Val Chukhlomin
Alena Rodick
SUNY Empire State College
Saratoga Springs, NY
Contact:
CourseraSpecializations@esc.edu
Did Corsican Corsairs
Curse Coursera
Courses? Couldn’t
they just use them to
get new skills?

Plan:
Introduction
The evolution of Coursera
ESC on Coursera
Why and how we do it
What is a Coursera course
Coursera analytics
Consumer-oriented approach
Why the title
Our approach
Specialization
Survey
Individual Skills Management

Plan:
Introduction
The evolution of Coursera
ESC on Coursera
Why and how we do it
What is a Coursera course
Coursera analytics
Consumer-oriented approach
Why the title
Specialization
Coursera pedagogy
Our discoveries
Individual Skills Management

Coursera

2
The Enterprise Model* 500 online
courses
 35 faculty
coordinators
 500 adjunct
instructors
 CIDs, student
services.
* Lowenthal, P. R., & White, J. W. (2009). In P. Rogers, G. Berg, J.
Boettcher, C. Howard, L. Justice, & K. Schenk (Eds.), Encyclopedia of
distance and online learning (2nd ed.). Information Science
Reference.
Image credits: Mycenaean Galley. Retrieved from:
http://theminiaturespage.com/news/101095426
 Small classes
(5 - 25 students)
 Writing
intensive,
student-centered,
self-directed
learning

3
Why MOOCs?
 Professional
Development
 Showcase
 Grants
 Educational
research
 Fun
Image credits: Warrior Poet by TV Tropes.
http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/warrior_poet.jpg

4
How we get it done
 Faculty or Instructional
Design driven initiatives
 SUNY Innovative
Instructional Technology
Grants (IITG)
 Coursera RFP
 Temporary, cross-boundary,
high-performance teams
Image credits: Peter Diamandis on
BusinessInsider.com

Plan:
Introduction
The evolution of Coursera
ESC on Coursera
Why and how we do it
What is a Coursera course
Coursera analytics
Consumer-oriented approach
Why the title
Specialization
Coursera pedagogy
Our discoveries
Individual Skills Management

Coursera analytics

Coursera analytics

A new Coursera pedagogy for the YouTube generation
Amy Giaculli presents Career Development Lab
Coursera, Career Brand Management specialization
• Research into learners’ preferences
• Short (up to 6 min) videos, 160 words per minute
• Professors (narrators) as actors and story-tellers
• Pictures (PPT), music, animations
• Closed captions and edited scripts
• Forums linked to videos
• In-video questions
• On-demand
• Student evaluation

6
Discoveries
 MOOCmaking is NOT a traditional
online course development
 All different: Process – Roles – Skills
 Specialization as a TV mini-series
 Executive Producer (Money, PR,
marketing)
 Screenwriter(s), scripts, editors
 Video production, sound, animators
 Line Producers (get things done)
 Content experts, actors, narrators
 Assistant EP (project manager)
 Consumer research.Image credits: www.wpclipart.com
?

Plan:
Introduction
The evolution of Coursera
ESC on Coursera
Why and how we do it
What is a Coursera course
Coursera analytics
Consumer-oriented approach
Why the title
Specialization
Coursera pedagogy
Our discoveries
Individual Skills Management

Specialization: the origins

From the idea to a four course specialization:
attending a Coursera workshop
“In this Specialization, you will
learn how to use proven
brand management methods
and tools for individual career
development in competitive
job environments”.
Image credits: JSlavy @ Shutterstock

The New Course

The tangible outcomes

https://www.coursera.org/learn/skills-management

Questions?
Thank you for attending this session!

Coursera learners
Source: iMOOC101 data provided by Coursera, May 2015
• Average enrollment: 40,000
• Never accessed: 50%
• Drop-out exponentially
• Completion: 3-5%
• Average age: 25-45.
(Based on courses delivered in 2012-14)
Jordan, K. (2014). Initial trends in
enrollment and completion of massive
open online curses. The International
Review of Research in Open and
Distance Learning, 15, 133-160.

Source: iMOOC101 data provided by Coursera, May 2015
Learners sample videos like cookies at a party!

Problems to solve:
• RFP, competition with top universities
• Manufacturing advance: How to repay the loan?
• Campus support, budgeting and administration
• Team formation, work assignment, deadlines
• Large scale video production.
Developers and instructors (left to right): Dr. M. Forte, Dr. K. Rutigliano, A. Giaculli, Dr. V.
Chukhlomin, Dr. T. Jokelova, Dr. J. Beckem. The team also included: Dr. D. Gliserman-Kopans,
J. Greiner, and J. Hughes.
Meet the team:
Source: Specialization homepage on Coursera

Major milestones:
• July-October 2015: Idea, RFP, contract, Coursera training
• November 2015: Screenplay, team, budget, equipment
• December 2015-January 2016: Course 1 developed and launched
• February-March 2016: Course 2 developed and launched
• March-April 2016: Course 3 developed and launched
• April- May 2016: Course 4 developed and launched.
https://www.coursera.org/specializations/career-brand-management
Image credits: Brian A Jackson @ Shutterstock

Read more:
Chukhlomin, V. (2016) How Non-U.S. Business Students Can Overcome
Barriers and Succeed in American Virtual Environments: Lessons from
Teaching a Coursera MOOC. Journal of Economics, Business and
Management, Vol. 4, No. 12, December 2016.
doi: 10.18178/joebm.2016.4.12.471
Anant Deshpande & Valeri Chukhlomin (2017): What Makes a Good MOOC:
A Field Study of Factors Impacting Student Motivation to Learn, American
Journal of Distance Education, No 4.
https://doi.org/10.1080/08923647.2017.1377513