E-learn Weblog of Willem van Valkenburg

From the launch of edX the founding universities have emphasized that research into learning will be one of the initiative’s core missions. As numerous articles in both the academic and popular press have pointed out, the ability of MOOCs to generate a tremendous amount of data opens up considerable opportunities for educational research. edX and Coursera have developed platforms that track students’ every click as they use instructional resources, complete assessments, and engage in social interactions. These data have the potential to help researchers identify, at a finer resolution than ever before, what contributes to students’ learning and what hampers their success. 

This paper describes an initial study of the data generated by MIT’s first MOOC:

“Circuits and Electronics” (6.002x), which began in March 2012, was the first MOOC developed by edX, the consortium led by MIT and Harvard. Over 155,000 students initially registered for 6.002x, which was composed of video lectures, interactive problems, online laboratories, and a discussion forum. As the course ended in June 2012, researchers began to analyze the rich sources of data it generated. This article describes both the first stage of this research, which examined the students’ use of resources by time spent on each, and a second stage that is producing an in-depth picture of who the 6.002x students were, how their own background and capabilities related to their achievement and persistence, and how their interactions with 6.002x’s curricular and pedagogical components contributed to their level of success in the course. 

The author of this paper are:

Lori Breslow is Director of the MIT Teaching and Learning Laboratory (TLL). David Pritchard is a Professor of Physics at MIT and Principal Investigator of the Research in Learning, Assessing and Tutoring Effectively (RELATE) group at MIT. Jennifer DeBoer is a Postdoctoral Associate in Education Research at TLL. Glenda Stump is an Associate Director for Assessment and Evaluation at TLL. Andrew Ho is an Associate Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. At the time of this research, Daniel Seaton was a Postdoctoral Fellow in RELATE; he is now a Postdoctoral Associate in MIT’s Office of Digital Learning (ODL).

You can download the paper here (PDF).

After the OCWC Global Conference I enjoyed my holliday and I'm still catching up on all the MOOC activities in the past month. So here is a list of interesting items:

• Georgia Tech to Offer a MOOC-Like Online Master's Degree, at Low Cost
  Georgia Tech announced a partnership with Udacity and AT&T to offer a scalable computer science master’s program using MOOC technologies.
  
  
• A Bangladeshi Teen Reviews His First Udacity MOOC
  "the course was a great experience: awesome lessons, awesome teachers, awesome learning and, most of all, really enjoyable."
  
  
• You can stop worrying about MOOCs now
  Commercial MOOC providers have started making noises about becoming elearning courseware providers for standard education providers.
  
  
• Refactoring Coursera
  Coursera’s business model, after a year and change of talking about massive cohorts, is now to sell a combination of technology platform and content. They are, in fact, an educational publisher.
  
  
• The Adult Education Market is Imploding
  Fascinating report out on recent enrollment trends from creepily-named National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
  
  
• What do FutureLearn’s Terms and Conditions say about open content?
  FutureLearn content will not be open educational resources in any real sense.
  
  
• Harvard Faculty Request Faculty Oversight of HarvardX (Their Usage of edX)
  58 faculty members from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard wrote an open letter to the dean requesting faculty oversight of HarvardX.
  
  
• Review MOOC Gamification (in Dutch)
  videoreview van de MOOC van Penn University of Pennsylvania in de omgeving Coursera.
  
  
• Disaggregating the Aggregators: MOOCs as Course Supplements
  MOOCs will inevitably pass through a period in which their incorporation is resisted, whether because they are being imposed on universities by legislators or because every new kind of course supplement, from textbooks to computers to online materials, always faces an initially slow uptake.

Last week EdX announced the addition of 15 new members:

CAMBRIDGE, MA – May 21, 2013 – EdX, the not-for-profit online learning initiative composed of the leading global institutions of the xConsortium, today announced another doubling of its university membership with the addition of its first Asian institutions and further expansion in the Ivy League. The xConsortium is gaining 15 prestigious higher education institutions, bringing its total to 27, including Tsinghua University and Peking University in China, The University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong University of Science & Technology in Hong Kong, Kyoto University in Japan, and Seoul National University in South Korea, and Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. The expansion reflects edX’s rapidly growing global student body and supports its vision of transforming education by bringing the power of learning to all regardless of location or social status. 

EdX also welcomes nine universities from North America, Europe and Australia. In the United States, in addition to Cornell, the Consortium has added Berklee College of Music, Boston University, Davidson College, and University of Washington. From Europe, edX welcomes Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet, Belgium’s Université catholique de Louvain, and Germany’s Technical University of Munich. The University of Queensland in Australia becomes the second Australian university to join the xConsortium.

