOC from an
educational point of view?
Which tools and technologies influence the usability of a
MOOC platform?
What is the possible educational structure for a MOOC in
Romania?
What is the possible technological structure for a MOOC
in Romania?

MOOCs Overview
MOOC = Massive Open Online Courses
Disruptive technology or eye-opener in education?
cMOOC vs xMOOC
Problems related to openness
AdaptedfromDhawalShah,‘MOOCsin
2014:BreakingDowntheNumbers‘

Most Important MOOC Platforms

Education and Economy Impact
Rising costs, changing demand and disruptive
technologies
Online learning, rethinking the course model, reflection
on university structure, development of new tools
Monetization issues – charging for: certificates, private
tutoring, job applications, company training
Marketing/Branding tool for universities and teachers?
Quantity vs Quality

MOOC Technologies (*)
Social Media influence
Web 2.0 and web 3.0
Technological profile – what stands behind the platforms
Suggestions related to videos: Video type, engagement
patterns, video length, pre-production planning, visual
elements, personal touch
(*) Mihăescu Vlad and Vasiu Radu, "Wrapping MOOCs – Analysis From a Technological Perspective.", 10th International Conference “eLearning
and Software for Education” ELSE 2014, Bucharest, 24-25 April 2014, ISSN 2066-026X, WOS:000357153000037, vol. 1, pp. 261-264
Vlad Mihăescu and Radu Vasiu, “Use of Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 in Developing a MOOC Platform”, the 7th International Conference of Education,
Research and Innovation, ICERI2014, Seville, Spain, November 2014.

Analysis of MOOCs’ Technological Profile (*)
MOOCs’ Web HostingMOOCs’ CMS
MOOCs’ DNS
(*) Oniţa Mihai, Mihăescu Vlad and Vasiu Radu, "Technical Analysis of MOOCs.", TEM JOURNAL - Technology, Education, Management,
Informatics, ISSN 2217-8309, e-ISSN 2217-8333, WOS:000362664800007, Vol. 4, No. 1, Feb 2015, pp. 60-72..

Video and Audio Analysis of MOOC Platforms (*)
MOOCs’ video distribution systems
Video length (duration) in MOOCs
Types of video lectures
(*) Oniţa Mihai, Mihăescu Vlad and Vasiu Radu, "Technical Analysis of MOOCs.", TEM JOURNAL - Technology, Education, Management,
Informatics, ISSN 2217-8309, e-ISSN 2217-8333, WOS:000362664800007, Vol. 4, No. 1, Feb 2015, pp. 60-72..

MOOC Platforms – Moodle
LCMS – open source license
Max.
Participants
Brandable
Custom
Analytics
Monetizati
on
Mobile Hosting
edX 300,000    
Self-
hosted
Moodle 10,000    
Self-
hosted or
3rd party
courseSites
(from
Blackboard)
unlimited     Hosted
udemy
(free version)
unlimited     Hosted
versal
(free version)
unlimited     Hosted
Comparison of free platforms for MOOCs (*)
(*) Ternauciuc Andrei and Vlad Mihăescu, "Use of Social Media in MOOC-integration with the Moodle LCMS", 10th International Conference
“eLearning and Software for Education” ELSE 2014, Bucharest, 24-25 April 2014, ISSN 2066-026X, WOS:000357153000043, vol. 1.

Research Methods in MOOCs
 Analyses of courses
 Reports for early projects
 Learner experience
 Scientific surveys
 The MOOC Research Initiative
 Perspective of students and teachers
 Demographics analysis
 Machine learning + Learning analytics

Research Methodology Used for
Modeling a Romanian MOOC
ADDIE model (created by Ward, licenced under
CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons)
Socio-cognitive Engineering model
(from M. Sharples et al, 2002)

First Research Steps
MOOC integration ↔ Independent platform
Literature content analysis
Case studies of good practices
Online surveys
Focus groups & Expert interviews

1. Analysis of MOOC Articles: Word Cloud
Analysis of over 1000 titles
Topics: education, change, future, collaboration, discussion, economy
(*) Vlad Mihăescu and Diana Andone, “A Word Cloud of MOOC Research Report”, Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Social
Media in Academia: Research and Teaching, SMART 2015, Voroneţ, Romania, 2015.

