Slides for a lecture on "Everything you always wanted to know about MOOCs but were afraid to ask" presented as part of Queen Margaret University's MSc in Professional and Higher Education, by Lorna M. Campbell, Cetis, using Adobe Connect on Thursday 5 December 2013.

1. Everything you ever
wanted to know about
MOOCs but were afraid
to ask
Lorna M. Campbell

2. What is Cetis?
•
Centre for Education Technology, Interoperability and
Standards http://www.cetis.ac.uk/
•
A national UK technology advisory centre providing
strategic, technical and pedagogical advice on
educational technology and standards to funding
bodies, standards agencies, government, institutions and
commercial partners.

4. MOOC Hysteria by CogDogBlog, CC BY SA 3.0,
http://cogdogblog.com/2012/07/17/mooc-hysertia/

5. Li Yuan, http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/cetisli/2013/06/25/moocs-and-higher-educationwhat-is-next/

6. © David
Kernohan, https://twitter.com/dkernohan/status/250889990828089344/photo/

7. Dave Cormier, http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3uimla

8. Stephen Downes

9. © Stephen Downes, George Siemens, Dave Cormier, Rita Kopp, CC BY NC SA.

10. Ds106, http://ds106.us/

11. © Andrew Allingham,
http://blog.andrewallingham.info/2011/02/ds106-radio-design/

12. © Michael Branson Smith, http://www.michaelbransonsmith.net/blog/2012/
02/18/a-purely-unapologetic-piece-of-ds106-branding/

13. Sebastian Thrun

14. Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller
http://i0.wp.com/allthingsd.com/files/2012/04/Coursera.jpg

18. Fast Company,
http://www.fastcompany.com/3021473/udacity-sebastian-thrun-uphill-climb

19. © Mick Pope, http://natural-philosopher.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/humanlearners-in-less-than-human-world.html

21. eLearning and Digital Cultures, https://www.coursera.org/course/edc

22. MOOCS and Open Education:
Implications for Higher Education
http://publications.cetis.ac.uk/20
13/667

23. The Maturing of the MOOC
https://www.gov.uk/government/
publications/massive-openonline-courses-and-onlinedistance-learning-review

24. Futurelearn, https://www.futurelearn.com/

25. OLDSMOOC, http://www.olds.ac.uk/

26. ocTEL, http://octel.alt.ac.uk/

27. #Phonar, http://phonar.covmedia.co.uk/

28. Key Issues
• Completion rates
• Accreditation
• Openness
• Relation to open distance learning providers
• Demographics
• Business models and disruptive innovation
• Pedagogy

29. Completion Rates

30. MOOC Completion Rates: The Data
http://www.katyjordan.com/MOOCproject.html

31. MOOC Completion Rates: University of Edinburgh
http://www.katyjordan.com/MOOCproject.html

33. Accreditation

34. Udacity Blog, http://blog.udacity.com/2012/06/udacity-in-partnership-withpearson-vue.html

35. Badges? Certificates? What counts as success in MOOCs?
http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/sheilamacneill/2013/03/25/badges-certificateswhat-counts-as-succeeding-in-moocs/

36. “…because they are offering ‘courses’ to the
masses but they would never actually accept
these courses as credit at said elite
universities– in other words, there’s no way the
University of Michigan is going to accept a
certificate or badge of completion as credit
toward one of its degrees, even if students pay
for the privilege.”
- Steven Krause
Udacity joins Pearson in skipping this whole pesky “education” thing (and
more complaining about MOOCs)
http://stevendkrause.com/2012/06/04/udacity-joins-pearson-in-skippingthis-whole-pesky-education-thing-and-more-complaining-about-moocs/

37. “I believe that radical innovations in higher
education must be accompanied by particularly
robust frameworks of accreditation and
credentialing in order to reassure the public.
It’s all very well for evangelists to promote doit-yourself accreditation from the personal
safety of CVs replete with reputable
qualifications, but ordinary people want the
‘beef’ of proper recognition too.”
- Sir John Daniel
OERu Launches Worldwide
http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/40361

38. How open is open?

40. © Ann Aguirre, http://www.annaguirre.com/archives/2009/07/07/can-ofworms-redux/

41. “All of the issues around creating or using
OER, of getting faculty towards supporting
open access, of implementing interinstitutional open source software
communities – all collapse before the MOOC.”
- Bryan Alexander
MOOCs instead of open education by Bryan Alexander
http://bryanalexander.org/2013/02/13/moocs-instead-of-open-education/

42. OpenupEd, http://www.openuped.eu/

43. OER University, http://oeruniversity.org/

44. Relation to Online
Distance Learning
Providers

45. “There is a delusion that MOOCs will decrease
the costs of education for disadvantaged
communities, this is not true as disadvantaged
students need all the additional support
provided by quality open and distance learning.
MOOCs can result in massive rates of failure
and disempowerment, for many, resulting in
the experience of HE becoming a negative
one.”
- Yoram Kalman
Business Models MOOCs and Disruptive Innovation by Yoram Kalman
http://lornamcampbell.wordpress.com/2013/11/01/business-modelsmoocs-and-disruptive-innovation/

46. OpenupEd, http://www.openuped.eu/

47. Demographics

48. SciDevNet, http://www.scidev.net/global/education/news/survey-suggestsmoocs-are-failing-to-educate-the-poor.html

49. The MOOC Phenomenon: Who Takes Massive Open Online Courses and
Why? http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2350964

50. The Coursera student population tends to be
young, male, and employed, with a majority
from developed countries.”
- Christensen, et al
The MOOC Phenomenon: Who Takes Massive Open Online Courses and
Why? http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2350964

