What are MOOCs?

 

          

        There is some controversy as to the nature of MOOCs and how they should function.  As it stands, MOOC is a loosely used term to describe very large, predominantly free, online courses.

 

Educause (2013) explains the acronym in the following manner:

 

A MOOC is a model of educational delivery that is, to varying degrees, massive, with theoretically no limit to enrollment; open, allowing anyone to participate, usually at no cost; online, with learning activities typically taking place over the web; and a course, structured around a set of learning goals in a defined area of study (MOOCs II, What Is It section, para. 1).

 

Further, Educause  (2013) describes the instructional methods of the MOOC model:

 

Most MOOCs are structured similar to traditional online higher education courses.  A MOOC has a syllabus, and course content typically consists of readings, assignments, and lectures, which are often short (6–12 minutes) “microlectures.” Students watch the lectures, read assigned material, participate in online discussions and forums, and complete quizzes and tests on the course material. (MOOCs II, How Does It Work section, para. 1).

 

          However, the model above more accurately describes the xMOOC, which is format of MOOC that is most widely used (Miyazoe & Anderson, 2013). This is in contrast to the cMOOC and sMOOC, which are described in the section below.

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          Please click on the following link to view a chart created by Educause.org featuring statistics regarding MOOCs:

 

Take a Crash Course in MOOCs

 

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Formats & Interaction

 

          Miyazoe and Anderson (2013) describe educational interaction using the Interaction Equivalency Theorem (the  EQuiv).   According to this theory, levels of interaction are described and categorized according to student-content(SC), student-teacher(ST), student-student(SS), teacher-content(TC), teacher-teacher(TT) and content-content(CC).

          The first three are traditionally understood modes of interaction, while the latter three bear brief description.  TC describes teachers interacting with content resources like wikis and authoring tools. TT describes teachers interacting and modifying content collaboratively, with other teachers.  CC refers to the use of content databases that update dynamically (Miyazoe & Anderson, 2013).

 

 

xMOOC 

 

          Miyazoe & Anderson  (2013) cite the xMOOC as the format most commonly found in MOOC courses.   It draws its name from the original MITx courses began by Stephen Downes at MIT. It is also the format used by large organizations edX and Coursera.  They further describe the xMOOC from a theoretical standpoint: “This pedagogical model is marked by clear objectives, teacher direction and measure behavioral and cognitive psychology and learning theory” (p. 8). 

          The xMOOC format is further characterized as having a high SC level where “the normal student–teacher interaction from the classroom has been transformed into student–content (the videos and quiz) interaction”  (Miyazoe & Anderson, 2013, p. 8).

          By nature of the size of the courses, TC level is generally low.  SS interaction is generally low to medium with cost being a major factor.  However, it is a goal for the SS interaction level to rise with time and development.  "Besides machine assessed multiple choice and essay type assignments, there is great hope for student–student interaction that focuses on peer assessment” (Miyazoe & Anderson, 2013, p. 8).   These interactions would theoretically increase the SS levels and improve student satisfaction.

 

cMOOC 

 

          The cMOOC (the c representing 'collective') model “focuses on network development, creation of persistent artifacts and emergence. cMOOCs achieve this by focusing on students creating and supporting their own personal computer environments, that are networked for learning” (Miyazoe & Anderson, 2013, p. 10).  

          SC levels are medium to high with students themselves contributing to course materials.  ST interaction is low as, “the teacher seeks to be co-traveler along a multifaceted path of knowledge construction” (Miyazoe & Anderson, 2013, p. 10) and does not administer the course in the normal sense.

          In this model the SS level is clearly very high as it’s emphasis in on SS with teacher collaboration: “Since the creation of trust within a learning community is highly valued in cMOOCs, there is a great deal of emphasis upon opportunity and requirement for student-student interaction in the form of networked interaction”  (Miyazoe & Anderson, 2013, p. 11).

          In describing the cMOOC, Siemens (2012) states the following: “Our MOOC model emphasizes creation, creativity, autonomy, and social networked learning. The Coursera model emphasizes a more traditional learning approach through video presentations and short quizzes and testing ” (MOOCs Are Really a Platform, Section 1, para. 3).

 

sMOOC 

 

          In contrast, the sMOOC (the c representing 'social') is based on social constructivist ideas and are not as easily scalable as the open xMOOCs or cMOOCs.  TS and SS levels are very high, which also hinders scalability (Miyazoe & Anderson, 2013, p. 15).

          They further state that “sMOOCs are not as disruptive as their two other cousins partially because they have not been shown to scale easily and the pedagogical model from the classroom transfers relatively easily to these online courses” (Miyazoe & Anderson, 2013, p. 16).

 

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 MOOC Providers

 

This is a Ted Talk by Coursera founder Daphne Koller.  She describes her vision for MOOCs and the future of education.

