1. The document discusses tensions between the goals of profitability and social mobility in higher education innovation. 2. It provides examples of how MOOCs can both normalize the status quo by reinforcing norms or disrupt education by allowing self-determined learning pathways and opening access. 3. The examples discussed include MOOCs that disrupted midwifery learning by allowing professionals to share knowledge across borders, and an NGO using MOOCs to offer educational opportunities to refugees.

1. Professor Allison Littlejohn
Dean for Learning & Teaching,
College of Social Sciences,
University of Glasgow
UK
@allisonl
The [un]intended
consequences of
innovation in HE:
Tensions of profitability
& social mobility
#LILAC19
University of Nottingham

2. For the public good….?

3. For the public good….?

4. Nardi, B. A., (1999) Chapter 7 in Nardi, B. A., & O'Day, V. Information ecologies: Using technology with heart. Mit Press.
Why librarians?

5. Why literacies?

6. Littlejohn, A.; Beetham, H. and McGill, L. (2012). Learning at the digital frontier: a review of digital literacies in theory and
practice. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 28(6) pp. 547–556.
Littlejohn, Allison; Beetham, Helen and McGill, Lou (2013). Digital literacies as situated knowledge practices: academics’
influence on learners’ behaviours. In: Goodfellow, Robin and Lea, Mary R. eds. Literacy in the Digital University: Critical
Perspectives on Learning, Scholarship, and Technology. Routledge.
Littlejohn, Allison; Falconer, Isobel; McGill, Lou and Beetham, Helen (2014). Open networks and bounded communities:
Tensions inherent in releasing Open Educational Resources. In: Littlejohn, Allison and Pegler, Chris eds. Reusing Open
Resources: Learning in Open Networks for Work, Life and Education. Routledge.
Helen Beetham, Lou McGill & Allison Littlejohn (2009) Small-scale JISC study, Final report May 09
Starting point?

7. Littlejohn, Allison and Hood, Nina (2018). Reconceptualising Learning in the Digital Age: The [un]democratising
potential of MOOCs. SpringerBriefs in Open and Distance Education. Singapore: Springer.
• Normalising the status quo rather than
disrupting education.
• Requiring students to follow pre-defined
rather than self-determined pathways.
• Exploiting opportunity for global reach, at the
expense of opening access
Starting point?

8. FROM REINFORCING NORMS…
1 NORMALISING VS DISRUPTING
The people that were driving the
MOOC hype never really had an
interest in the MOOC landscape.
They were trying to position for
a new technology product.
George Siemens (2014)
http://www.universityaffairs.ca/features/feature-article/an-interview-with-canadian-mooc-pioneer-george-siemens

9. DISRUPTING HOW MIDWIVES LEARN
www.moocformidwives.com
Annette Daalsgaard, University of
Aalbourg, Denmark, & UTS, Australia
2098 students from countries in
Europe, Asia, America, Africa &
Australasia
Professionals exchange knowledge
on midwifery practice in their
country.
Shared ideas on distinctive forms of
practice across regional settings.
3 NORMALISING VS DISRUPTING

10. FROM FOLLOWING TUTOR PATHWAYS
2 PRE-DEFINED VS SELF-DETERMINED

11. TO LEARNERS DECIDING THEIR PATHS
2 PRE-DEFINED VS SELF-DETERMINED

12. FROM REINFORCING GLOBAL PRESENCE
3 GLOBAL REACH VS OPENING ACCESS

13. TO OPENING ACCESS TO EDUCATION
www.kiron.ngo
NGO partnering with universities to offer
MOOCs to refugees in Germany
Combine MOOCs with in-person learner
support.
Each learner selects a cluster of MOOCs
bundled into programmes.
Kiron negotiates RPL with universities using
European Credit Transfer & Accumulation
System (ECATS).
MOOC-based study means refugees continue
to learn when they move.
3 GLOBAL REACH VS OPENING ACCESS

14. FROM REINFORCING NORMS… TO
1 NORMALISING VS DISRUPTING

15. Who edits?
• Over 29 million volunteer editors
• Over five million articles (English version)
• Sixty thousand spend 1hr per day working
• No financial compensation

16. The Big Agenda at Edinburgh Uni?
1. Increasing the number of women editors;
2. Improving representation of women
online.

17. The Big Agenda at Edinburgh Uni?

18. Editing
• Supported sessions on
creating a page, editing
a page & referencing.
• Collective decision
which pages to create
then individuals take
responsibility for a
page
• Page individually or co-
constructed.

