Sarah Cornelius presented lessons learned from her experiences with virtual classrooms and MOOCs that can inform online educators. She investigated teachers' and learners' experiences with web conferencing tools, finding they allowed flexibility but were demanding for instructors to manage. MOOCs at the University of Aberdeen engaged over 35,000 learners and improved instructors' digital skills, collaboration, and course design, with impacts on traditional teaching. Both formats provided learning for educators and influenced wider practices through reflection on online pedagogies.

1. Experiences of virtual
classrooms and MOOCs
Lessons for online educators
Sarah Cornelius
University of Aberdeen, UK
Oulu University of Applied Sciences, December 2015
@sarahcornelius
s.cornelius@abdn.ac.uk
www.slideshare.net/sarahcornelius

3. Tutor: H802 Applications of Information Technology in Open and Distance
Education, first online web-based course in the OU
Tutor: T171 You, your computer and the net first large-scale undergraduate
course - 12,000 students in 2000.
Student: e.g. language courses – first users of web conferencing

4. Images from https://www.facebook.com and www.abdn.ac.uk

6. • Investigating teachers’ and
learners’ experiences
• What are the wider impacts
of these technologies?

7. Teaching with web
conferencing

9. Statement
(n=16)
Using Elluminate Live! has…
Mean
(5 = strongly agree
– 1 = strongly
disagree
SD
… allowed flexibility in my learning 4.27 1.01
… allowed me to communicate effectively with
tutors
4.13 1.06
… allowed me to communicate effectively with
peers
4.0 0.97
… made me feel part of a community of learners 3.81 0.98
… allowed me to collaborate effectively with peers 3.75 1.06
… reduced my isolation as a distance learner 3.6 0.99
‘I think it encouraged a higher level of engagement than I might have had without it’

11. I hope you never use the
‘team captains’ approach..
That would dredge up
memories of the gym class
I remember being in a
breakout room and no-one
else being there…feels lonely
Sub-recommendation 2:
Select optimum numbers for breakout rooms and
allow learners to move in and out of rooms as appropriate
It is fairly easy to get into the
breakout rooms although …I
sometimes wait until the rush is
over and then drag my name into
the room
I think [allowing participants to
move themselves to rooms] gives
participants autonomy as well, to
know that you can do that
yourself, instead of someone
taking you

12. www.slideshare.net/sarahcornelius

13. What are your best/worst
experiences of teaching with
web conferencing?

14. TQFE tutors’ experiences
• ‘Teaching with a blindfold on’
• Everything takes longer
• Importance of collaboration
• Reflections on practice

15. Other teachers’ experiences
4 experienced online teachers from
across the UK
Interviewed in Elluminate
Interpretative phenomenological
analysis
Nov 2010 – Feb 2011

16. it’s quite exhausting
its’ extremely
demanding, for me and
everyone else
it’s quite intense
A demanding environment

17. In David’s words
“There is so much going on […]. Obviously you have the verbal
communication, you have the written communication of the text
chat … we’re monitoring who’s in the session, some people come in
and out, some people come in late, some go out early … sometimes
they lose connection because something goes wrong … monitoring
who’s got good connections and who’s not …

18. In David’s words (2)
“if it’s very interactive monitoring who’s speaking, when they’re
speaking, … the order in which things happen and just trying to
manage [that] …
“Then of course you’ve got the slides. Sometimes they’re writing on
there, you’re writing on there … monitoring the discussion […], so
there’s so much…

19. In David’s words (3)
“and obviously you’re moving between windows – it’s not just [the
web conferencing software] you’re working with, you’re working on …
word documents to get information…
“So in terms of level of concentration, in terms of the things you’ve got
to pay attention to, it’s extremely demanding, for me and everyone
else.”