 

          Three prominent providers of MOOCs are Cousera, edX and Udacity.  Coursera and Udacity are for-profit organizations, while edX is non-profit.  Educause (2013) reports that all three have varying partnerships with public universities in the U.S. and internationally.  Enrollment numbers are indisputably large.

   

Pope (2014) reports the number of students  in the millions worldwide:

 

For-profit Coursera and edX, the nonprofit consortium led by Harvard and MIT, are up to nearly 13 million users and more than 1,200 courses between them. Khan Academy, which began as a series of YouTube videos, is making online instruction a more widely used tool in classrooms around the world.

 

Lewin (2013) echoes similarly large enrollment figures:

 

EdX, which began with a single M.I.T. electrical engineering course taught by Dr. Agarwal, now offers about two dozen courses, a roster that will grow to 50 to 100 next fall. EdX expects to serve a billion students worldwide over the next decade on its open-source educational platform, Dr. Agarwal said. About 700,000 individuals are using the platform now, he said, with more than 900,000 course enrollments (Universities Abroad Join Partnerships on the Web, Title section, para. 13).

 

          In addition to these three, numerous other organizations can be found offering the MOOC format.  Since the term is used loosely, it has been applied to websites such as Lynda.com and Udemy.com, which do not offer open or closing dates for courses, but do offer certifications.   Universities also offer MOOCs independent of any third party (Educause, 2013), which is consistent with how the format originated.

 

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Issues

 

 

 

          Pope (2014) cites a shortcoming of the MOOC format as the unquestionably high drop rate of 90%-96%. (What Are MOOCs Good For?, Valuable Snippets Section, para. 1).  Educause (2013) states various reasons given to explain the dropout phenomenon, but it is most commonly attributed to both lack of college credit and the lack of commitment - as the courses are free, with no penalty for withdrawal. (MOOCs II, What Are the Downsides?, section, para. 1).  Pope (2014) cites opinions of MOOCs as a threat to the established educational system in general, and more specifically the relationship of the professor and the student (What Are MOOCs Good For?, Title section, para. 2).

 

          Differing opinions exist however.  Pope (2014) disputes the threat assertion, “That’s why MOOCs shouldn’t necessarily threaten colleges: if established institutions make judicious use of learning technology where it demonstrably helps students, they gain credibility to insist that most of what else they offer on campus is a qualitatively different experience—one that technology can’t replace” (What Are MOOCs Good For?, Justifying Tuition section, para. 7).

 

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Trends

 

College Credit

 

          Credit for MOOCs has most commonly come in the form of certifications.  Educause (2013) reports these certifications can serve as a source of revenue for the institutions, and that there has been an effort to offer college credit for MOOC courses.  Additionally, Lewin (2013) specifies that ‘Both Coursera and edX are moving to help students earn college credit for their free online courses, for a fee, using identity-verified certificates, proctored exams and the American Council on Education’s recommendations, which many universities consider for transfer credit’ (Universities Abroad Join Partnerships on the Web, Title section, para. 12).

          Two prominent experiments were attempted at San Jose State and at Georgia Tech.  Young (2013) detailed the San Jose State program, which offers individual classes for normal course credit under the following arrangement with Udacity:

 

San Jose State University announced an unusual pilot project with Udacity, a for-profit provider of the massive open online courses, to jointly create three introductory mathematics classes. The courses will be free online, but students who want credit from San Jose State will be able to take them for just $150, far less than the $450 to $750 that students would typically pay for a credit-bearing course.

 

If the project continues beyond the pilot, the university will keep 51 percent of any revenue after costs are covered and Udacity will keep 49 percent (California State U. Will Experiment With Offering Credit for MOOCs, Title section, para. 2).

 

          Pope (2013) cites the program at Georgia Tech as “a first-of-its-kind all-MOOC master’s program in computer science that, at $6,600, would cost just a fraction as much as its on-campus counterpart” (What Are MOOCs Good For?, Title section, para. 3).

 

Government Policy

 

Especially interesting to California residents, and to members of the CSU system in particular, is that government policy has begun to take notice by the MOOC trend:

 

The California State University project began when the state's governor, Jerry Brown, e-mailed Sebastian Thrun, the founder of Udacity, to say "We need your help," recounted Mr. Thrun during a news conference on Tuesday. The governor, a Democrat, said at the news conference that student debt is a "huge problem" and that "online is a part of that solution." (Young, 2013, California State U. Will Experiment With Offering Credit for MOOCs, Title section, para. 5-6)

 

Private Sector

 

In a mixed-methods study Radford, Robles, Cataylo, Horn, Thornton, and Whitfield (2013) discuss attitudes towards MOOCs in the workplace. The findings are generally positive:

 

Overall, almost three-quarters (73%) viewed MOOC coursetaking positively or very positively when making hiring decisions. A solid majority (59%) of employers were using, considering using, or could see their organization using MOOCs in recruiting, and more than four-fifths (83%) reported positive views for using MOOCs as professional development tools (Radford, Robles, Cataylo, Horn, Thornton, and Whitfield, 2014, p.  22).