19. Representing
• Co-research online &
in university archives
(with archivists).
• Co-creating media of
relevant locations (with
media specialists).
• Writing pages. (alone
or co-construction)

20. • Does the editathon lead to the formation of a
network of practice?
Method: SNA of digital traces in wikipedia
• How do participants learn to construct the
wikisites?
Method: interview 9 /47 participants.
Thematic analysis.
The Investigation?

21. Social network analysis?
• 47 participants in the editathon.
• 20 individuals (42.55%) actively
contributed to 31 wiki sites of 66 womens
medical education (46.96 %).
• 11 new wikis created.
• 2 mode analysis of wikipedia data

27. Representing Women Online?
1. Emerging roles researching archives &
creating representations.
2. Growing awareness of new responsibilities.
3. Editing becomes personal & emotional.

28. “I had to dig and dig and dig and dig and
eventually I found a tiny, tiny, tiny, little
classified advert in a Birmingham newspaper
that was offering a £50 scholarship.. and it was
a leading suffragette who sponsored this.
It was a Whoopie! moment when we found it,
everybody clustered round the table.” Anita
1 Emerging roles: researching archives

29. “I did like the idea of finding things that
people hadn’t found before. I also enjoyed
seeing colleagues really excited about
finding things.
It was nice to get involved in a community in
that way.” Elizabeth
1 Emerging roles: researching archives

30. “[In a conversation] I was having with a
colleague who was talking about Sophie Jex-
Blake as a ‘battleaxe’.
Then somebody else was saying ‘Yeah but she
does look like a ‘battleaxe’ in the picture’”
“[I was] thinking we don’t have to use this one
image that is used everywhere.
There are other, better images of her which we
can use, we can upload.” Jessica
1 Emerging roles: researching archives

31. 2 Awareness of responsibilities
“With the formatting there’s plenty of
guidance and support. So that really wasn't
a problem at. I find writing challenging.”
Margaux
“I thought well you know it’s just writing text
on a Wiki page – how hard can this be?
When you’re writing about a person that first
sentence, making it clear. I hadn’t really
anticipated that [level of difficulty].” Anita

32. “I learned stuff about the history of the
institution I work in and it’s the institution I
studied in as well.
So there’s an extra dimension there for me
because 150 years before I might not have had
that opportunity.” Anita
2 Awareness of responsibilities:
learning becomes personal

33. “One thing that I really realised was that
newspapers at the time were not like
newspapers are now…Big public fall out would
be published.”
“It also made me realise the parallels between
the kind of trolling you get online now and the
same sort of thing there, you know the slight
intimidation.”
“They had obscene letters put through their
letter box.” Jessica
2 Awareness of responsibilities:
learning becomes personal

34. More women editors?
1. Anxiety around editing responsibilities.
2. Fear of being silenced.
3. Excitement & anxiety of the Big Agenda

35. “As children girls are often told to be quiet,
whereas boys being boys is more”
Elizabeth
With women editors, we feel that our voice
isn’t perhaps as important or as valuable”
Jessica
I didn’t even really type anything. I just don’t
like the idea of one representation of myself,
Natalie
1 Anxiety around editing responsibilities

36. “We had had a lot of conversations about
the sort of trolling that can happen on
Wikipedia, so …I had my reservations”
Jessica
2 Fear of publishing & trolling

37. “So pressing the publish button …did feel a bit
nerve-wracking.I definitely proof read it a
million times… and edited it a million times.
There were a few things that made it more
nerve-wracking.
Firstly the Wikipedia community were
immediately on to it, so I was worried I might
get it taken down or something.” Sarah
2 Fear of publishing & trolling

38. 3 Excitement of being part of a Big Agenda
“If we’re trying to achieve getting our women
on Wikipedia, great. If we’re trying to
achieve getting more female Wikipedia
editors, great. But is it both?”
“I think … trying to fix it with the same brush
or bolt … was confusing and potentially
alienating for some.” Elizabeth

39. Margaux
Elisabeth
Natalie edited other websites
Sarah did no edit

40. Wikipedia as a site for literacy learning?
1. As people engage in tasks, growing
awareness of new responsibilities.
2. Emerging roles around publishing &
ensuring accurate representation.
3. Learning becomes personal, triggering
forms of agency.

