E-learn Weblog of Willem van Valkenburg

For the fourth year the SURF special interest group Open Education has written a trend report. This year the focus is on Open and Online Education. 

In 10 chapters and 8 intermezzos various Dutch experts gave their views on current trends in (Dutch) higher education. The team of editors (Marjon Baas (Saxion Hogescholen), Janina van Hees (SURFnet), Ria Jacobi (Hogeschool van Amsterdam), Martijn Ouwehand (TU Delft), Robert Schuwer (Fontys Hogescholen), Fred de Vries (Open Universiteit) and Nicolai van der Woert (Radboudumc)) have done a good job in combining all the articles to a comprehensive report.

For the fourth consecutive year, the Open Education Special Interest Group and SURFnet have prepared a trend report outlining the latest dynamic developments in the area of open content, open education and – as of this year – online (but not necessarily open) education. How is open education impacting campus education? Which new target groups are finding themselves drawn to open and online education, what are their specific needs, and how is the higher education sector responding to these demands? Effective online education requires valid online testing procedures. What are the available options in this regard? Is there demand for a nationwide infrastructure in support of open and online education, and – if so – what form should this take? How can learning analytics be applied in online education, and what are the relevant challenges in this regard? What are the key points on the international open education research agenda? What are the available platforms for online education? This trend report features a broad overview of perspectives from various experts, in the form of articles and brief intermezzos. 

The topics that are discussed in the report are:

• Why Open and Online Education? On bildung and human capital
• Beyond the pioneering phase: moving towards the adoption of open education
• Opportunities to embed open and online education in campus education
• Reaching new target groups through open and online education
• Effective online education requires valid online assessment procedures
• Where is the Dutch OER librarian?
• From lecturer professionalisation to education development
• Connection various froms of opennness: seeking a stronger value proposition
• Whish list for cross-institutional open and online education services
• grand challenges for learning analytics and open & online education

For TU Delft it is important to share our knowledge and experience. So we had a strong involvement in the writting of the report. We had involvement in the bold chapters above.

The report is availabe in Dutch and English.

Since 2013 Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) offers online courses for a global population of lifelong learners (MOOCs, ProfEd, and MSc courses). This year we reached 640K enrollments. Online education can be used as a catalyzer for gaining knowledge on learning and learning processes, due to a large amount of data on student behavior. For this reason, TU Delft is looking for external researchers who are interested in creating joint research projects on quality and efficacy / effectiveness of open and online education.

The goal of TU Delft would be to create win-win research projects, where research results can be used by TU Delft and at the same time help the researcher in his / her own research ambitions.

Short-cyclical research projects

External researchers are invited to cooperate with TU Delft through short-cyclical research projects. Such projects provide researchers with ample opportunity for exploration and analysis of a particular research topic, but also aim for output within a relatively short time-span (i.e. six months).
External researchers have the freedom to define their own research project, research questions, and approach within agreed upon constraints (i.e. topic, time, budget). Preferred research themes are:

• Didactics of online learning
• Learning content
• Teacher roles and styles
• Online group dynamics
• Learner support

What do we expect?

• An interested external researcher is invited to write a concise project proposal (max. 4 pages), with support from our research coordinator.
• A project proposal should consist of the research question that will be answered, the methodology that will be used for this, the type and amount of data that needs to be studied, an overview of resources the TU Delft should provide, and any associated costs / remuneration.
• Project deliverables are a research report and scientific papers.
• Potential external researchers can be international or domestic, and can have expertise ranging from social science to engineering science. Delft University of Technology offers opportunities for both ‘short-stay arrangements’ and for researchers to work from their native country and visit TU Delft at set moments.

What do we offer?

TU Delft offers the opportunity to work on pioneering science and education, the opportunity to work with a salient data set, the opportunity to write unique papers with good exposure potential, and a chance to cooperate closely with instructors in creating and facilitating courses to make them better for students. Use of university resources and remuneration are an option.

Available data includes:

• Online education student data based on 635K enrollments.
• Pre-survey, mid-survey, and post-survey data on 30+ MOOCs, ProfEd, and MSc courses (60K+ responses).
• Blackboard and edX course data on 30+ MOOCs, ProfEd, and MSc courses.

Contact

For more information contact our research coordinator: dr.ir. J.P. (Jan-Paul) van Staalduinen.