“As we continue to grow the xConsortium and offer courses from institutions as diverse as our global community of students, we are moving forward with our mission to reimagine education,” said Anant Agarwal, president of edX. “These schools, with their unique faculties and student bodies, will help us conduct collaborative research on best practices which improve education online and on campus.”

While MOOCs, or massive open online courses, have typically focused on offering free online courses, edX's vision is much larger. EdX is building an open source educational platform and a network of the world's top universities to improve education both online and on campus while conducting research on how students learn. To date, edX has more than 900,000 individuals on its platform. The addition of these new higher education institutions will add a rich variety of new courses to edX’s offerings:

Asia –

• The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong (HKUx), the territory's oldest institute of higher learning and an internationally renowned research-led comprehensive university, will provide a series of HKUx courses including Vernacular Heritage in Asia, Chinese and Western Philosophy, Infectious Disease and Public Health, and Law, Economy and Society.

• Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, Hong Kong (HKUSTx) is a world-class international research university excelling in science, technology and business as well as humanities and social science. The University is committed to providing an interdisciplinary, forward-looking education nurturing well-rounded graduates with a strong entrepreneurial spirit.

• Kyoto University, Japan (KyotoUx) is a world-class research university founded in 1897 as the second oldest national university in Japan. Kyoto University has advanced education and research of the highest standards, cultivating its tradition of open-minded dialogue and a philosophy of academic freedom. It currently consists of 18 graduate schools, 10 undergraduate faculties, and more than 30 research institutes and centers.

• Peking University, Beijing, China (PekingX), founded in 1898, is the first national comprehensive university in China. With a full spectrum of disciplines and over 3,000 faculty members, Peking University is devoted to excellence in teaching and research, and is determined to make education openly accessible to everyone in China and the world.

• Seoul National University, South Korea (SNUx), Korea’s first national university and the indisputable leader of higher education in Korea, wants to share creative knowledge and experiences. SNU has produced fruitful achievements in various fields, ranging from business, politics, natural science, technology, and the arts. SNU will provide a series of SNUx courses on diverse topics.

• Tsinghua University, Beijing, China (TsinghuaX), one of most prestigious higher learning institutions in Asia, is dedicated to excellent education in science, engineering, humanities, social sciences, architecture, management, law, medicine, arts and design. Tsinghua will provide TsinghuaX courses in a variety of areas of study.

Australia -

• The University of Queensland in Australia (UQx) is one of the world’s premier teaching and research institutions with more than 45,000 students and 7,500 staff. UQ’s teaching is informed by research, and spans six faculties and eight research institutes. UQ will provide a series of UQx courses including Tropical Coastal Ecosystems by Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg and The Science of Everyday Thinking by Dr. Jason Tangen.

Europe -

• Karolinska Institutet, Sweden (KIx) is one of the world´s leading medical universities with a mission to contribute to the improvement of human health through research and education.  Since 1901, the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has selected the Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine.

• Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (LouvainX) one of Europe’s oldest universities, located in the heart of Europe, will provide LouvainX courses in both French and English, including a course on political science (in French) led by Nathalie Schiffino, and a course on international human rights by Olivier De Schutter, the special rapporteur to the United Nations on the right to food.

• Technische Universität München, Germany (TUMx) is one of Europe's leading universities committed to finding solutions to the major challenges facing society: health and nutrition, energy and natural resources, environment and climate, information and communication, mobility and infrastructure.

United States -

• Berklee College of Music, Boston (BerkleeX), for over 65 years Berklee has evolved to support its belief that the best way to prepare students for careers in music is through contemporary music education. With a diverse student body representing over 130 countries and a music industry "who’s who" of alumni and faculty that have received 229 Grammy Awards, Berklee is the world’s premier learning lab for the music of today – and tomorrow.

• Boston University, Boston (BUx) is the fourth largest private university in the United States, with a global footprint and a leading study abroad program, offering 250 programs of study in science and engineering, social science and humanities, health science, the arts, and other professional disciplines.

• Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. (CornellX), a world renowned and diverse Ivy League institution dedicated to a mission of teaching, research and public engagement, will provide a series of CornellX courses in areas ranging from engineering and the sciences to the humanities.

• Davidson College, Davidson, N.C. (DavidsonX) has a renowned faculty and innovative transdisciplinary programs that have earned the college distinction as one of the most research-active liberal arts institutions in the country, as well as consistent national recognition for overall quality and faculty-student research collaboration.  Over the next few years, Davidson will offer several original DavidsonX courses in a range of topic areas.