20. Limited feedback
‘No idea’ what the experience is like for learners
‘teaching to a wall’ - ‘into the ether’
Tools ‘provide limited information’
Needs strategies for e.g.
– Bringing people into discussion
– Ensuring everyone (who wants to be) is heard
– Silences
– Interrupting those who ‘hog the floor’
– Facilitating small group discussions
– Giving learners responsibility

21. Competence &
Confidence
Cognition &
Multimodality
Strategies &
Experience
Technology Media
Teaching
Challenges
of teaching
and learning
with web
conferencing
from Cornelius and Neumann, 2012

22. Wider impacts on teaching and learning
• Improved and more interactive presentations
• Visual impact, clarity, engagement
• Providing increased flexibility for distance learners
• Using recorded sessions, student meeting spaces, community engagement
• Collaboration
• Co-design and co-teaching, innovation, exchange of practice, dialogue
• Impacts on other practice
• Meetings, research collaboration, PhD supervision, professional development
• Resilience, resistance

23. What have been the impacts
of engaging with web
conferencing for your own
practice?

24. MOOCs

25. “various examples show how […] instructors
changed their teaching approach in both
MOOCs and traditional courses, including by
improving classroom materials and activities,
crafting better measures of student learning,
and experimenting with new pedagogies to
increase engagement and learning.”
Duke University
http://er.educause.edu/articles/2015/8/on-campus-impacts-of-moocs-at-duke-university

26. http://www.futurelearn.com
http://www.abdn.ac.uk/study/moocs-
1406.php

28. Our learners
Over 35,000 registrations
• >30,000 + Nutrition and Health
• >5,000 Africa: Sustainable Development for All?
Over 60 contributors:
• Lead academics
• Academic
contributors
• Moderators
• Elearning team
• Audio visual
team
• External
Relations
• Recruitment/Alu
mni
• Project
management
plus international experts and
external organisations
Features
Rich video presentation
High levels of social learning
Integration into on-campus provision

35. Are there any aspects of a
MOOC approach that you
could use in your own
practice?

36. Wider impacts on teaching and learning
Academics improving and developing skills
e.g. media and presentation skills, digital skills
Academics rethinking delivery approaches
e.g. new course structures and designs
Driving open approaches and facilitating
collaboration and sharing
e.g. new collaborations, MOOCs on teaching
Sources: Kerr et al. (2015); Universities UK (2013); Yuan and Powell (2013)

37. At the University of Aberdeen
• FutureLearn platform statistics
• Narratives – academics’ stories
• Processes to build and deliver MOOCs
• Emergent outcomes
• Developing research questions

38. At the University of Aberdeen
Quality vs Production Values
Engagement
Effort, Costs, Recognition
Constraints, Pedagogies, and Course Design
Academic credit
IPR and Copyright
External Validation
Research Platform

39. Still converging?
• Engaging with digital and online learning provides a learning
opportunity for educators, which generates reflection on practice and
has impacts in wider contexts:
• Improved skills
• Enhanced collaboration
• Unanticipated impacts
• Relevance to all learning contexts

40. Thanks
• Members of the TQFE and MOOC teams and students who
participated in the research
• Co-researchers and authors:
• Carole Gordon, Jan Schyma (University of Aberdeen)
• Tim Neumann (Institute of Education, University of London)
• MOOC team and Colin Calder (University of Aberdeen)

41. Web Conferencing
Cornelius S and Gordon C (2013) Facilitating learning with web conferencing: recommendations based on learners’
experiences. Education and Information Technologies. 18(2) 275-285
Cornelius S (2014) Facilitating in a demanding environment: experiences of teaching with web conferencing. British Journal of
Educational Technology 42(2) 260-271
Cornelius S and Neumann T (2012) The realities of teaching and learning with web conferencing: challenges and issues.
Workshop for ALT-C 2012, Manchester, UK, Sept 2012 Resources available from http://altc2012.alt.ac.uk/talks/28046
Cornelius S, Gordon C and Schyma J (2014) Live online learning: strategies for the web conferencing classroom. Baisingstoke:
Palgrave Macmillan
MOOCs
Kerr et al. (2015) University of Glasgow: Building and Executing MOOCs: a practical review of Glasgow’s first two MOOCs
http://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_395337_en.pdf
Universities UK (2013) Massive open online courses: higher education’s digital moment?
http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/highereducation/Documents/2013/MassiveOpenOnlineCourses.pdf
Yuan L and Powell S (2013) MOOCs and open education: implications for higher education. JISC CETIS White Paper.
http://publications.cetis.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/MOOCs-and-Open-Education.pdf
University of Aberdeen © 2015
Experiences of web conferencing and MOOCS; lessons for the design of online learning by Sarah Cornelius
is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License