Earlier this week Joshua Kim published a blog about 5 ways online teaching benefits residential learning. His 5 ways are:

1. A Chance to Rethink What Should Happen In the Physical Classroom
2. An Opportunity to Introduce Learning Theory and Pedagogical Research
3. Exposure to a Team Approach for Course Design
4. An Easier Transition to Blended Learning
5. Online Courses Help Make Teaching Strategies Visible to Educators and Students

These 5 ways are also true for my university. We have seen with a couple MOOCs that is started a complete change of the regular bachelor programme.

A good example is our mooc pre-university calculus. This course ran this summer with 27.000 students. The group that created the MOOC has also started a new programme (article in Dutch) to change the math education for all bachelor programmes. And they created a new website math-explained.tudelft.nl to make their video widely available for any student, but also for other teachers to include in their courses as reference material. And we got confirmation from other teachers that they use the content in their courses.

What we are further investigation is what the impact is on the pass rates for math in the first year. Traditionally the math courses are a hurdle for many students in passing the first year. In the survey the students really appreciated the course as is shown in the wordle above, where student were asked to give a one-word description.

After two weeks of holiday in South Africa, this week I'm attending the 26th ICDE World Conference in Sun City (South Africa). ICDE is the international Council for Open and Distance Education and founded in 1938 in Canada as the International Council for Correspondence Education and today has members from over 60 countries worldwide.

The theme of the conference is "Growing capacities for sustainable distance e-learning provision". The conference has some interesting keynotes, such as Tressie McMillan Cottom, Audrey Watters, Laura Czerniewicz, Joyce Seitzinger and Wayne Mackintosh.

Today I heard that more than 900 people have registered for the conference, so it will be an busy conference. If I look through the programme is seems as a very traditional conference setup with lots of keynotes and panel discussions.

High-level Policy Forum

Next to the conference the Open Education Consortium is organising a high-level forum together with UNESCO and the Commonwealth of Learning. The theme of the High-Level Policy Forum is "Higher education for the sustainable future we want. The way ahead for online, open and flexible learning: opportunities and actions”.

The Forum will bring together leaders and decision makers from around the world, including senior officials of education ministries and policy makers in higher education, academia, representatives of teacher associations and student organisations, UNESCO Chairs in ICT/ODL, ICDE Chairs in OER, Ed-Tech industry, global and regional networks, researchers, and leading non-governmental organisations in the system.

The Forum will build on the Global High-Level Policy Forum “Online, open and flexible higher education for the future we want,” that took place in Paris from 9 to 11 June 2015 and that was organised by UNESCO, in partnership with the ICDE.

But first, I will start with a full day for the board meeting of the Open Education Consortium.

SURFnet is een nieuw initiatief gestart: de Innovation Challenge:

Via de Innovation Challenge maken duo’s van docenten en studenten in het hoger onderwijs kans op € 10.000 voor experimenten waarbij zij innovatieve ICT-toepassingen inzetten om flexibel en gepersonaliseerd onderwijs te stimuleren, onderwijs op maat te bieden en aan te sluiten bij de leerbehoeften van studenten. De experimenten kunnen een toepassing, product of dienst opleveren waar studenten en docenten direct baat bij hebben in het hoger onderwijs en die een directe bijdrage leveren aan het verbeteren van het onderwijs.

Het gaat om experimenten waarbij innovatieve ICT-toepassingen worden ingezet binnen een onderwijscontext. Denk bijvoorbeeld aan toepassingen waarbij slim gebruik is gemaakt van augmented reality, 3D printing, drones, wearables, big data etc. Of aan producten of diensten als apps, games, ebooks of interactietools.

Interessant aan het initiatief is dat het gaat om een combinatie van een docent met een student. Binnen de Extension School bestaan de meeste Course Teams uit een team van docenten en studenten. Onze ervaring is dat dit erg goed werkt.

Om mee te doen aan het voorstel moet je voor 9 oktober je voorstel indienen. Het gaat hierbij om het invullen van een template en het aanleveren van een video of animatie. Het voorstel dat je indient moet binnen 6 maanden te realiseren zijn.

Meer informatie is te vinden op innovationchallenge2015.surf.nl.

