Box Hill Institute created six niche "taster" MOOCs as a strategic objective. The MOOCs were selected based on their potential return on investment, ability to distribute critical information, and potential to attract students to paid courses. Teaching centers proposed topics that were assessed against these criteria. Selected MOOCs cover hairdressing, eLearning design, horses, canine DNA evidence, music improvisation, and networking. The courses are being designed to attract global audiences with visual elements like graphics, video and limited text instead of assessments. The goal is to complete the initial set of MOOCs by July 2014 and evaluate their performance.

1. Box Hill Institute
Niche MOOCs
Presenter: Aliki Komps
Blended eLearning Solutions
9286 9485

2. Introduction
The Box Hill Institute niche MOOCs have been
borne from a key strategic objective provided by
the Board of Box Hill Institute Group.
Aim: Create a set of six Box Hill Institute ‘taster’
MOOCs.
Project Commencement: April, 2014.
Progress: Learning design completed. Multimedia
development is in full swing.

3. Initial Stages
Required the development of a strategy that
was considerate of stakeholders and the BHI
environment.
- Teaching centres across the Institute were invited to
propose a MOOC topic.
It was identified that topics proposed would be
assessed against the following three criteria:
• A Return On Investment (ROI);
• Used as a mode of delivery for distribution of
critical data; and/or
• Unique online course and could be used as a pull
strategy for enrolments into related paid courses

4. Initial Stages
A number of teaching centres put their MOOC
proposals forward.
A competitive analysis was completed:
• Each proposal was assessed based on the
three criteria outlined from the outset.
• We also worked actively with the Box Hill
Institute Group Marketing area to identify
the MOOCs that would have high interest or
value.

5. MOOCs Selected for
Creation
• A Day in the Life of a Hairdresser
• Introduction to eLearning Design
• Introduction to Horses
• Canine DNA Evidence Collection
• Melodic Improvisation
• Network Addressing and Subnetting
• AMCA – r22 to r32
A healthy cross section of niche MOOC taster
courses were selected for creation.

6. Communication
The MOOCs project contains a number of
relevant stakeholders.
• After the courses had been selected, a fortnightly face-to-face
MOOCs Steering Committee Meeting was created to regularly
bring together relevant Project Managers, Teaching Centre
Managers, Subject Matter Experts and Learning Designers.
• Learning Designers had a weekly meeting to discuss approach,
consistency, ideas, content, hurdles, tools, style, etc.
• Learning Designers had regular meetings with the subject
matter experts.
• Handover from Learning Design to Multimedia was provided in
a face-to-face manner with ongoing consultation.
COMMUNICATION IS KEY

7. Platform
Learning Management System (LMS)
At this point we have selected Moodle as our LMS
because:
• Open source learning platform
• It’s a Learning Management System that provides us with
control over the interface and allows us to style the
interface
• We have decided to run Moodle 1.9 because of its quick
load times
• We have experience with Moodle and it’s the Institute
Learning Management System

8. Learning Design

9. A Departure from
Online Unit of Competency
Creation
• Different target audiences dependent on
specific MOOC – local and global
• Highly Visual
• Graphics
• Film/Video
• Very limited text
• NO assessments
• Activities and Interactivities

10. Industry Involvement
- Not just theory!

11. Subset of BHI MOOCs

12. Enrolment

13. Welcome

14. Types of Content

15. Types of Content

16. Types of Content

17. Interactive Online Activities

18. Pathways

19. Hurdles / Healthy Learning
Experiences
• Communication is key across stakeholders
• Timeliness
• Competing priorities for each stakeholder
• Limited budget = limited resources and
resourcing
• First attempt at creating niche taster MOOCs
– restricted precedence on level playing
field

20. Looking to the Future
• Our aim is to complete the set of six niche taster
MOOCs by July 2014.
• These will act as a healthy springboard moving
forward.
• The MOOCs will be monitored and evaluated
against their specific intended purposes.
• Reflection will occur.
• Improvements to existing MOOCs will be
actioned and updated based on evaluation and
reflection.
• The entire process will have the scope to evolve,
grow and improve.