Chapter 04: Instructional Message Design in MOOCs

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are appealing to higher education institutions, as they consider MOOCs a way to reach a large, varied group of students. With a completion rate of less than 10%, however, institutions struggle to maintain MOOCs (Major, 2016). While there is little to no cost for students to enroll in them, the cost for the institution to develop and maintain MOOCs can be high from a time and resource perspective. Improving student motivation and interaction in MOOCs may impact completion rates. Designers of MOOCs could leverage instructional message design strategies to improve social presence, and as a result, also improve motivation and interaction

Massive Open Online Courses for Employability, Innovation and Entrepreneurship: a Rapid Assessment of Evidence

This report summarises the evidence base regarding the use of open online learning for supporting employability, innovation and entrepreneurship within the European area. It was written as part of the European MOOC Consortium – Labour Markets project (EMC-LM). MOOC platforms in the European MOOC Consortium (EMC) look for solutions to reach better the labour market. This streamlined review of literature draws on scientific literature, project reports, policy documents, case studies and other resources to describe the potential for MOOCs to stimulate and empower organisations to use open education as part of their programs of continuous education (CE) and continuous professional development (CPD) or continuous vocational training (CVT). This report identifies several interstices where the worlds of higher education, vocational educational, training and open online learning come are converging. Evidence is provided for the contention that, through enhancing opportunities for flexible delivery of education, MOOC can innovate the way that we approach degree programmes, lifelong learning, CE and CPD. The information gathered in this report aims to provide a comprehensive overview of relevant material but does not claim to be exhaustive. This report was written as part of the EMC-LM project as a way to establish a shared understanding of the possibilities for collaboration and innovation. The references provided are nonetheless a great starting point for any investigation of the potential of MOOCs for workplace and lifelong learning. Approaches which emphasize the flexible delivery of learning are especially suited to workplace upskilling. For greatest impact and relevance, collaboration should cross disciplinary and professional boundaries, involving a wide range of stakeholders. Employability can be supported through improved management of work transitions; more flexible training options; new routes between education and work; building credibility in CPD; enhancing soft and transversal skills; and developing new mechanisms for authenticating non-formal learning. Innovation can be encouraged by working with greater transparency and sharing; improved dialogue between stakeholders; adopting a reflective attitude towards technology; and through policies which support and motivate new approaches. Entrepreneurship can be moving beyond the knowledge transfer model of entrepreneurial education; drawing stronger connections between theory and practice; promoting collaboration between researchers and practitioners in education and entrepreneurship; and encouraging entrepreneurial culture

Developing sustainable business models for institutions’ provision of open educational resources: Learning from OpenLearn users’ motivations and experiences

Universities across the globe have, for some time, been exploring the possibilities for achieving public benefit and generating business and visibility through releasing and sharing open educational resources (OER). Many have written about the need to develop sustainable and profitable business models around the production and release of OER. Downes (2006), for example, has questioned the financial sustainability of OER production at scale. Many of the proposed business models focus on OER’s value in generating revenue and detractors of OER have questioned whether they are in competition with formal education. This paper reports on a study intended to broaden the conversation about OER business models to consider the motivations and experiences of OER users as the basis for making a better informed decision about whether OER and formal learning are competitive or complementary with each other. The study focused on OpenLearn - the Open University’s (OU) web-based platform for OER, which hosts hundreds of online courses and videos and is accessed by over 3,000,000 users a year. A large scale survey and follow-up interviews with OpenLearn users worldwide revealed that university provided OER can offer learners a bridge to formal education, allowing them to try out a subject before registering on a formal course and to build confidence in their abilities as learners. In addition, it was found that using OER during formal paid-for study can improve learners’ performance and self-reliance, leading to increased retention and satisfaction with the learning experience

Open educational resources for all? Comparing user motivations and characteristics across The Open University’s iTunes U channel and OpenLearn platform.

With the rise in access to mobile multimedia devices, educational institutions have exploited the iTunes U platform as an additional channel to provide free educational resources with the aim of profile-raising and breaking down barriers to education. For those prepared to invest in content preparation, it is possible to produce interactive, portable material that can be made available globally. Commentators have questioned both the financial implications for platform-specific content production, and the availability of devices for learners to access it (Osborne, 2012). The Open University (OU) makes its free educational resources available on iTunes U and via its web-based open educational resources (OER) platform, OpenLearn. The OU’s OER on iTunes U reached the 60 million download mark in 2013; its OpenLearn platform boasts 27 million unique visitors since 2006. This paper reports the results of a large-scale study of users of the OU’s iTunes U channel and OpenLearn platform. A survey of several thousand users revealed key differences in demographics between those accessing OER via the web and via iTunes U. In addition, the data allowed comparison between three groups: formal learners, informal learners and educators. The study raises questions about whether university-provided OER meet the needs of users and makes recommendations for how content can be modified to suit their needs. As the publishing of OER becomes core to business, we reflect on reasons why understanding users’ motivations and demographics is vital, allowing for needs-led resource provision and content that is adapted to best achieve learner satisfaction, and to deliver institutions’ social mission