Do you want to be part of innovating education with online education? Help us to become a world leader in online education? Educate the world! We are looking for 2 eLearning Developers to join our (international) team!

TU Delft

Delft University of Technology is the leading University of Technology in the Netherlands with a global reputation in the fields of science, engineering & design. TU Delft’s mission is to make a significant contribution towards a sustainable society for the twenty-first century by conducting ground-breaking scientific and technological research which is acknowledged as world-class, by training scientists and engineers with a genuine commitment to society and by helping to translate knowledge into technological innovations and activity with both economic and social value.

Open & Online Education

TU Delft has been a forerunner in the field of Open & Online Education since 2007, and is one of the sustaining members of the Open Education Consortium and since 2013 charter member of the EdX Consortium. In March 2014, the board of the TU Delft approved a 3-year innovation program to accelerate the development of open & online education. The goal is to educate the world by creating an online learning portfolio with open & online courses for a global population of life long learners. Our courses are listed on https://online-learning.tudelft.nl.

Job description

As eLearning Developer you will be part of the (international) Extension School team, which supports and leads the online learning developments of the university. You will create advanced eLearning modules that will be part of the TU Delft Online Learning portfolio. The Extension School delivers MOOCs, Professional Education, blended and online education (bachelor and master level) to a worldwide audience. You will have considerable experience designing and developing online & blended education courses.

In this role you will partner with and support the academic staff to create outstanding open and online courses. Your project management skills contribute to your success in this role as you will be responsible for managing multiple projects. Together with a team of eLearning developers you will also work on constantly improving course designs and deliveries.

• Devise complex technical methods and processes to meet new and unique eLearning and web requirements and resolve technical problems.
• Ability to work independently. Ability to interact effectively with various faculty members in the TU Delft organization.
• Recognize, recommend and participate in the development of standards and procedures that support quality improvement in the Delft Extension School and products for our students.
• Provide project management for e-learning projects with tight deadlines. These projects bring together people from various departments and backgrounds to develop content, technical specifications and functional prototypes for the Extension School.
• Provide training to faculty on developing and teaching online courses.
• Meet all internal deadlines according to project plan regardless of project limitations.

Requirements

• Master of Education (M.Ed) in Instructional Design, Educational Technology or related experience plus 1 year recent curriculum design and/or course development experience in online education;
• Demonstrate a keen sense of organization and attention to detail;
• Demonstrated ability to handle unforeseen difficulties and obstacles with ease;
• An excellent team player that is able to work on complex projects with a group of other course developers;
• Ability to work on a tight, rapidly-changing schedule;
• Experience with using ICT in education, such as digital assessment, e-moderating, online teaching methods and platforms;
• A committed consultant with strong communication skills in English, mastery of Dutch is a plus;
• Experience in higher education;
• Experience as a teacher of open or online education is a plus.

For more information and application, please visit our official vacancies website. If you have questions you can contact me via contact form above.

The world of education is changing in the current internet age. That means that definitions of education are also needs to be updated. A definition that is commonly used is the one of the Sloan Consortium (2007) (nowadys known as Online Learning Consortium):

Course that blends online and face-to-face delivery. substantial proportion (30 to 79%) of the content is delivered online, typically uses online discussions, and typically has some face-to-face meetings.

Below is the full overview of their definitions from traditional to online education.

Defining blended within the TU Delft

Within the TU Delft we noticed that this definition was not working for the Extension School programme. there seemed two different kind of blended education:

• traditional education adopted to blended learning
• online learning adopted to blended learning

Both are called 'blended learning', but they were completely different and more important there seems to be a path from traditional education -> blended learning -> online learning. But in practice that path didn't lead to the online learning we want to offer (off course there are exceptions).

So we defined blended for the Extension School with a focus on the reuse of (open) online resources:

Blended education involves embedding online products, such as MOOCs, online courses or open educational resources in your campus course.

