The document discusses MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). It defines MOOCs as courses that have massive student numbers (over 100,000), are open for anyone to study online at any time, and cover academic course content. The document outlines reasons why institutions may offer MOOCs, such as profiling the institution as innovative, experimenting with new teaching approaches, and making knowledge more accessible to the public. It also discusses challenges with MOOCs, such as past failures of online ventures and the need for teachers to change how they teach for technologies to be successfully integrated into education.

1. Thulani Maphanga
MOOCS
Presentation
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2. What is a MOOC?
The term MOOC was coined by Dave Cormier or
Bryan Alexander (Alexander, 2008; Cormier,
2008; Daniel, 2012; Masters & Qaboos, 2011; G.
Siemens, 2012a) to describe a course on
Connectivism (CCK08) organized by George
Siemens and Stephen Downers in 2008, which
attracted 2,200 participants (Downes, 2010).

3. What is a MOOC?
 Massive
 Student numbers can be 100,000 +
 Open
 Study any course, anywhere at any time
 Online
 As opposed to face-to-face or blended
 Course
 Learning units in an academic subject

4. Why Offer a MOOC?
MOOCs can profile an
institution as a
leading 21st Century
educational
institution.
MOOC
MOOCs may well be a
“game changer” with
respect to how education
is delivered and
consumed and
institutions need to be in
the MOOC space to
experience delivering
education in this way and
to remain current with
educational practices.
MOOCs provide an
opportunity for an
institution to
experiment with
teaching practices
and to engage with
new pedagogical
approaches.
Institutions have a range
of subject areas that are
specific to their region
e.g. HK SAR / China
context and HKU can
showcase these subjects
through offering MOOC
courses.
An institution can
make knowledge
more accessible to
the general public
through offering a
range of MOOCs.

5. MOOCs in Context
 The history of introducing technologies into teaching
and learning has been one of over promise and under
delivery (Daniel, 2012; Reiser, 2001).
 Already seen the failure of two significant online
ventures – Fathom from Columbia University and
ALLLearn backed by Oxford, Stanford, Yale and
Princeton (Knight, 2012).
 Technologies will only be successfully integrated into
teaching and learning when teachers change the way
that they teach (Zemsky & Massy, 2004).

6. MOOCs in Context
 Although we have seen different teaching models (King,
1993; McWilliam, 2008; George Siemens, 2005), wholesale
changes in teaching approaches have not come about and,
as we shall see, they are not occurring to any particular
degree with MOOCs.
 We need to move beyond the use of technologies for the
purposes of information transmission.
 There has been progress in this area but too often we still
see the Learning Management System – the enterprise tool
of choice – used poorly for teaching and learning (Beer,
Jones, & Clark, 2009; Browne, Jenkins, & Walker, 2006;
Malikowski, 2011).

7. cMOOCs
 The first MOOC ever offered was a
cMOOC.
 Based on a Connectivist Learning Theory
 Knowledge / content is generated by
teachers, students and multiple others.
 Multiple technologies – 12 in this first
MOOC – are used to connect people
participating in the course.
 On the fringes but cutting edge in terms of
pedagogy and technologies

8. sMOOCs
 Grounded in behaviorist learning theory
with some cognitive components and
some constructivist components.
 This means transmission style teaching
with drill and practice, problem sets and
e.g. discussion forums.
 Uses a limited range of technologies and
could be thought of in terms of LMS as
platform.
 Very much in the mainstream with
monetization a key component.

9. Will MOOCs Succeed?
 There is a lot of hype and no one is quite sure what
impact they will have on the future of education
(Regalado, 2012; Webley, 2012).
 That said, MOOCs are much talked about and
researchers along with the more popular press
certainly understand MOOCs as potentially disrupting
the traditional educational landscape (Rodrick & Sun,
2012).

10. Find ways
to satisfy
employers
Learning
and identity
issues
Will MOOCs Succeed?
Will have to
find ways to
monetize
This is
possible and
Coursera is
already doing
it
Teachers will
have to
change the
way that they
teach
Can’t just
record a
lecture and
put it online
First question
concerns what
constitutes
success
Become self-
sustaining whilst
delivering a
quality education
valued by
students and
employers?

11. References
 Alexander, B. (2008). Connectivism Course Draws Night,
or Behold the MOOC. Infocult: Uncanny Informatics.
Retrieved April 4, 2013, from
http://infocult.typepad.com/infocult/2008/07/connectivism-
course-draws-night-or-behold-the-mooc.html
 Armstrong, L. (2012). Coursera and MITx - Sustaining or
Disruptive. Changing Higher Education. Retrieved April 11,
2013, from
http://www.changinghighereducation.com/2012/08/
coursera-.html