This document discusses quality standards for MOOCs, known as the OpenupEd label. It presents benchmarks for MOOC quality at both the institutional and course level. The benchmarks cover areas like strategic management, curriculum design, course design, delivery, staff and student support. Compliance with the benchmarks is intended to enhance quality, not enforce compliance with every standard. Obtaining the OpenupEd label involves a self-assessment and review process. The label aims to provide assurance of quality to students, employers, authors and institutions.

1. OpenupEd and the quality label
for MOOCs
EADTU The Open and Flexible Higher Education Conference 2014
New Technologies and the Future of Teaching and Learning
Krakow, Poland, 23-24 October 2014
Jon Rosewell1 & Darco Jansen2
1The Open University, UK
2European Association of Distance Teaching Universities, The Netherlands

2. Why bother with quality?
• One Coursera course:
–‘The worse course I’ve taken’ (158 posts)
–‘Thanks Dr. ____ for a great course’ (177 posts)
• ‘Angry about first programming assignment?’
–‘"Angry" implies entitlement to something better which
is, for a free course, probably not the way to go.’
• Coursera: Computing for Data Analysis (Oct 2013)
• Coursera: Social Network Analysis (Oct 2013)

3. Why bother with quality?
• Students – know what they are committing to
• Employers – recognition of content and skills
• Authors – personal reputation, 'glow' of success
• Institutions – brand reputation
• Funders – philanthropic, venture caps, governments
• Quality agencies – on behalf of above

4. Why bother with quality?
• Reported completion may be very low (1-10%)
• Does that matter?
–With very large starting numbers, there are still many
learners completing
–Maybe learners achieve personal goals even if they
don’t complete
• Can MOOCs encourage access to HE if >90% have an
experience which is a ‘failure’?

5. Provenance
Reputation
Brand
creation use
user recommendationpeer review
MOOC
checking
Quality points

7. OpenupEd features
• Openness to learners
• Digital openness
• Learner-centred approach
• Independent learning
• Media-supported interaction
• Recognition options
• Quality focus
• Spectrum of diversity

8. OpenupEd Label
• Partners will be HEIs
–meet national QA & accreditation
–Internal QA process for MOOC approval
• Self-assessment & review
–Benchmarks
–OpenupEd features
• HEI evaluates and monitors its MOOCs

9. OpenupEd MOOC benchmarks
• Derived from E-xcellence benchmarks
• Institutional level
–To be checked occasionally
–21 statements, organised in groups:
Strategic management, Curriculum design, Course design,
Course delivery, Staff support, Student support
• Course level
–To be checked for each MOOC
–11 statements

10. OpenupEd MOOC benchmarks
• Benchmarking intended as an improvement tool
–Quality enhancement
–Identification of weaknesses and strengths
–Action plan for improvement
• It is not expected that every institution will achieve every
benchmark or feature
• Embrace diversity!

11. Course design
9 The institution provides templates or guidelines for layout and
presentation of MOOCS to support consistency across the portfolio.
These templates have the flexibility to accommodate a range of
teaching and learning methods.
10 Course materials, including the intended learning outcomes, are
regularly reviewed, up-dated and improved using feedback from
stakeholders.
11 The institution specifies an open licence for MOOC components, and
has a mechanism to track intellectual property rights.
Course delivery
12 The MOOC platform is reliable, secure and assures appropriate levels of
privacy. Provision is made for system maintenance, monitoring and
review of performance.
13 The MOOC platform provides a range of online tools which are
appropriate for the educational models adopted.
Benchmarks – institutional level

12. 22 A clear statement of learning outcomes for both knowledge and skills is
provided.
23 There is reasoned coherence between learning outcomes, course
content, teaching and learning strategy (including use of media), and
assessment methods.
24 Course activities aid students to construct their own learning and to
communicate it to others.
25 The course content is relevant, accurate, and current.
26 Staff who write and deliver the course have the skills and experience to
do so successfully.
27 Course components have an open licence and are correctly attributed.
Reuse of material is supported by the appropriate choice of formats
and standards.
28 Courses conform to guidelines for layout, presentation and
accessibility.
Benchmarks – course level

13. Quick scan

14. 31 Assessment is explicit, fair, valid and reliable. Measures appropriate to the
level of certification are in place to counter impersonation and plagiarism.
See comments to Benchmark 29 above.
The advent of digital badges (for example Mozilla open badges) provides a
method of rewarding achievement that may be appropriate for MOOCs. The
award of digital badges can be linked to automated or peer assessment.
Digital badges have an infrastructure that verifies the identity of the holder
and provides a link back to the issuer and the criteria and evidence for which
it was awarded. Badges thus may provide a validated award that can be kept
distinct from the HEIs normal qualifications.
See also:
E-xcellence benchmark #17
Chapter 3 Course design
§ 2.4 Assessment procedures
§ 3.4 Assessment
§ 4.2.5 Online assessment
Additional notes

16. Action plan

17. http://innoqual.efquel.org/

18. Comments and feedback?
www.openuped.eu
Email: Jon.Rosewell@open.ac.uk
Darco.Jansen@eadtu.eu
Thank you for your attention