E-learn Weblog of Willem van Valkenburg

On Monday I attended the conference "Wow! Europe embraces MOOCs", organised by the HOME project (coordinated by EADTU). This conference is the follow up of the meeting in Porto last year. The Porto conference delivered the Porto Declaration on European MOOCs. Based on the papers submitted for that conference Darco Jansen and António Teixeira composed "Position papers for European cooperation on MOOCs" (including paper of the TU Delft, p.20). This conference was focused on the uptake of MOOCs in Europe. Also the preliminary results of the new European survey on Institutional MOOC strategies in Europe were presentated.

Business Model of TU Delft Extension School

As preparation for this conference I wrote a paper about the business model of TU Delft Extension School, attached is the draft. I also presented our case. Here are my slides:

 Later I will follow with a more in-depth blog article about the conference itself.

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.

Door de redactie van het SURF SIG Trendrapport Open en Online Onderwijs was ik gevraagd om een stuk aan te leveren over de veranderingen in de afgelopen jaren op het gebied van open onderwijs en dan speciaal vanuit een internationaal perspectief. De redactie heeft op basis van mijn input en van andere experts een uitstekende introductie geschreven. Onderstaand is de tekst die ik heb aangeleverd.

De internationale ontwikkeling van Open Educational Resources is begonnen als een ideologische stroming om als (westerse) universiteiten onze kennis open te maken voor een groter publiek; een publiek dat normaal geen toegang heeft tot (hoger) onderwijs. Grotendeels gedreven door de maatschappelijke functie van een (publieke) universiteit, net zoals de open access en open source bewegingen. Daarnaast vonden veel Open initiatieven hun oorsprong bij individuen, vaak wetenschappers, gedreven door een sterke maatschappelijke gedrevenheid.

De open ideologie, de open gedachte om onderwijsmateriaal te delen en zo minderheden te bedienen, is de laatste jaren echter onder druk komen te staan. De afgelopen jaren is dit meer naar de achtergrond gegaan en is er veel meer focus gekomen op de kosten. Vooral in de VS is dit heel sterk zichtbaar, dankzij de hoge kosten van studeren, niet alleen voor collegegeld, maar ook van studieboeken.
De initiatieven op het gebied van Open TextBooks hebben hierdoor veel aandacht en momentum gekregen. De kennis breder toegankelijk maken verliest aan belang, terwijl kostenbesparing voor de student belangrijker wordt.

Naast deze focus op kostenbesparing voor de eindgebruiker is nog een andere ontwikkeling zichtbaar. Initiatieven komen nu meer vanuit het beleid en strategie van de instelling. Het is niet één individu, maar een breed-gedragen strategie binnen een instelling. Niet alleen binnen instellingen zie je dit, maar ook op bij de overheid. Vooral in Noord-Amerika zie je steeds meer staatsbrede initiatieven voor Open Education[i]. Maar ook in Europa heeft de Europese Commissie hierop ingezet met Opening Up Education[ii] en in Nederland is het Ministerie van OCW gestart met de tender voor Open en Online Onderwijs.

Open Education is duidelijk volwassen geworden. Het speelveld van Open Education is verschoven van de ideologisch-gedreven professor naar een kostenbesparend beleid.  Op zichzelf is dit een goede ontwikkeling. Maar wel belangrijk is het om onze ideologische gedrevenheid niet te verliezen in beleidsnotities en beperkingen van het budget. Laten we niet vergeten waar het om gaat: Educate the world!

Today the Joint Research Centre of the EU published a new report with mini cases on open education in Europe:

This catalogue contains 50 mini cases that highlight the practices of universities and educational institutions around open education in Europe. It showcases the different strategies followed by institutions that are embracing the open education movement and opening up their content, research, recognition mechanisms and teaching practices. The catalogue provides a 'taster' of what is being done and can be done in open education in the EU, prompting the reader to look further into the initiatives that raise their interest.

It is a nice collection of cases with interesting information, but also looks a bit random. TU Delft is mentioned as case for OpenCourseWare, but we could just as well be in the category of MOOCs.

The most disturbing thing about the report is that the report doesn't have an open license. It is © European Union, 2015. Personally I would think that the European Union should lead and practice what they preach with their licenses. This report should be CC-BY licensed!

Last year we participated in the survey "Comparing institutional MOOC strategies" organised by the HOME project. The survey is largely a repetition of the survey of last year. The main purpose last year was to create a starting point to address the possible differences and similarities between HEIs in US and Europe in their possible goals and the strategic choices behind the development of MOOCs. The report Institutional MOOC strategies in Europe was published in February 2015. 