• University of Washington, Seattle (UWashingtonX) is ranked number one among public universities nationally that receive federal research and training funds, and since 1975 has been in the top five for public and private universities. The UW is a leader in online learning with 15 online degrees and 40 online certificates, and recently won a prestigious Educause grant for a new undergraduate online degree completion program in Early Childhood and Family Studies.

In addition to adding these institutions, edX recently launched more than 20 new courses ranging from HarvardX’s Science & Cooking to UTAustinX’s The Ideas of the 20^th Century to DelftX’s Solar Energy to GeorgetownX’s Introduction to Bioethics to BerkeleyX’s Introduction to Statistics: Inference to MITx’s Mechanics ReView to WellesleyX’s Introduction to Human Evolution.  These and other online and blended courses offered by xConsortium institutions are designed to take advantage of the unique features and benefits of online learning environments, including active learning, game-like experiences, instant feedback and cutting-edge virtual laboratories.

The new member institutions will join founding universities MIT and Harvard, as well as the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Texas System, Wellesley College, Georgetown University, McGill University, Australian National University, University of Toronto, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Delft University of Technology and Rice University in the xConsortium. The new X University Consortium members will offer courses on edX beginning in late 2013 or 2014. All of the courses will be hosted on edX’s open source platform at www.edx.org.

Two weeks ago the University of Edinburgh released their first report on their experiences gained after having organized 6 MOOC courses via Coursera. In this 34 page report they provide insights on organizing a Coursera MOOC, the success rates, their lessons learned, and how they went about in setting up the courses.

The summary gives a good overview of the report:

In January 2013, the University of Edinburgh launched six MOOCs on the Coursera virtual  learning environment (VLE) platform [www.coursera.org]. These were short fully-online courses, each lasting either 5 or 7 weeks, and they had a total initial enrolment of just over 309,000 learners.

Six different subject areas were chosen, reflecting the University’s diverse spread of  disciplines, with two MOOCs offered by each of the three academic Collegesin the University: Humanities and Social Sciences (Introduction to Philosophy; E-learning and Digital Cultures); Science and Engineering (Artificial Intelligence Planning; Astrobiology and the Search for Life on Other Planets); Medicine and Veterinary Medicine (Equine Nutrition; Critical Thinking in Global Challenges). AI Planning was developed at Master level, the rest were at undergraduate (Bachelor) level.

Each MOOC team chose a course structure best suited for the delivery of their subject matter; as a result, six different course structures were produced, with several teams experimenting with content delivery and collaboration methods outwith the Coursera VLE. Of the 309,628 people who registered on the Edinburgh MOOCs, 123,816 learners accessed the course sites(‘active learners’) during the first week of launch – an average of 40% of those enrolled - of whom 90,120 engaged with content in Week One. In total 165,158 individuals actively engaged with course content during the life span of the courses, and 36,266 learners engaged with week 5 assessments(29% average of initial active learners, with a range of 7-59% across the six courses). The MOOCs had no barriers to entry and exit, and the option existed to study without active engagement with quizzes or social media; this permits behaviour patterns distinct from those of on-campus degree courses.

A pre-launch (Entry) survey was sent to 217,512 unique email accounts one week before the courses began [22.01.13]; 45,182 individuals replied, giving a 21% response rate.  (Note that enrolment continued after this survey was sent out.)  15,351 responses were gathered in the end-of-course evaluation (Exit)surveys.
Of those who responded to the Entry survey, 75% indicated this was their first experience of a MOOC, and 53% were enrolled on only one MOOC offering. 203 countries were represented, with the highest proportion of respondents living in the USA (28%) and UK (11%). 33% were between 25-34 years of age, with ‘Teaching and education’ (17%) and ‘Student (college/university)’ (15%) as the highest represented areas of current employment. Over 70% of respondents indicated completion of degree-level academic achievement; a total of 40% respondents had achieved a postgraduate degree. These demographics were very similar to those of respondents in the combined Exit survey.

98% of Exit survey respondents indicated that “they felt they got out of the course(s) what they wanted”, with the great majority reporting that the length, pacing and level had been about right.  The most common time spent on study per week on the MOOCs was in the range 2-4hrs.

Both Entry and Exit surveys asked respondents for their reasons for enrolling, of which the main options chosen were to learn new subject matter and find out about MOOCs/online learning.  Gaining a certificate or career enhancement were less significant but more localised to specific MOOCs.

