The document discusses using MOOCs for strategic collaboration between universities. It outlines a proposed Erasmus+ project with 4 intellectual outputs including a bioethics MOOC led by Karolinska Institutet. The MOOC would undergo peer review across the consortium and be used strategically. Key decisions around policy, running courses synchronously/asynchronously, and grading would need to be addressed for effective integration into the educational collaboration. MOOCs could offer opportunities for mass education and exposure if used strategically between partner institutions.

1. Strategizing around MOOCs in higher
education
- A Nordic example
Dr Cormac McGrath, Karolinska Institutet,
Stockholm, Sweden.
2018-03-08cormac.mcgrath@ki.se MOOC as tool for strategic collaboration

2. Erasmus+ application with a view on Open
Educational resources (OER)
§ 5 Intellectual Outputs
§ 1. MOOC bioethics, Lead KI
§ 2. Translational digital
pathology, lead University of
Turku
§ 3. Summer school in
Computational Biomedicine,
lead University of Turku
§ 4. Computational
Biomedicine and Machine
Learning, University of
Bergen.
- 5. Learning Analytics…
unfunded
2018-03-08cormac.mcgrath@ki.se MOOC as tool for strategic collaboration

3. Strategic use of MOOCs: Outline
BioethicsMOOC
KI
Eastern Finland
Southern
Denmark
Turku
Bergen
§ Designing the MOOC
§ Peer review across the
consortium
§ MOOC in use
§ Strategic decisions
when using the MOOC
2018-03-14cormac.mcgrath@ki.se MOOC as tool for strategic collaboration

4. MOOCs (the grand narrative)
§ Cumulative MOOC participation has grown steadily over four years of HarvardX and
MITxcourse production. During these four years, 2.4 million unique users participated
in one or more MITx or HarvardX open online courses, and 245,000 learner certificates
were issued upon successfully completing a course. On average, 1,554 new, unique
participants enrolled per day over four years. A typical MOOC certificate earner
spends 29 hours interacting with online courseware.
§ Participants in a MOOC “classroom” are heterogeneous in background and intention. A
typical course certifies 500 learners — with 7,900 learners accessing some course
content after registering, and around 1,500 choosing to explore half or more of a
course’s content. Demographic statistics of note include a median learner age of 29
years old, a two-to-one male-to-female ratio (67 percent male, 33 percent female), and
significant participation from learners in other countries (71 percent international, 29
percent from the U.S.).
§ Educators are active MOOC participants. Surveys of learners in HarvardX or MITx
courses also helped capture the broadest sense of teacher and instructor identity
among MOOC participants. The new study found strong levels of participation from
this cohort, with 32 percent of respondents self-identifying as “being” or “having
been” a teacher. Of this group, 19 percent said they instructed on the same topic as
the online course in which they participated, and 16 percent achieved course
certification.
2018-03-08cormac.mcgrath@ki.se MOOC as tool for strategic collaboration

5. Kix: https://www.edx.org/school/kix
2018-03-08cormac.mcgrath@ki.se MOOC as tool for strategic collaboration

6. Our different kinds of edX based digital
learning interaction(s)
§ MOOC Massive Open
Online Course
§ (SPOC) Small Private
SPOC
- All bio-medical students
in the consortium
- Medical students
studying urology
- Masters and PhD
students in statistics
§ MOOClet- OER
2018-03-08cormac.mcgrath@ki.se MOOC as tool for strategic collaboration

7. Strategic use of MOOCs: Outline
§ Designing the MOOC
§ Peer review across the consortium
§ MOOC in use
§ Strategic decisions when using MOOCs
2018-03-13cormac.mcgrath@ki.se MOOC as tool for strategic collaboration

8. Designing learning outcomes
§ Knowledge and understanding
§ - How to account for basic theories, principles, and concepts
within biomedical ethics.
§ Skills and abilities
§ - Identify ethical problems, positions, and arguments within
biomedicine.
§ - Perform an analysis of an ethical problem within biomedicine.
§ - Coherently argue for and against courses of action on how to
deal with an ethical problem within biomedicine.
§ Judgement and approach
§ - Reflect on one’s own and others’ values
§ - Demonstrate an ethical and scientific approach to biomedicine.
2018-03-12cormac.mcgrath@ki.se MOOC as tool for strategic collaboration
Bioethic
sMOOC
KI
Eastern
Finland
Souther
n
Denmar
k
Turku
Bergen

9. Peer review
§ Learning outcome
review R1
§ Design review R2
§ Question and
assignment review R3
§ Overall in-platform
review R4
§ E+ project
- Review on
Translational
Pathology (R1,2
finalised)
- Multiplier event
Stockholm April 2018
2018-03-08cormac.mcgrath@ki.se MOOC as tool for strategic collaboration
Bioethic
sMOOC
KI
Eastern
Finland
Souther
n
Denmar
k
Turku
Bergen

10. Strategy: Using the MOOC
§ Teachers incorporate
MOOCs into their
teaching
§ Institutions adopt
MOOCs to replace
teachers
§ Teachers openly
collaborate on
developing OER or
MOOCs
§ Teachers open to other
sources than their own
“digital literacy”
§ Students pick up
nuggets of learning or
whole courses
§ OER is made a part of
the on-campus
experience
2018-03-08cormac.mcgrath@ki.se MOOC as tool for strategic collaboration
Bioethic
sMOOC
KI
Eastern
Finland
Souther
n
Denmar
k
Turku
Bergen

11. Good intention Institutional strategic
development.
2018-03-13cormac.mcgrath@ki.se MOOC as tool for strategic collaboration

12. How do we integrate MOOCs into an
educational collaboration?
§ What are the policy
decisions to make?
§ How will the MOOC
work?
- Shared course or
different courses?
§ Who will assess the
course work at each
university?
2018-03-08cormac.mcgrath@ki.se MOOC as tool for strategic collaboration
Policy decision
Revenue models
Practice decision
running the courses synchronously or
asynchronously
Practice & policy decision
Grading

13. Concluding remarks
§ MOOCs offer a value for money approach to mass
education when used strategically.
§ Universities don’t “usually” have business oriented
models for MOOC collaboration
§ Little concern for Return in Investment
- Leads to frustration of sunk costs.
§ Collaboration and strategy starts with mutual benefit!
§ What opportunities do you see?
2018-03-14cormac.mcgrath@ki.se MOOC as tool for strategic collaboration

14. • What do MOOCs afford?
§ Allow students an opportunity to regulate their
own learning.
§ Offer students an opportunity to revisit material.
§ Support learning of basic concepts .
§ Allow “us” to monitor learners’ performance and
progress easily using the data captured during the
courses
§ Can be used as a tool in a blended learning
program, where students can access more
information than what is provided in the class
§ Both professors and learners get world-wide
exposure, thus improving pedagogical techniques
and knowledge sharing
§ Access to courses offered by professors at schools
across the world for free
§ Courses are available to a vast and diverse
audience across the globe
2018-03-13cormac.mcgrath@ki.se MOOC as tool for strategic collaboration
Kim et al, 2014

15. MOOC as an Open Educational Resources
(OER/OLA)
§ Open learning activities
- Based on competency
frameworks & generic
technical standards
2018-03-13cormac.mcgrath@ki.se MOOC as tool for strategic collaboration
Vaitsis et al, 2016
Generic
competency
framework
Meta-
data
Technical
Standard