2. Analysis of MOOCs in Romania
EU directives
State of the art in Romania
eLearning Romania program
Romanian legislation: art. 139.c of the Law of
education, no 1/2011
Integrating MOOCs in blended courses
MOOC initiatives: UniCampus, UniBuc Virtual,
“Vasile Goldis” Arad, Critical Thinking (iVersity),
mooc.ro

3. Analysis of Student Survey
Use of Online Educational Resources, MOOCs and
videos in Romania
February – November 2015
Around 450 answers

72% HE
Diploma
60%
23-30 Years
42% Female
58% Male
75% UPT
66%
Timisoara
87% Coexist
Traditional
Education
91% Use
80%
Useful
Online education
82% Extra study
71% Theoretical
courses
67% Self-
assessment
OnER
Online resources
83% Video
83% Text
71% Schematics
66% Slides
Disadvantages
61% Student
interaction
58% Teacher
interaction
Advantages
84% Easy
Access
81% Anytime
78% Anywhere
Respondents’ profiles

-MOOC Section
28% Use
48% Want
65% Coursera
25% Edx
18% Udacity
10% FutureLearn
61% Engineering
32% Personal
Development
27% Social Sciences
50% Completed
10% Diploma
Romanian MOOC
72% Want
66% Engineering
50% Personal
Development

- Rate the aspects of the MOOC course
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
1 - Low
2
3
4
5 - High

- Rate the MOOC platform
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
Design
Platformstructure
Navigation
Topicidentification
Interactivity
Peercommunication
Teachercommunication
Videocontent
Textcontent
Othercontent
Forum
Othersocialtools
Activities
Homework
Periodicaltests
Exam
1 - Low
2
3
4
5 - High

- Video aspects
Video lecture category types
MOOC Video length
Video frame size Interactive part of a video

4. Analysis of Teacher Survey (*)
Use of Online Educational Resources and MOOCs in
Romania
Creation and integration
in traditional education
February – November 2015
Over 100 answers
(*) Vlad Mihăescu and Radu Vasiu, “Teachers’ Perspective into Higher Education and MOOCs in Romania”, in Proceedings of the 10th International
Conference on Virtual Learning, ICVL 2015, Timisoara, Romania, 2015, ISSN 1844-8933, pp. 393-398.

4. Analysis of Teacher Survey (*)
89% Higher
Education
58%
31-50 Years
38% Female
62% Male
78% UPT
84%
Timisoara
93% Coexist
Traditional
Education
83% Use
49%
Create
79% Useful
Online
education
85% Extra study
65% Theoretical
courses
47% Tutoring
OnER
Online resources
83% Slides
79% Video
76% Images
71% Text
70% Schematics
Disadvantages
86% No
Student-Tutor
Interaction
Advantages
80% Anytime
80% Anywhere
79% Easy
Access
Sharing resources
Respondents’ profile

4. Analysis of Teacher Survey
- MOOC Section (*)
31% Use
46% Want
94% Like
66% Coursera
31% Edx
29% Udacity
14% FutureLearn
13% Used MOOCs in
class
80% Engineering
57% Recommended
66% More tutor
interactivity
52% More videos
50% More information

-Rate the aspects of the MOOC course(*)
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
1 - Low
2
3
4
5 - High

- Rate the MOOC platform (*)
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
Design
Platformstructure
Navigation
Topicidentification
Interactivity
Peercommunication
Teachercommunication
Videocontent
Textcontent
Othercontent
Forum
Othersocialtools
Activities
Homework
Periodicaltests
Exam
1 - Low
2
3
4
5 - High

