This document discusses a study on using Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and Open Educational Resources (OER) to widen participation in Rwandan higher education. The study aims to identify OER units and MOOCs that could be integrated into Rwandan education and determine stakeholder readiness. A pilot study evaluated 5 MOOCs and 5 OER units, finding some appropriate to include. The full study will collect data from additional MOOCs, OERs, and stakeholders in Rwandan education to assess feasibility and potential contributions of open resources to addressing access issues in Rwandan tertiary education.

1. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and Open
Educational Resources (OER) for Widening Participation
in Rwandan Higher Education
APG Report
Bernard Nkuyubwatsi
Supervisors: Professor Grainne Conole
Dr Palitha Edirisingha
Institute of Learning Innovation
University of Leicester
www.le.ac.uk

2. About this presentation
 The context of the study
 Research questions
 Research Methods
 The pilot study results
 Feasibility
 Conclusion

3. The Context of the Study
Source: Wikipedia

4. OER Repository World Map
Map by Atenas and Havemann (n.d.) CC BY-NC-SA.

5. MOOC World map
Map by OpenUCT Initiative (2013), CC-BY-SA

6. The conceptual framework
 The OER emerged in the 2002 UNESCO meeting (Paris)
Teaching, learning and research materials in any
medium, digital or otherwise, that reside in the public
domain or have been released under an open license
that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and
redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions.
2011 Paris OER declaration

7. OER and Open Ed Declarations
 Article 26.1 of the universal declaration of human
rights: “everyone has the right to education” (United
Nations, 1949).
 The Budapest Open Access Initiative (2001): the
learning of the rich shared with the poor and that of the
poor with the rich (Open Society Foundations, 2002).
 The Cape Town Open Education Declaration
(2007): A call for stakeholders to remove barriers to
education (Shuttleworth Foundation and OSF, 2007)

8. Trends of access to education
 Commonwealth of Learning and UNESCO (2011) predicts
the global higher education demand to grow from 165
million in 2011 to 263 million in 2025 (59% increase in 15
years).
 Sir John Daniel: 4X30000/week between 2011 and 2025
(Mandell and Travers, 2012).

9. From OER to MOOCs
OER movement →2008: Connectivist MOOCs
(cMOOCs)
MOOC popularity: 2011 with Extension MOOCs
(xMOOCs)
Online, non-selective and tuition- free courses that are
usually addressed to a global audience of students
(Nkuyubwatsi, 2013).

10. Interaction and learning
 Moore‟s (1989) 3 types of interaction:
 Learner-content interaction
 Learner-teacher interaction
 Learner-peers
 Hillman et al. (1994) add learner-interface interaction
 Anderson‟s (2003) deduces interactivity theorem from
Moore‟s three types of interaction

11. Research question for Phase 1
 Overarching question: How can OER and MOOCs be integrated
into Rwandan higher education to facilitate widening participation?
 Subsidiary questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
What OER units can be used in Rwandan higher education?
How can these units be use in Rwandan higher education?
What MOOCs can be used in Rwandan higher education?
How can these courses be used in Rwandan higher education?

12. Research Question Phase 2
 Overarching Question: What is the OER and MOOC
readiness for stakeholders in Rwandan Higher Education?
 Subsidiary questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
What is the readiness for students?
What is the readiness for academics ?
What is the readiness for the UR „s leaders?
What is the readiness for the HEC?
What is the readiness for the Government (through the
Ministry of Education)?

13. Research Methods
 Paradigm: towards subjectivist ontology and interpretivist
epistemology.
 Design: An Interpretive research design: Flexible
→OER/MOOCs is dynamic field
→ Rwanda: The country of reforms in education

14. Phase 1 of data collection
 Study: 10 MOOCs and 10 OER units.
 Immersed participant-observer (MOOCs)
 Archive analyst (OER)
 Source: Coursera and MIT Open Courseware.
 construct validity and reliability : Yin (2009)
principles: multiple sources of evidence, databases and
chain of evidence.

15. Phase 2 of data collection
With stakeholders in Rwandan higher education
 Students: Focus group
 Academics: focus group
 UR‟s leaders
 Policy makers (Government): focus groups
MINEDUC
 Accrediting body (HEC)

16.  Methodology
 MOOC and OER evaluation rubrics for data gathering,
 Nvivo for data analysis,
 A cross-sectional and pattern/theme linking,
 Piloted: 5 MOOCs and 5 OER units
 Ethical Approval:
 University of Leicester ethical approval

17. Discussion of the pilot study results
1. What OER units can be used in Rwandan higher education?
 Building and Leading Effective Teams (BLET),
 Computer Game Simulation for Investigation and
Education(CGSIE)
 Developmental Entrepreneurship (DE) &
 Internet Technology in Local and Global Communities
(ITLGC).
2. How can these units be use in Rwandan higher education?
 BLET and CGSIE standalone units but to be enhanced,
 DE and ITLGC: granular level

18. 3. What MOOCs can be used in Rwandan higher
education?
 All the five MOOCs.
4. How can these courses be used in Rwandan higher
education?
 Standalone units in a module

19. The appropriateness of MOOCs Rwandan higher
education
MOOC
Level
Credit
AIP
Undergrad
4
DIINC
Undergrad
3
IHTS
Undergrad
4
ILTEI
Postgraduate
7
LSIO
Postgraduate
8

20. The appropriateness of OERs Rwandan
higher education
OER Unit
Level
Credit
BLET
Postgraduate
4
CGSIE
Postgraduate
5
DE
Undergraduate
NA
ITLGC
Undergraduate
NA
MIE
Post Graduate
NA

21. Evaluation of MOOCs from the learner‟s
perspective
 Human-human Interaction: limited and hard to handle.
 Human-content interaction: can be maximized
 Human-Interface:
 Students control the language in xMOOC: speech rate
and subtitles,
 Students can pause videos anytime
This control empower students in their learning

22. MOOC and OER potential in Rwandan
Higher Ed
 Availability free of charge:
 Addressing the lack of access to learning resources
and education in Rwanda.
 MOOCs‟ Scalability:
 Mitigation of the shortage of tertiary education
teachers in Rwanda.
 Diversity in terms of participants:
 Multicultural literacy development in Rwanda.

23. Feasibility
 Access to MOOCs ad OER units
 Networked to stakeholders in Rwandan higher education
Timeline:
Activities
3 chapters, Phase 1 of collection &
analysis
Phase 2 of data collection & write up
Feedback, editing, submission & viva
10/134/14
10/14- 4/153/15
9/15

24. Current progress
 In phase 1 of data collection: Completed 7 (-1)
MOOCs for the main study and will complete the 8th
next week.
 Still have to take 3 more MOOCs
 Authored 2 papers on MOOCs

25. Conclusion
 My research is follows an interpretive design.
 Ten MOOCs and ten OER units in Phase 1 of data
collection
 I am a participant observer (MOOC) and archive analyst
(OER).
 Stakeholders in Rwandan higher education will participate
in Phase 2 of data collection
 The pilot study promise the potential contribution of OER
and MOOCs to widening participation in Rwanda.

26. Thank you!