 

The authors also found that  “about 7% of organizations had already used MOOCs for professional development” (Radford et al., 2014, p.  15).

 

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Monetization: Should a MOOC be a MOC?

 

 

          At face value, MOOCs seem like a fantastic idea. The notion of Massive Open Online Courses seem to address the need to impart useful instruction and education to the masses at little or no cost—a utopian concept indeed. Yet, we are all too familiar with the saying, 'There is no such thing as a free lunch'. In order to develop, create, operate and promote MOOCs—it takes money. In order to support the infrastructure of MOOCs, monetization might be required. According to Ahuja, “monetization is the key motivating factor for MOOC companies to build and maintain engaging and effective content” (Ahuja, 2014).

 

          The part of MOOC that promotes the idea of equal access and democratization is the “Open” part—the first “O” in MOOC. Does this need to change in order to keep MOOCs sustainable? After all, “ ‘Open’ is usually considered free and in order to monetize MOOCs, companies would prefer to call it MOC (massive online courses)” (Ahuja, 2014). Ahuja (2014) proposes three solutions.

 

The first consideration is to keep the course content free, but charge for the certification. The second remedy is to keep basic content free, but charge for upgraded or premium content:

 

 This strategy is based on a well-known business model called “freemium” where the core product is free, while the premium product has a  price attached to it. One can experience this  common concept on games available on smart devices where the lighter version is free while  the full blown version has a price tag (Ahuja, 2014).

 

Most of us have experienced this practice when we download free ‘lite’ versions of apps on our mobile devices. The idea is to lure you in to purchase the ‘better’ version of the application.

 

          Ahuja’s (2014) third suggestion is to put a price tag on certain things; mock assessments and knowledge checks would be simulations of the final assessments. After completing a MOOC students “would be curious to know the effectiveness of the content, and that they will only know by going through the sample assessment and frequent knowledge checks” (Ahuja, 2014).

 

          It seems apparent that MOOCs will need to monetize in order to be an effective and sustainable mode of accessible education. The notion and fabric of MOOCs that seem to impart the idea of education being a right rather than a privilege will be challenged in the face of a need for monetization. However, most universities have space limits and not just fiscal ones. Like Henry Ford’s assembly line and economies of scale, MOOCs, or even MOCs can keep prices lower, which is a democratizing facet of the MOOC paradigm. Like most great ideas, MOOCs still have challenges. But in terms of access and democratization of education, MOOCs are still a worthy phenomenon.

 

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 References

 

Ahuja, S. (2014, May 16). Monetizing moocs. Retrieved from https://www.trainingindustry.com/content-development/articles/monetizing-moocs.aspx

 

 Educause.edu.(2013). Moocs II. Retrieved from http://http://www.educause.edu/library/resources/7-things-you-should-know-about-moocs-ii

 

Educause.edu.(2013, July 30). Moocs and beyond [Video File]. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/70811271
 

Educause.edu.(2013). Take a crash course in moocs [Online Image]. Retrieved April 10, 2015 from /net.educause.edu/ir/library/multimedia/info/ECARe13MOOCs.png

 

Lewin, T. (2013, February 20). Universities abroad join partnerships on the web. Retrieved April 12, 2015, from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/21/education/universities-abroad-join-mooc-course-projects.html?_r=0

 

Miyazoe, T., & Anderson, T. (2013). Interaction equivalency in an OER, MOOCS and informal learning era. Journal Of Interactive Media In Education, 1-15.

 

Pope, J. (2014, December 15). What are MOOCs good for? Retrieved April 14, 2015, from http://www.technologyreview.com/review/533406/what-are-moocs-good-for/

 

Siemens, G. (2012, July 25). MOOCs are really a platform. Retrieved April 11, 2015, from http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/2012/07/25/moocs-are-really-a-platform/

 

Ted Talks. (2012, August 1).<em> Daphne Koller: What we're learning from online education</em> [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/U6FvJ6jMGHU

 

Walton Radford, A., Robles, J., Cataylo, S., Horn, L., Thornton, J., & Whitfield, K. (2014). The employer potential of MOOCs: a mixed-methods study of human resource professionals' thinking on MOOCs. International Review Of Research In Open & Distance Learning, 15(5), 1-25.

 

Young, J. (2013, January 15). California State U. will experiment with offering credit for MOOCs. Retrieved April 12, 2015, from http://chronicle.com/article/California-State-U-Will/136677/?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en