OLC Updated E-learning Definitions

Recently the Online Learning Consortium published an updated list of definitions. They list 7 types:

1. Classroom Course – Course activity is organized around scheduled class meetings.
2. Synchronous Distributed Course—Web-based technologies are used to extend classroom lectures and other activities to students at remote sites in real time.
3. Web-Enhanced Course – Online course activity complements class sessions without reducing the number of required class meetings
4. Blended (also called Hybrid) Classroom Course – Online activity is mixed with classroom meetings, replacing a significant percentage, but not all required face-to-face instructional activities.
5. Blended (also called Hybrid) Online Course – Most course activity is done online, but there are some required face-to-face instructional activities, such as lectures, discussions, labs, or other in-person learning activities.
6. Online Course – All course activity is done online; there are no required face-to-face sessions within the course and no requirements for on-campus activity.
7. Flexible Mode Course – Offers multiple delivery modes so that students can choose which delivery mode(s) to use for instructional and other learning purposes.

In these new definitions the Consortium makes the same kind of distinction in blended as we did (compare 4 and 5). Furthermore, I think we have courses in all seven categories at our university.

There is more to blend

If you look at the definitions there are based on the mix of two types: online versus face-to-face. I agree with Steve Wheeler that there are much more modes of learning that you can blend. Some examples he lists are the mix between social and personal learning, between synchronous and asynchronous activities, between mobile and tethered learning experiences. I fully agree with his summary:

So blended learning is becoming an increasingly complex concept, with multiple possibilities and infinite options. Blended is about choice, and about maximising your learning in the modes you find most convenient. Learning in all its forms is a little like the blender in your kitchen. Put in the right ingredients, and use a little effort, and hopefully the result will turn out to be very useful.

This summer and fall we are running 11 MOOCs. There are couple of new courses and a lot of reruns of popular courses. We also offer two self-paced courses.
All reruns will be improved based on the evaluation of prior runs. For the evaluation we use data of edx, the data of the surveys and interviews with the involved people. Another 5 new MOOCs are being produced (but haven't been announced) and last Friday we approved 3 new MOOCs.

Full story »

Last week we officially launched the new website for online learning at Delft University of Technology. The website presents all the online courses of the university. This includes our MOOCs, Professional Education and master courses.

Design

For the website we wanted a little bit more modern design than the current university website. After a selection, the design was made by Richard Straver of Webstudio MM. I'm very satisfied with the design. It follows the current trend of flat design. Not only does the design emphasize the courses, there is also a focus on our lecturers. Each lecturer has his or her own page which shows info about them and the courses they teach. As example the page of Ernst ten Heuvelhof. Nowadays your website is not only accessed with a browser on a pc or laptop, but also on tablet and mobile. So the design is completely responsive and will scale following the width of the screen.

Promo video

We also created a new promo video for TU Delft online learning. The video is featured on the homepage of the website. You can view it here:

Back-end

 An important and difficult part of creating this website was the backend integration with the university administrative systems. Our systems are optimized for tuition-paying students that enroll for a full year on campus. This website is for people who are enrolling in a single course that is taught fully online and have to pay per course.

If you are a little bit familiar with system integration, you can understand that this can be quiet challenging. For now, we do something things manually because we didn't want to wait.

First enrolments

The website was live on Monday end of day and in the first week we already got the first enrolments in. Some of those enrolments we could connect to the newsletter we send out. It is really great that it all works and that the course offering we have is interesting for many people. Take a look at our courses and start learning!

What do course reviews suggest about what it takes to create a compelling online learning experience for students? CourseTalk, a “Yelp for MOOCs” company founded in 2012, has tallied more than 74,000 user ratings for over 7,500 courses from 46 providers to get a glimpse of what students are saying.

CourseTalk has made an analysis (PDF) of all reviewed courses in its catalog to uncover characteristics shared by top-rated courses, characteristics shared by low-rated courses, and other insights into online learning.

Interesting is their overview of refraining reviews:

Their overal findings are:

• Reviews are predominantly positive
• Reviewers complete courses
• Reviewers who drop courses still give nearly 4 stars
• Users are willing to pay for good courses
• Classes with more reviews receive higher ratings
• Ratings are not affected by course workload
• A majority of CourseTalk users have experience in the subject they’re studying

Their conclusions are:

• Providers should embrace reviews from unbiased, third-party sites as a way of promoting improved course selection and engagement.
• They should not be afraid to charge for quality content.
• Providers should make courses experiences clear, easy to navigate, fun, interactive, supportive and flexible.
• They should focus on short course modules, but not hesitate to challenge students with heavier workloads where appropriate.

EdX is also using CourseTalk as review system. Reviews of TU Delft's courses are available here.

Via: EdSurge