41. FROM FOLLOWING TUTOR PATHWAYS… TO…
2 PRE-DEFINED VS SELF-DETERMINED

42. Scenario 4
Introduction
To Data
Science
University of Washington
Coursera
40,000 registered learners
788 responses from 79 countries
303 professionals, 141 students
59 both, 285 neither
30 follow up interviews

43. “This class motivated me to do whatever
was required to get the certificate …
When I first took the course I thought I
would use the course certificate and whatnot
to add to my LinkedIn profile.
I did do that” (LSRL, 783)
“So now it’s got to the stage where I am
prioritising courses that offer certificates”
(LSRL, 236).
LSRL tended to want to complete the course certificate :

44. “The most important factor because maybe
it’s not even how much I learn, but how big
the impact of my work can be to the
outside world” (HSRL, 119)
“Getting the certification of completion is
less important in the end, it’s nice in the
short term, but I think it’s the artefacts
that are left over that is a measure of
achievement” (HSRL, 135).
HSRL motivations tended to be linked to work performance
or personal interest:

45. HSRL tend to link learning goals with work:
We’ve got a contract with the health service … so they’re trying
to move all our skills into a different area. We’ve been
encouraged to learn a new database technology like NoSQL,
analytics and so this course just fitted that learning
requirement. (HSRL, 481)
And are strategic about where they focus effort:
“The way to approach it [learning] is to follow what interests
me and not worry too much about trying to keep a complete
overview of the area… I plan to complete all of the assignments
[but] I won’t be too worried if I don’t.”(HSRL, 428)

46. In contrast to HSRL who tend to be strategic about
where they focus effort:
LSRL tend to try to carry out all (or most) activities:
“Yes my goal is definitely to watch all the videos
and the content provided and try to solve all the
assignments, although not necessarily I will try to
take part in the additional optional assignments”
( LSRL, 603).
“Aspects of it [the MOOC]. Carefully curated
parts. So not as a whole, I’m going to be
picking through what nuggets are of use to
me in particular contexts” (HSRL 505).

47. Scenario 4
Clinical
Trials
Harvard Medical School,
Harvard School of Public Health,
Harvard Catalyst.
EdX Platform
24,000 registered learners
350 survey respondents
(week 5/ 14)
30 interviews
http://www.gcu.ac.uk/academy/pl-mooc/

48. [My aim was to gain] ‘the certificate, yes,
although I don’t really need it, but I go for it”…
[My goal was] ”to attend all the lectures. Not so much
to participate in the forum although I do.
I read things, I don’t write so much.” (LSRL, 22)
HSRL and LSRL tend to focus on gaining certificate.
Influences goal-setting & learning (task) strategies:

49. LSRL tended follow the course ‘pathway’:
“I do download the study material which is
provided by the course website, but while I watch
the video I do not have a habit of making notes and
I am a person who is organised in a mess. So even
if I make a note I don’t recollect and read those
notes.” (LSRL, 295)
“I’ve tried to go through the questions first and
then go back and review the text to see…and that
forces me to kind of focus on the topics a little bit
more as opposed to if I go to the lecture and then try
to do the questions I find myself zoning out during
it.” (LSRL, 360)

50. HSRL more strategic in how they focus their time:
“I don’t put too much effort into what I'm learning,
but this course – looking at the videos I get to take
my time to understand. Sometimes I watch the
video twice, which has really
helped me to have a better understanding
when I'm learning.” (HSRL, 284)

51. Datascience Motivation
For those reporting good SRL, primary focus on
producing code.
For those reporting they prefer to be regulated by
the ‘other’, primary focus on gaining a qualification
or certificate.
Clinical Trials Motivation
For those reporting either good or poor SRL,
primary focus on gaining a Harvard Certificate.

52. Finance
Informal
Data
Science
MOOC
Health
MOOC
Midwife
MOOC
Couns
-elling
Informal
Data
Science
MOOC
(Students)
Description
self-efficacy X X confidence in learning capacity.
goal-setting ability to use and adapt goals to
plan learning.
task interest X X X X X X interest and readiness to
determine wide value of
learning. In midwifery termed
‘expansive critical thinking’.
learning
strategy
X X X X X X ability to plan learning and
adopt a repertoire of learning
approaches.
learning
strategy
ability to integrate new with
existing knowledge
help
seeking
seeking help from other people
or resources
self-
evaluation/
satisfaction
X X X X X X compare own performance
against an external goal &
satisfaction from this
comparison. Related to ‘self-
reflection’
learning
challenge
X resilience to challenging
learning situations.
Hood, Nina; Littlejohn, Allison and Milligan, Colin (2015). Context counts: How learners' contexts influence learning in a MOOC.
Computers & Education, 91 pp. 83–91.