5. MOOC Use in UPT – Case Study (*)
Blended learning and flipped classroom in 2014-2015
34 MSc students in Multimedia Technologies, 23-28 Years, high
level ICT skills -> work on the Virtual Campus cv.upt.ro
Advantages: adaptive, progress bar, learn in ones rhythm,
interactivity, accessibility,
flexibility, comfort
Disadvantages: lack of a
gradebook, technical issues,
difficulty, lack of information,
long videos, diploma
Platform User
-
Frie
ndly
Intuit
ive
Easy
to
use
Attra
ctive
Simple
structu
re
Suggestive
icons and
colors
Connect
with
social
media
Coursera yes yes yes N/A yes yes yes
udemy yes yes yes yes yes yes yes
Udacity yes yes yes yes yes yes yes
Future
Learn
yes N/A yes N/A yes N/A N/A
Iversity yes yes yes yes yes yes yes
Saylor no no no N/A N/A N/A N/A
Open2
Study
N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A yes
Khan
Academy
N/A N/A N/A yes N/A N/A yes
EdX yes yes yes yes N/A yes N/A
(*) Diana Andone, Vlad Mihăescu and Radu Vasiu, “Using MOOCs within traditional courses: students’ perspective”, In Proceedings of E-Learn: World Conference on E-
Learning in Corporate,Government,Healthcare,and Higher Education 2015 (pp. 256-262). Chesapeake, VA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).

6. Proposed Model – Romanian
MOOC Structure

6. Proposed Model – Romanian MOOC Main Page
 Courses
 Universities/Partners
 About UniCampus
 Register /Log In buttons
 Connect with Social Media
• Number of Users/Courses/Universities Counters
 How Does the Platform Work – walkthrough about the use of the platform;
 Search by Topic
 Short Description/Motto – of the platform;
 6 courses with title, university, starting date, thumbnail;
 See All Courses button.
 Footer
 Copyright; Contact; About; Terms and Conditions; Help – FAQ section.

6. Proposed Model – Romanian MOOC Course Intro Page
Course Title;
University;
Tutors;
Course Description;
Course Logo/Main Page Thumbnail;
Required Knowledge Pre-course;
Course Trailer;
Social Media sharing;
Domain;
Key Words.

MOOC Main Course Page
Course Title;
University;
Tutors;
Course Logo/Main Page Thumbnail;
About the Course
 Guideline – how to best use this course and the platform;
 Structure – of the course, number of weeks, name of chapters,
assignments, deadlines;
 Syllabus – what the course consists of;
 Grading System – detail explanation about the grading possibilities;
 Tutors – information about the tutors.

 Weeks/Chapters
 Student Progress;
 Chapter 1, 2,…, X – course material;
 Wiki;
 Bibliography and links;
 Blog;
 Assignments and tests
 Clear Deadline;
 Limited Number of Attempts;
 Explanations After the Final Deadline;
 Penalties Depending on the Deadline; - not automated
 Save Answers and Return Later option;
• Programming Assignments with Automated Evaluation;

Discussion Forum
Real-time Search Algorithm;
Course Announcements;
Course 1,2,…,X – each with its own section;
Video Answer to Most Discussed Topic;
Filtering;
Subject;
Date;
Author;
• Small Talk/Bad Talk – results in downgrading;
Forum Grading/Badges of recognition; - partial

Personal Section;
Profile;
Personal Notes;
Personal Blog;
Questionnaires;
Pre-Course/Post-Course;
Glossary;
FAQ/Help Section;
Document Sharing;
• Rubric-scoring for Peer-grading;
Google Drive;

Podcasting;
Upload of Technical Formats
(Matlab, R, XML, etc.); - some
Student Handbook;
Virtual Lab; - for programming
Each chapter should have the following options
After finishing, the possibility to share on Social Media;
Reading Material;
Additional Links;
Test;

Video Lesson
Download option;
• Transcript;
Subtitles;
• Annotations;
• Additional Information; Links; Quizzes
Modify the volume/resolution/speed;
Restart the lesson;
Jump to next/previous lesson;
Help Link – to FAQ section regarding videos on the platform;
Forum Link – to this section from the discussion forum;

Calendar/Schedule;
Meet Up tools;
 Virtual Study Room;
• Google Hangout;
 Conferencing Tool Audio/Video;
Social Media
 Connect with the Students’ Account/ to profiles/pages/groups of the course
Badges;
To-do List Tool;
• Interactive Map with the students who are enrolled in the course;
Adaptive Media;

6. Proposed Model – Experts Evaluation
Full support of the proposed structure » encouragement of
implementation.
Merge ‘Register/Log in’ with Register/Log in with Social Media.
Counter for users/courses integrated in other sections, only after
greater numbers.
‘Search by institution’ option.
In the ‘Course intro page’ - Connected/Recommended courses as well.
The wiki tool is not useful for the non-connectivist courses.
Podcasting useful only for a limited amount of course types.
The video answer for the most discussed topic - a very good idea.
Collaborative translation possibility for subtitles.