Adult learners\u27 perceptions of MOOC motivation, success, and completion: a virtual ethnographic study

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have been credited with disrupting the traditional classroom and challenging distance education models in higher education. MOOCs were developed with the intention of opening up education to the masses, specifically those in developing countries who could not readily access educational resources or opportunities. However, early quantitative reports have shown that MOOC participants tend to be adult learners who already possess bachelor\u27s or master\u27s degrees. Additionally, MOOC completion rates have been reported to be significantly low with less than 15% of enrolled students actually completing them. This has led to questions about who the true target learners are and whether completion is the proper measure for gauging the effectiveness of MOOCs. Qualitative research has the potential to demystify questions about MOOC learners\u27 motivations and perceptions of success and completion. However, ethical issues of conducting qualitative research in open online environments present challenges and require a thoughtful research design regarding consent, privacy, and intellectual property. This study used virtual ethnographic, narrative inquiry, and photo-elicitation methods to qualitatively examine the experiences of adult learners (n = 12) from around the world who were enrolled in a MOOC on the social justice topic of human trafficking via the Coursera platform. The anthropological nature of the research methods led to a richer understanding of the adult learner MOOC culture as a socially dynamic democratic environment involving social presence, lurking, up-voting, down-voting, peer review, and reputations. Results from the study include co-constructed narratives of adult learners\u27 MOOC experiences, themes of commonalities and differences across learner experiences, a thick description of MOOC culture, and an initial conceptual framework for understanding adult learners\u27 perceptions of MOOC motivation, success, and completion. The findings of this research and its resulting conceptual framework could be beneficial for platform providers, instructors, and instructional designers who are developing MOOCs intended for adult learners in the areas of continuing education, professional development, volunteerism training, as well as for adults who are considering enrolling in graduate school. This study highlights a need for a more learner-centered approach to MOOC design and suggests that MOOCs have the potential to facilitate a global discussion on social justice topics as a component of attitude change instruction. Implications for MOOC design and suggestions for future research are presented

Essays on the Design of Inclusive Learning in Massive Open Online Courses, and Implications for Educational Futures

This thesis examines the tensions and contradictions of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) as a force for more inclusive tertiary education, particularly for adults without a college degree in the United States. Through a multimethodological research approach yielding three discrete papers, presented as chapters, this work seeks to augment and clarify the existing MOOCs literature across conceptual, quantitative, and qualitative domains. The first paper develops a conceptual framework, ‘hegemonic design bias,’ that describes the socio-technical development ecosystem in which MOOCs are embedded. This framework helps account for why MOOCs have yet to serve as a democratising force in education by highlighting the processes and constraints that bias MOOC production toward the already well-educated. The potential economic implications of these developments are also considered. The second paper provides insight into how underrepresented learners are engaging with entry-level MOOCs. The exploration of learning analytic data from an initial sample of more than 260,000 enrolees through cluster analysis and multinomial logistic regression indicates that students without a college degree are more likely to be high-performing learners compared to college-educated students in these courses. Additionally, students from approximated lower socioeconomic backgrounds are no less likely to be successful than students from approximated middle and higher socioeconomic backgrounds in these courses. The third paper provides insight into the opportunities and challenges producers face in building inclusive MOOCs through a qualitative analysis of six semi-structured interviews. The interviews unearthed diverse conceptions of inclusion among producers that reflect a sincere normative commitment to make inclusive MOOCs, though the conceptions were quite distinct and fragmented. Producers were intentional about utilising best-practice pedagogy, as well as innovative program design, to include diverse learners. Innovative technology partners helped create interactive, unique experiences, but this also led to challenges in harmonising the design process and required the considerable influence of intermediary actors. To conclude, I briefly consider the implications of these findings for research, practice, and policy, with particular attention to how the public and social sectors can incentivise improved design of MOOCs with the specific intent of helping adults without college degrees develop human capital in order to remain economically resilient amidst the disruptions of skills-biased technological change.Gates Cambridge Trus

Adding some TEC-variety: 100+ activities for motivating and retaining learners online

The TEC-VARIETY framework purposely takes into account current technology trends and attempts to stimulate their use in pedagogically effective ways. As such, it rests at the intersection of such exciting educational affordances brought about by emerging learning technologies, intrinsic as well as extrinsic motivation-related theories, and the rapidly shifting perspectives on teaching and learning philosophies and approaches. For online educators who are frustrated with never-ending waves of technology and the lack of training on how to effectively use them in their courses, we hope that the TEC-VARIETY framework can offer a ray of sunshine and a new beginning for online educators worldwide. As part of that hope, such educators might find activities and strategies that they can make use of to nurture engagement and success online. These strategies can breathe life into current classes and programs that are failing to engage their learners. They tap into learners’ inner resources and desires to learn and grow toward a better future. At the same time, they can invite the global sharing of ideas and knowledge as part of a worldwide community or family of learners