53. Task interest
Self-evaluation/
satisfaction
Learning Strategy
Learning
Opportunities
Learning
Activities
Littlejohn, Allison; Hood, Nina; Milligan, Colin and Mustain, Paige (2016). Learning in MOOCs: Motivations and self-regulated learning
in MOOCs. The Internet and Higher Education, 29 pp. 40–48.

54. ME
MY GOALS

55. ME
MY GOALS

56. ME
MY GOALS

57. ME
MY GOALS MY GOALS

58. ME
MY GOALS

59. ME
MY GOALS

60. ME
MY GOALS
Useful resources,
Useful people

61. answer
questions
receive
score
receive
feedback
(relative to
others)
active
less
active
0
1
2
3
4
F:
ORGANISATI…
F: STRATEGIC
PLANNING
F: GOAL
F: TASK
P:
ELABORATION
P: HELP
SEEKING
SR: SELF-
SATISFACTION
SR: SELF-
EVALUATION

62. FROM REINFORCING GLOBAL PRESENCE
3 GLOBAL REACH VS OPENING ACCESS

63. 2 Design, Deliver and Evaluate Learning Events
to build capacity in AMR surveillance in LMICs
3 Develop a longer-term approach - topics, methods,
modes of delivery
for learning around AMR in LMICs for Year 2-Year 4
1 Learn about the context
what skills and knowledge are needed, how people in LMICs best learn
Objective 1.0 - Development of 2 initial learning products
Objective 2.0 - Define and agree scope / parameters of learning requirements
Objective 3.0 - Learning needs analysis
Objective 4.0 - Design and deliver learning events
Objective 5.0 - Develop roadmap for learning approach
Year 1: What did we do

65. Phase 2 Country visits
Professional Roles Country
1
Countr
y 2
Countr
y 3
Laboratory
Professionals
9 10 5
Senior Laboratory
Professionals
10 4 2
Clinical Services
Professionals
1 - -
Senior Management
Staff in Clinical
Services
1 - 1
Policymaker 3 6 4
AMR Community /
Expert
1 1 2
Total 25 21 14

66. Knowledge & skills gap
Category name
1 Diagnostics Stewardship
2 Good Laboratory Practice
3 Foundations in Microbiology
4 Molecular Advanced Microbiology
5 Data Use & Interpretation for diagnosis in
Clinical and Vet Services
6 Data Use & interpretation for Public Health
Policy
7 Communication, Collaboration & Advocacy
8 Surveillance System Planning &
Implementation
9 One Health Multisectoral

67. Workplace
Structure
Knowledge
& skills

68. Event B: Foundations in Microbiology
• Lab Professionals, Senior Lab
Professionals.
• 8-week OU OpenLearn course
‘Understanding antibiotic resistance’
• Focus on Bhutan
• Objectives:
appreciate the issues surrounding antibiotic
resistance
know about the challenges in developing new
antibiotics
know about alternative approaches to tackling
infectious diseases.
Two pilot events
Event A: Data Use and Interpretation
• Lab professionals, Senior Lab
Professionals, (Senior) Clinical Services
Professionals, (Senior) Vet Services
Professionals
• (Perhaps) existing resources on data use
and interpretation with additional learning
and assessment developed in order to
provide a more contextualised response.
• Objectives:
Understand basic interpretation / analysis
Identify how to apply this to your needs
How data can be used to support your work
Develop a plan to implement data use in
practice
Engage in knowledge sharing to support
change in practice, challenges / successes

70. BUT NOT HOW THEY LEARN
KEY MESSAGES

71. Significance for LILAC19
1. LIteracy Learning is a vital aspect of
innovation, but it has to be in ways that
support social mobility over profitability.
2. Authentic learning activities motivate
learners.
3. Context is important to ensure literacy is
learned as an embedded practice
We rely on the keystone species…

72. Professor Allison Littlejohn
Dean for Learning & Teaching,
College of Social Sciences,
University of Glasgow
UK
@allisonl
The [un]intended
consequences of
innovation in Higher
Education: Tensions of
profitability and social
mobility