7. UniCampus Main Page

7. Moodle Customization for
UniCampus Implementation
Moodle 3.0 Version
Pioneer Theme
Social Media authentication

7. UniCampus Customization

7. Course Demo in UniCampus: Open
Education Week 2015

8. UniCampus – Experts Evaluation
Positive overall opinion
Visual aspects – perfectible.
‘About’ section description - should only be visible in
the main course page.
Forum chapters integrated in each week + Forum tool
in the right side menu.
Proper explanations of content.
Enlarge the display area for educational content.

8. UniCampus – Students Evaluation
• Focus groups
• Positive reviews
• Integration with social
media
• Multiple choice vs
mini-essay quiz
• Frequency and relevance
of quizzes
• Videos – use of subtitles and transcripts; navigation
• Course Completion Status & Badges
• Preferred content: video, ppt/pdf, html/external links

8. UniCampus – Students Evaluation
• Desirability analysis – Microsoft Reaction Card
method adaptation
• UniCampus experience: efficient (90%), useful (90%),
accessible (72%), trustworthy (72%), organized (72%)
• 5 words best describing the video content: useful, high
quality, comprehensive, efficient and trustworthy.
• 5 words best describing the tools on UniCampus:
organized, efficient, easy to use, complex and familiar

Conclusions
• MOOCs have a big influence over education.
• Need of more e-Learning solutions and MOOCs for
the Romanian education (survey results).
• MOOCs encourage student involvement and are
beneficial in the learning process (UPT study case)
• My proposed model satisfies both educational and
technological needs of students and teachers
» » possible solution

Theoretical Contributions (1)
(1) State of the art of MOOCs in relation to their
appearance, development and impact and critical
study of the most important platforms.
(2) Critical analysis of the debate regarding MOOC
openness.
(3) Overview of technologies used in MOOCs and critical
analysis of their importance.
(4) Overview of MOOCs infrastructure and critical
analysis of the reasons for choosing them.
(5) Critical analysis of video related aspects in MOOCs.

Theoretical Contributions (2)
(6) Overview of MOOC research methodologies and
their critical analysis.
(7) Analysis of Romanian perspectives over MOOCs: the
development of a survey for students, in relation to
the use of Online Educational Resources, MOOCs and
videos in education.
(8) Analysis of Romanian perspectives over MOOCs: the
development of a survey for teachers, in relation to
the use of Online Educational Resources and MOOCs.
(9) Critical analysis of a study case regarding the use of
MOOCs in courses from the Politehnica University of
Timisoara.

Practical Contributions
(1) Description and creation of a model for a
Romanian MOOC.
(2) Implementation of the proposed model as the
UniCampus platform.
(3) Implementation of a demo course on the
UniCampus platform.

Future Research Directions
Massive access testing
Integration with traditional classes
Results comparison
New courses development
►►►►►►►►►►►►►►►►►►►►►