34,850 Statements of Accomplishment (SoAs) have been distributed to learners across the six courses – 21% of active learners or 12% of total enrolment, with ranges of 4-44% and 2-36%, respectively, across the individual courses.The whole process from initial partnership discussions with Coursera to completion of all six courses and distribution of SoAs took approximately 10 months. This document provides a summary of the 10-month process, including some comparisons between the six courses and our initial reflections on the data and our experiences in offering the MOOCs.

For our DelftX MOOC Solar Energy we have created an introduction video to promote the course. In this animation the importance of Solar Energy as a sustainable and renewable energy source is explained. This free online education course (start September 2013) will teach you to design a complete photovoltaic system. You will learn how solar energy is converted into electricity, heat and solar fuels and will understand the working principle of a solar cell. You will learn about the advantages, limitations and challenges of different solar cell technologies, such as crystalline silicon solar cell technology, thin film solar cell technologies and the latest novel solar cell concepts as studied on lab-scale. Register now at Edx.org.

Inside Higher Ed has released a free compilation of articles about massive open online courses, or MOOCs. The articles aren't today's breaking news, but reflect long-term trends and some of the forward-looking thinking of experts on how MOOCs may change higher education. The idea is to provide these materials (both news articles and opinion essays) in one easy-to-read place.

You can download the compilation here


.

The enrollment for the first two DelftX MOOCs have started on the Edx platform. The courses being offered are Solar Energy and Introduction to Water Treatment, both of which start on 16 September. These courses provide free online access to the knowledge of TU Delft for anyone, anywhere in the world. Anyone may attend the courses, without prior education or entrance tests.

According to Anka Mulder, a member of the TU Delft Executive Board whose responsibilities include Educational Affairs, “I am very proud that we are launching our first two MOOCs. We have a standing commitment is to expand the number of MOOCs even further. Online education will be gaining worldwide importance quickly”.

Introduction to Water Treatment

The first two MOOCs offered by TU Delft are introductory courses: Solar Energy and Introduction to Water Treatment. The latter course is designed as an introduction to water treatment technology. These technologies clearly play an essential role in providing adequate supplies of good water for drinking and other purposes. Topics addressed in the course will include urban water services, with a focus on basic techniques for drinking water and wastewater. Professor of Water Management Jules van Lier explains, “Water treatment is of vital importance throughout the world. This makes the course very interesting for participants from developing countries as well”.

Solar Energy

The other MOOC that will start at TU Delft this autumn is Solar Energy. This course teaches how a complete solar cell system can be designed. The course provides an introduction to the technology through which solar energy is converted into electricity, heat and fuels, with a focus on electricity production. The course will emphasise the principles of the solar cell, as well as the production of solar cells, modules and complete PV systems. Other topics that will be addressed include the advantages and limitations of various solar cell technologies.

Open license

Both courses will be published with an open license. The license we use is Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Netherlands License (CC-BY-NC-SA). This is the same license we use for our OpenCourseWare courses.

Delft University of Technology is the first university that offers their courses on the EdX platform with an open license. I hope that other universities will follow our initiative, so we really respect the first O in MOOCs and we don't have to use the suggestion of David Wiley.

An interesting journal article of David Glance, Martin Forsey and Myles Riley of the University of Western Australia (UWA):

In 2011, the respective roles of higher education institutions and students worldwide were brought into question by the rise of the massive open online course (MOOC). MOOCs are defined by signature characteristics that include: lectures formatted as short videos combined with formative quizzes; automated assessment and/or peer and self–assessment and an online forum for peer support and discussion. Although not specifically designed to optimise learning, claims have been made that MOOCs are based on sound pedagogical foundations that are at the very least comparable with courses offered by universities in face–to–face mode. To validate this, we examined the literature for empirical evidence substantiating such claims. Although empirical evidence directly related to MOOCs was difficult to find, the evidence suggests that there is no reason to believe that MOOCs are any less effective a learning experience than their face–to–face counterparts. Indeed, in some aspects, they may actually improve learning outcomes.

Their conclusions is that MOOCs have a sound pedagogical basis for their formats. What they have not addressed however are the larger questions around whether taking a collection of MOOCs could replace obtaining an education on campus at a university in all of its facets of personal development and education.

Reference
The pedagogical foundations of massive open online courses
by David George Glance, Martin Forsey, and Myles Riley.
First Monday, Volume 18, Number 5 - 6 May 2013
http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/4350/3673
doi:10.5210/fm.v18i5.

The Chronicle has created an Who's who and how are they connected. Although it only US-focused, it gives good insight how the MOOC universe is organised.

Full story »