This survey is part of the HOME project, co-funded by LLP of the European Commission. This survey will close at 24 November 2015. First results of this survey will be presented at the MOOC Conference organised by the HOME project in Rome, 30 November 2015.

So please fill in the survey before 24 November 2015, also if your institute is not doing anything with MOOCs.

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.

Yesterday I attended the presentation of Dan Wagner about MOOCs4D and the new SDGs at the ICDE Conference. Now you think what the heck is he talking about. MOOCs4D is an initiative of University of Pennsylvania about MOOCs for Development, with a special focus on the bottom of the pyramid. SDG are the recently declared Sustainable Development Goals of the UN.

One of the things what triggered me where those 17 goals and how they match up with our TU Delft MOOCs. One of the objectives of our Open and Online Education programme is "Contribute to the Grand Challenges". I think we have to rephrase that to "Contribute to the SDGs". Back to our MOOCs, I could directly match 10 of our 20 MOOCs to 6 SDGs. In the table below the break-down of it.

We have some more MOOCs in development, but I decided not to add them yet. And there are also MOOCs that have a more general subject, such as our Leadership for Engineering and Creative Problem Solving and Decision Making.

Goal	MOOC
	Introduction to Drinking Water Treatment Learn about urban water services, focusing on conventional technologies for drinking water treatment. Introduction to the Treatment of Urban Sewage Learn about urban water services, focusing on basic sewage treatment technologies.
	Solar Energy Discover the power of solar energy and learn how to design a complete photovoltaic system. Wind Energy in development
	The Next Generation of Infrastructure Explore the challenges and complexity of both global and local infrastructure (IT/Telecom, Energy, Water and Transportation) and how to make the best decisions to improve it. Industrial Biotechnology Learn the basics of sustainable processing for biobased products to further understand their impact on global sustainability.
	Sustainable Urban Development: Discover Advanced Metropolitan Solutions Learn why cities are key in resolving global urbanization and sustainability challenges and how you can engineer tomorrow’s cities today.
	Responsible Innovation Responsible Innovation – exploring the interface of ethics, society and technological innovations Circular Economy: an introduction Learn how to contribute to a sustainable economic system by implementing novel business and design approaches
	Introduction to Water and Climate Explore how climate change, water availability, and engineering innovation are key challenges for our planet.

I also left out Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning. Because that includes all our MOOCs and our online courses for lifelong learners.

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.

Last week MIT published an interesting working paper about a new methode of cheating in open courses. They named the method “copying answers using multiple existences online” (CAMEO):

In this method of cheating, a user creates multiple accounts, one of which is the primary account that will ultimately earn a certificate. The other accounts are used to find or “harvest” the correct answers to assessment questions for the master account.

The easiest solution to prevend this is to randomize questions or to create questions with randomized parameters. These techniques are easy to employ in STEM courses, but much harder in other courses. The test system of edx (and other mooc providers) are still very basic and more mature test systems (such as Maple TA and QuestionMark Perception) already have much more advanced possibilities to prevend this.

Interesting is that they also found cultural differences:

The strategy is mostly used by learners outside the U.S. While only 0.4 percent of the learners in the U.S. earned their certificates by using multiple accounts, 12 percent of learners in Albania did. Indonesia, Serbia, Colombia and China rounded out the list of the top five countries with the highest rates, registering at between 4 and 2 percent.

Receiving Credits for a MOOC

The problem above is why not a lot of colleges and universities are accepting MOOCs for credits. Exams have to be proctored to count for credit. Personally, I think we should invest more in alternative ways of assessment that better fit the online world.

Last week University of Maryland announced that they are replacing all the textbook with no-costs online resources.

As of this fall, UMUC has moved away from publisher textbooks to no-cost digital resources embedded in courses, saving each UMUC undergraduate student hundreds of dollars a session—potentially thousands over the course of the degree.
By the fall of 2016, all of UMUC's graduate classes will be textbook-free, too. The collective savings is estimated to be in the millions for the more than 80,000 students taking classes at UMUC annually.

This is the kind of leadership we need to fight the power of the publishers and make university more affordable. At the Open Education Global Conference the Open Education Consortium already honoured the university with the President's Award.

Although the costs of textbooks in Europe are lower, it is expense to buy books for a year of university. It would like to see that we could do the same for our Bachelor education.