List of Published Papers (1)
1) Vlad Mihăescu, Diana Andone, Radu Vasiu, “An Analysis of Different MOOC Environments
from the Students’ Perspective”, Proceedings of the European Stakeholder Summit on
experiences and best practices in and around MOOCs (EMOOCS 2016), pp. 417-424, ISBN
9783739237107, 22-24 Feb 2016, Graz, Austria, Experience Track.
2) Vlad Mihăescu, Radu Vasiu, “Teachers’ Perspective into Higher Education and MOOCs in
Romania”, in Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Virtual Learning, ICVL
2015, Timisoara, Romania, 2015, ISSN 1844-8933, pp. 393-398.
3) Vlad Mihăescu, Diana Andone, “A Word Cloud of MOOC Research Report”, Proceedings of
the 3rd International Conference on Social Media in Academia: Research and Teaching,
SMART 2015, Voroneţ, Romania, 2015.
4) Diana Andone, Vlad Mihăescu, Radu Vasiu, “Using MOOCs within traditional courses:
students’ perspective”, In Proceedings of E-Learn: World Conference on E-Learning in
Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education 2015 (pp. 256-262). Chesapeake,
VA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).
5) Diana Andone, Andrei Ternauciuc, Vlad Mihăescu and Radu Vasiu, “Integrating MOOCs in
Traditional Higher Education”, European Stakeholder Summit on experiences and best
practices in and around MOOCs, eMOOCs 2015, 18-20 May 2015, Mons, Belgium,
Experience Track, pp. 71-75.

6) Oniţa Mihai, Mihăescu Vlad, and Vasiu Radu, "Technical Analysis of MOOCs.",
TEM JOURNAL - Technology, Education, Management, Informatics, ISSN
2217-8309, e-ISSN 2217-8333, WOS:000362664800007, Vol. 4, No. 1, Feb
2015, pp. 60-72.
7) Vlad Mihăescu, “MOOCs – an important step in education”, Scientific Bulletin
of the Politehnica University of Timişoara – Transactions on Electronics and
Communications, Volume 59(73), Issue 2, 2014, pp. 27-30.
8) Vlad Mihăescu and Radu Vasiu, “Use of Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 in Developing
a MOOC Platform”, the 7th International Conference of Education, Research
and Innovation, ICERI2014, Seville, Spain, November 2014.
9) Vlad Mihăescu, Radu Vasiu and Diana Andone, “Developing a MOOC: The
Romanian Experience”, 13th European Conference on e-Learning ECEL-2014,
Aalborg University Copenhagen Denmark, 30-31 October 2014, ISBN 978-1-
910309-69-8, ISSN 2048-8645, WOS:000351434400043, pp. 339-346.
10) Vlad Mihăescu, “MOOC Openness - Are MOOCs as Open as They Should
Be?”, Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Social Media in
Academia: Research and Teaching, SMART 2014, Timişoara, Romania,
September 2014, WOS:000367888300059 .

11) Ternauciuc Andrei, and Vlad Mihăescu, "Use of Social Media in MOOC-integration with the
Moodle LCMS", 10th International Conference “eLearning and Software for Education” ELSE
2014, Bucharest, 24-25 April 2014, ISSN 2066-026X, WOS:000357153000043, vol. 1.
12) Mihăescu, Vlad, and Radu Vasiu, "Wrapping MOOCs – Analysis From a Technological
Perspective.", 10th International Conference “eLearning and Software for Education” ELSE
2014, Bucharest, 24-25 April 2014, ISSN 2066-026X, WOS:000357153000037, vol. 1, pp. 261-
264.
13) Radu Vasiu, Diana Andone, Vlad Mihăescu, Radu Ticiu, “Antreprenoriat şi inovaţii digitale
pentru mediul de afaceri”, Editura U.T.Press, Cluj-Napoca, 2013, 177 pag, ISBN 978-973-662-
894-8.
14) Diana Andone, Radu Vasiu, Iasmina Ermalai, Vlad Mihăescu, Silviu Vert, Bogdan Drăgulescu,
Daniel Ivanc, “Tehnologii Web 2.0”, Editura U.T.Press, Cluj-Napoca, 2012, 275 pag, ISBN 978-
973-662-770-5.
15) Vlad Mihăescu and Silviu Vert, “Learnability Testing: a Case Study,” in Proceedings of the 6th
International Conference on Virtual Learning, ICVL 2011, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, 28-29
October 2011, ISSN: 1844-8933, WOS:000323685900017, pp. 135–140.
16) Vlad Mihăescu, Radu Vasiu, “Open Tourism – An E-Tourism Concept”, Proceedings of the
IADIS International Conference WWW/Internet 2011, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 5-8 November
2011, 5 pages.

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