51. I think it’s a challenge that [MOOC providers]
are going to face, to overcome cultural and
societal norms that are restricting technology
and education access. If we want MOOCs to
empower open access, we have to figure out
how we can get more women and girls to
access them,”
- Gayle Christensen
SciDevNet, http://www.scidev.net/global/education/news/survey-suggestsmoocs-are-failing-to-educate-the-poor.html

52. Business Models
and Disruptive
Innovation

53. Edakashun is brocken tumblr,
http://brokeneducation.tumblr.com/

54. Dinosaur Comics by Ryan North, http://www.qwantz.com/index.php
Followers of the Apocalypse by David
Kernohan, http://followersoftheapocalyp.se/education_is_broken/

55. The Avalanche is Coming: Higher
Education and the Revolution
Ahead
http://www.ippr.org/publication/
55/10432/an-avalanche-iscoming-higher-education-andthe-revolution-ahead

56. “We hope it’s enough money to get us to
profitability. We haven’t really focused yet on
when that might be."
- Daphne Koller
The New York Times, http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/10/courseraan-online-education-company-raises-another-43-million/?_r=0

57. Pedagogy

58. “Moocs as they were originally
conceived…were the locus of learning activities
and interaction, but as deployed by commercial
providers they resemble television shows or
digital textbooks with – at best – an online quiz
component,”
- Stephen Downes
Times Higher
Education, http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/mooc-creatorscriticise-courses-lack-of-creativity/2008180.fullarticle

60. “[Connectivism is] a somewhat flaky utopian
idea, a technological metaphor more than a
practical method, but it works with the
strengths of digital technology, rather than
against it—and MOOC designers should try to
hew closely to the original model as much as
possible.”
- Michael Burnam-Fink
Slate, http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/09/m
oocs_need_to_go_back_to_their_roots.html

62. Learner Experience

63. Sheila MacNeill’s Cetis Blog:
http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/sheilamacneill/ca
tegory/moocs/
How Sheila Sees IT:
http://howsheilaseesit.wordpress.com/

64. Further Reading
Barber, M., Donnelly, K and Rizvi, S, (2013), The Avalanche is Coming, Institute for
Public Policy
Research, http://www.ippr.org/images/media/files/publication/2013/04/avalanche-iscoming_Mar2013_10432.pdf
Burnam-Fink, M., (2013), MOOCs Need to Go Back to Their
Roots, Slate, http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/09/moocs
_need_to_go_back_to_their_roots.html
Chafkin, M., (2013), Udacity’s Sebastian Thrun, Godfather of Free Online
Education, Changed Course, Fast Company Tech
Forecast, http://www.fastcompany.com/3021473/udacity-sebastian-thrun-uphillclimb
Christensen, G, Stienmetz, A., Alcom, B., Bennett, A., Woods, D., Emanual, E., J., (
2013), The MOOC Phenomenon: Who Takes Massive Open Online Courses and
Why?, Social Science Research
Network, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2350964

65. Further Reading
Department for Business Innovation and Skills, (2013), The Maturing of the
MOOC, BIS Research Paper Number
130, https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/
240193/13-1173-maturing-of-the-mooc.pdf
Kalman, Y., (2013), Business models, MOOCs and disruptive innovation, Open
World, http://lornamcampbell.wordpress.com/2013/11/01/business-models-moocsand-disruptive-innovation/
Kruase, S., (2013), Udacity joins Pearson in skipping this whole pesky “education”
thing (and more complaining about
MOOCs), stevendkrause.com, http://stevendkrause.com/2012/06/04/udacity-joinspearson-in-skipping-this-whole-pesky-education-thing-and-more-complaining-aboutmoocs/
MOOCs@Edinburgh Group, MOOCs @ Edinburgh 2013: Report #1, Edinburgh
Research Archive, https://www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/6683

66. Further Reading
Parr, C., (2013), Mooc creators criticise courses’ lack of creativity, Time Higher
Education, http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/mooc-creatorscriticise-courses-lack-of-creativity/2008180.fullarticle
Watters, A., (2013), Top Ed-Tech Trends of 2013: MOOCs
and Anti-MOOCs, Hack
Education, http://hackeducation.com/2013/11/29/top-edtech-trends-2013-moocs/
Yuan, L. and Powell, S., (2012), MOOCs and Open Education: Implications for
Higher Education, Jisc Cetis
Whitepaper, http://publications.cetis.ac.uk/2013/667

67. Blogs
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Alan Levine, CogDogBlog, http://cogdogblog.com/
Audrey Watters, Hack Education, http://hackeducation.com/
Bryan Alexander, bryanalexander.org, http://bryanalexander.org/
Dave Cormier, Dave’s Educational Blog, http://davecormier.com/
David Kernohan, Followers of the
Apocalypse, http://followersoftheapocalyp.se/
George Siemens, ELearningSpace, http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/
Martin Hawksey, MASHe, http://mashe.hawksey.info/
Martin Weller, The Ed Techie, http://nogoodreason.typepad.co.uk/
Sheila MacNeill, Sheila MacNeill’s Cetis
Blog, http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/sheilamacneill/category/moocs/
Stephen Downes, Stephen’s Web, http://www.downes.ca/
Steven Krause, stevendkrause.com, http://stevendkrause.com/

68. Licence
Open Scotland: Policies and strategies for opening up education in Scotland
by Lorna M Campbell, lorna.m.campbell@icloud.com
of Cetis http://www.cetis.ac.uk is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/