1.
TEACHING TO TEACHERS.
A MOOC BASED HYBRID APPROACH
Rosanna De Rosa, University Federico II (rderosa@unina.it)
Alessandro Bogliolo, University of Urbino (alessandro.bogliolo@uniurb.it)
MAIN REFERENCES
Coding has been recognized by the Italian National Plan for Digital School (PNSD) as one of fundamental disciplines to
be introduced at school level. In order to reach such an objective, the University of Urbino offered for free a MOOC on
Coding specifically devoted to school teachers through the European Multiple MOOC Platform (europeanmoocs.eu,
Emma for short). The objective of such a MOOC was to generate a highly scalable process of teaching/learning involving
a plethora of actors: school managers, ICTs experts, teachers, and pupils as final users. The MOOC was organized as a
hands-on experience course, based also on live webinars, illustrating how to organize coding activities using only freely
accessible online resources. This approach allowed teachers to learn the fundamental principles of coding together with
their pupils and to apply computational thinking to any topic, with a non secondary effect: converting role of the
teacher into an enabler factor, restoring their centrality, legitimation and social value. The poster highlights the
dimensions of such an experience, the relevance of pedagogies used, as well as the factors of its success.
The MOOC on Coding deployed a hybrid approach where the h stands for both hybrid and human factor. The MOOC was designed
around three dimension:
3 - The third dimension concerns the type of engagement (collective/individual participation
to the activities) which is a transversal one highligthing the role of personal involvement in
the teaching/learning activities. Taken as a sample the last week of the MOOC, on 299 posts,
mainly written by the MOOC teacher, the level of engagement was 92.98% with 6.58%
average comments per post on a total of 1968 comments produced in a week.
Crossing the other dimensions, it realizes a system of ortogonal axes and special spaces:
1 - The first dimension is «temporal» in nature (synchronous/asynchronous teaching events), and
implied a combination of real time events with the MOOC experience (Fig 1, Fig 2). The use of video
hangouts offered the possibility to learners to experience live teaching and peer interaction. The
Emma platform was used instead to re-arrange the MOOC and its instructional design following the
users needs in a form of a reversed loop. The average time spent on each lesson was usually very
high (min 32) but higher on practical lessons (ie. 102 minutes)
2 - The second dimension is «spatial» in nature (online/offline learning activities), and implied the
organization of a plethora of learning events throughout a set of diverse free platforms (es.
code.org, scratch.org), unplugged activities (es. CodyRoby and CodyWay) and offline events (fig 3).
The platform was used to create a common ground around the MOOC teacher where both
online/offline participants could find always all needed material as well as study instructions, how
to, assignments, etc. to continue the learning activities also offline.
The constructive space is the space where
the knowledge transfer was scaled up and,
within this process, new teaching strategies
were explored and applied. Learners became
teachers of coding in their own classrooms,
enlarging the learning process to over
100.000 students.
1- The case of h-MOOC on Coding appears to fit perfectly with the concept of Community of Inquiry,
with a relevant difference: participants are also teachers with a clear role within the society. So the
MOOC teacher and participants share a common understanding of their mission in the world, a sole
vision of the future education, and a clear objective to be reached all together. Showing both a high
capacity to learn by each others (fig.3), to participate to online activities, and moreover a high
satisfaction level (fig 4).
3 - The MOOC on Coding is a case of an agile approach able to generates a reversed loop
where:
a.the videostreaming is an opportunity to teach in real-time and to raise expectations,
b.the MOOC to give learners the possibility to learn at their pace and to assess the acquired
knowledge,
c.the offline meetings to empower teachers empowering their pupils.
Sakai-Miller, S. (2016). Innovation age learning: Empowering students by empowering. ISTE
Anderson T. (2004). Teaching in an Online Learning Context. In Anderson, T. and Elloumi, F. (Eds.) Theory and Practice of Online Learning (pp. 273-294). Atabasca, Atabasca University Press.
Anderson, T. Rourke, L. Garrison D.R. and Archer W. (2001), Assessing Teaching Presence in a Computer ConferencingContext, JALN Volume 5, Issue 2 – September.
The connective space is the place for social
interaction among all the actors involved:
learners, teachers, supporters. This was the
space where the multitude idea - inscribed
in the massive concept of the MOOC - was
transformed in a learning community,
prepared to enact in local contexts.
Fig. 3 Online and unplugged activities appreciation rate
Ipsos Survey, 1427 respondents
Fig. 1: MOOC Coding Videos: Watch time in minutes.
YouTube Analytics
2- All participants to this learning experience shared a similar presence within the three spheres of
the Community of Inquiry model as in Anderson et al., populating them with their knowledge,
teaching practices and social connection. The result was that they actively supported the MOOC
discourse by creating new learning objects and a positive climate.
Fig. 4: Level of engagement appreciation rate
Ipsos Survey, 1427 respondents
MOOC duration: 23 weeks
Number of enrolls: 6400
Completion Rate: 19,5%
Certificates: 1250
Participants to offline
events: 5000
Main figures
data recruited in May 2016
Pupils reached: 100.000
Videos views: 251.238
Video Minutes: 2.966.930
Posts per week of FB: 1968
Level of engagement for
post: 92.98%
Average comments: 6.58%
CONCLUSIONS
The hMOOC Approach: A MOOC in 3 dimensions
ABSTRACT
www.europeanmoocs.eu
Fig. 3: Level of engagement appreciation rate
Ipsos Survey, 1427 respondents
Common needs, self-recognition, peer-reflection, and empathy seems to be the keywordsof a
successful MOOC. This result seems to be counter-intuitive since the MOOC roots are deeply
radicated in the ideas of openness and scaling up at a global level. Which, of course, are both
brilliant ideas, that indeed do not exclude the possibility of scaling up education within
specific communities.
Fig. 2 Streaming appreciation rate
Ipsos Survey, 1427 respondents
By crossing the other dimensions, the type of engagment realizes a system of ortogonal axes
and spaces: