3.2.1
University-Led MOOCs
University led MOOCs, also characterized as xMOOCs, represent the latest inno- vation in formal education. Accredited institutions are now accepting MOOCs as part of a degree, yet a wholly free online degree is not in effect. Tuition fees are
VENTURE CAPITAL NONPROFIT WORD COMPANIES UNIVERSITIES Andreessen Horowitz New Enterprise Associates Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
Pearson
MOOCs
Bill & Melind Gates Foundation Hardvard MIT University of Pennsulvania CalTech
driven down because, while students still have to pay to certify for their degree, they don’t pay for the operational costs of running the academic process, such as supervision expenses, classroom and facilities maintenance and the like. When MOOCs are able to provide free accredited online degrees, the University business model will have fundamentally changed (Dellarocas2013).
A feasible economic option for universities is virtualizing traditional teaching, by recording of live lectures and presentations. Nothing new here e-Lectures are then delivered over the Web using a Learning Management System (LMS). While attendance levels may drop, student performance is not necessarily compromised (Ottmann2013). In addition, reaching student populations around the globe is not only flattering for academics. but also a great way to decrease their face to face teaching load. MOOCs are certainly attractive to both academics and university management due to their ability to attract venture capital and grant money, often linked to academic reward systems. Another source of potential income is advertising. This is perhaps the reason why prestigious institutions have joined forces to offer their modules and degrees from a single platform. The likes of Harvard, MIT, Cornell, Berkeley, and others founded the non-profit edX to offer the option to“…take great courses from the world’s best universities”or to“Take the world’s best courses online for free”(Ottmann2013). After all, there seems to be a gap in the market for low cost educational provision. According to Laurillard et al. (2010), professor of learning with digital technologies at the Institute of Education, University of London, student loans are higher than credit card loans in the US, while 40 % of student debt will never be repaid in the UK, and by 2025 demand will double to approximately 200 million students per year as emerging economies demand access to higher education.
Perhaps this also indicates a deeper shift away from government budgets to more self-sustainable forms of funding or to better links between tertiary education and private capital, or even perhaps a shift in the mission and student reach of uni- versities to exploit new technologies in order to educate the global population and, in that way, create common worldviews.
The same process of student-expert can be observed in MOOCs with more practical content where professionals or experts provide training and skills development to novices. Many of the courses in Coursera (2014), are of this type.
3.2.2
Peer-to-Peer MOOCs
University-led, xMOOCs differ from peer-to-peer driven MOOCs, also referred to as cMOOCs [i.e. connectivist MOOCs (Yuan and Powell 2013)]. They differ in philosophy, delivery and intention and a certain ‘war’ of learning ideology and practice is currently played out. The quickest way perhaps to understand cMOOCs is to juxtapose them against their more traditional counterparts. Table3.1outlines some of the basic differences.
Table 3.1 xMOOCs versus cMOOCs
xMOOCs cMOOCS
What is the ultimate goal?
Deliver content to larger/new audiences; provide
certifications; experiment with new course; increase access to top Northern American universities or provide free access to education
Create a learning community, which can continue to learn together in the future
What learning or instructional theories are informing the instructor’s decisions?
Traditional teacher-centered approach: knowledge is transmitted from the instructor to the student
Community approach: the learning process focuses on collaborations between learners What is the role of the
instructor?
Creates course content, pedagogical approach and assessments
Participates and facilitates other learners to create content, learning goals, generate new knowledge, etc.
What role does the learner play?
The learner receives knowledge, participates in small work groups, and responds to tests and assessments
The learner co-creates the pedagogical approach and assessment
How are learners building new knowledge?
Learners view content developed by the instructor and apply it to problems or projects defined by the instructor
Learners create projects relating to course themes; share information and knowledge; help each learn
How is learning assessed?
Learners complete assessments that evaluate comprehension from the instructor’s view
Learners share and self-assess their learning paths
Who is creating the content?
The instructor creates the content
The content goal is created by a core group of learners; content is created by all participants What types of
interactions are taking place?
Learners work in small groups to complete assessments based on provide course content
Learners research and share relevant course content to achieve learning goal
Howflexible are the course path and the course goals?
Learning path is set in syllabus and curriculum planning material
Learning goals broadly set by core participants during the course, in response to the community, on a week-by-week basis
Instead of relying on traditional education models, P2P or cMOOCs seek to motivate learning collaborations amongst students. In some ways, students are not students in that there are not teachers either. cMOOCS are communities of learning of like-minded people taking responsibility for and orchestrating their own learning process. In doing so, they co-define their learning objectives, create content through research, share themes, give feedback, insights, ideas and support. While a core group tends to take more of the coordination activities, course goals and objectives arefluid and determined in response to the community.
The idea of learning through research is not foreign to formal education. There are plenty of Masters in Research usually a stepping stone to a PhD, and, of course, Doctorate programs, the pinnacle of formal education, all using research as the means or path to achieving knowledge. However, achieving a degree is a solitary process where the student takes accountability for his or her own research to which they present to some academic authority in exchange for a certification of their ability. cMOOCs so far do not work like this, at least not yet. Why is this important from a big data point of view? For starts, as there is no curriculum, information from any source can be combined to improve learning. Anything from government information to data generated by the internet of things, social media, academic journals, observations from virtual games, countries statistics bureaus can be blended, or in the speak of big data, mashed to create new knowledge. Such blending might be criticized or supported by one’s learning group but inevitably there is no academic authority to bind that search to specific sources, ideas or frameworks. The world of internet is the learners’oyster (Yeager et al.2013).
At the moment, most cMOOcs are teachers and academics interested in learning per se. P2PU (2014) is such an institution, where a team of experts has come together to explore new ideas in curriculum development and design, research, knowledge sharing, etc. and by doing so develop our knowledge about learning! Will such form go mainstream? It is remained to be seen.