Today TU Delft Solar Energy professor Arno Smets received the first edX Prize for Exceptional Contributions in Online Teaching and Learning at the edX conference in Paris. Arno is the professor of two of our MOOCs: Solar Energy and Sustainable Energy. Solar was our first MOOC we offered on edX. From the beginning that MOOC has been our most popular course:
The edX Prize recognizes a teacher who has demonstrated a commitment to the open and online education community and who has taught high-quality courses that continue to inspire and encourage edX learners everywhere. Professor Smets’ course, Solar Energy, is rigorous and challenging, but designed for learners at all levels. Through this course, Professor Smets has reached almost 150,000 learners globally and is helping to pave the way to a more sustainable world.
On campus Arno also has been a champion for our online learning programme. This blogpost of edX gives a great overview of Arno's activities.
Off course, we are very proud of Arno. As a true champion Arno gives us credit for the success as well, becuase making a MOOC is a team effort:
Last year Creative Commons started a project about Open Business Models. At the OpenEd16 conference Paul Stacey of Creative Commons presented some of the results of this project. The full results will be published in a book in the beginning of next year:
In the summer of 2015 Creative Commons ran a successful Kickstarter campaign raising funds to write a book about open business models made using Creative Commons. With the help of backers, and through an open public call, Creative Commons identified businesses and organizations from around the world and across all sectors who have successful Creative Commons based open business models. From that list twenty four were chosen to interview, profile, and analyse.
Interesting part of his finding was that in most discussion the commons has disappeared. It is only about market versus the state. The commons is a general term for shared resources in which each stakeholder has an equal interest.
Why should market engage with commons?
He showed an extensive list of benefits of Commons over Market as shown in the image below:
According to Paul people who engage in the commons can feel empowered through participatory engagement, no need for permission. A good example of this is wikipedia.
The market can also engage in the commons, but it is important that they do this based on some principles:
add value
give more than you take
transparency - about what using, wat adding, what monetizing
give attribution & gratitude
develop trust - don't exploit
defend the commons
One of the examples he mentioned was OpenDesk. Their company is based on a completely different approach to design furniture. Opendesk is a global platform for local making. You can use it to download, make and buy work space furniture. They have open designs on their website, which you can adopt and change. If you design is ready, they have local partners that can make your design. You cut out the mass production and distribution costs.
In the book that is coming out next year, they have 20 case studies of companies that are based on an open business model (including a couple of Dutch organisations).
As part of a panel discussion at OpenEd16 conference on the future of Open Educational Resources I was asked to write an article. As we all know it is difficult to make predictions especially about the future.
Today the great folks of OERhub launched an open text book about open research. The book is based on two iteration of an open course they have run in the past:
This resource will help you explore what open research is, how you can ethically and openly share your findings so others can reuse or develop your work, and the role of reflection and open dissemination. Whilst many challenges and issues apply to all aspects of research (for example choosing an appropriate methodology), open research brings a range of different opportunities and challenges; it’s these that we are specifically interested in exploring. What can openness add to the research process?
The book has 4 main chapters:
Open Research
Ethics in the Open
Open Dissemination
Reflecting in the Open
Although I haven't read the complete book, it looks interesting and a must read for every researcher!
Reference Pitt, R. de los Arcos, B. Farrow, R and Weller, M. (2016). Open Research. OER Hub. Available from: https://openresearch.pressbooks.com
As part of their Open Leadership Fellowship Amanda Coolidge (BC Campus) and Daniel DeMarte (Tidewater Community College) have developed an OER Policy Development Tool. The contents of the tool are intended to be adopted and adapted for use within a college or university’s culture. The OER policy tool is organized in three sections:
OER Policy Assumptions
OER Policy Components
OER Policy Resources
The tool seems like a very useful tool for many institute around the world. Currently is uses the data of 6 policies. If you know others, please let them know.
A good suggestion would be to add text that can be added to other policies on OER. For example as part of HR policy, IP policy etc.
Interesting research video of Jeanine REUTEMANN about different MOOC video styles on edX, Coursera, Futurelearn & Iversity. Jeanine works for University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland. The video is based on the paper she presented at the EMOOCs Stakeholder Summit 2016 in Graz, Austria. Read the paper in the conference proceeding (page 383).
The purpose of this work is to investigate how self-regulating skills can be enhanced by encouraging metacognition and reflection in MOOC learners by means of social comparison. To this end, we developed the Learning Tracker, an interactive widget that could be integrated in a learner dash- board aimed at learners. The Learning Tracker allows MOOC learners to compare their learning behaviour to that of previous graduates of the same MOOC, which we named successful learners.
In her research she has shown that feedback on learner behaviour, such as the learner tracker, might lead to changes in a learner’s overall behaviour and not only in the areas they received feedback on.
During her period at our research group she has made three important contributions:
an interactive widget that visualises learners’ behaviour with the purpose of developing learners’ self-regulated learning skills by means of reflection.
deployed and evaluated the widget in several real-world MOOCs across the whole duration of the MOOCs reaching more than 20.000 learners.
the results showed the effectiveness of our design across all evaluated MOOCs, as learners that are exposed to the Learning Tracker are more likely to complete the course due to changes in their behaviour.
The first iteration of the Learning Tracker was tested on WaterX during January-March 2016, while the second iteration was deployed on SewageX and InnovationX. All three MOOCs were reruns:
It is important to mention that the course teams make changes in every run, especially in the InnovationX mooc they made significant changes (see page 36). Ioana made adjustment to correct this.
Results
In the research learners were randomly divided in a Test and a Control group. In all three MOOCs the test group showed a better result than the control group:
The main results reveal that when exposed to the Learning Tracker learners are more likely to complete the course with a graduation mark because (i) learners attempt more quiz questions and (ii) they submit their work earlier. Although our results indicate that the Learning Tracker impact learners’ engagement and reduces procrastination, there is little evidence that other aspects of learners’ self-regulation were influenced.
Conclusion
In this research project Ioana has shown that a giving learner feedback on their progress might influence their behaviour. We are definitely continuing the work. Ioana is starting a PhD at the Open Universiteit in Heerlen and we hope to continue to work together.
Cost: The adoption of Open Educational Resources can impact a range of financial and cost metrics for students and institutions.
Outcomes: Given the folk wisdom that “you get what you pay for,” some individuals and organizations worry that student learning will necessarily suffer when students use freely available, openly licensed resources instead of $200 textbooks.
Usage: The permissions provided by open licenses allow students to use OER in a range of novel ways – for example, updating a history textbook based on recent events. Likewise, the permissions provided by open licenses allow teachers to engage in new pedagogical practices.
Perceptions: What do faculty and students think about, and feel toward, Open Educational Resources?
More and more research is showing the positive effects that Open Text Books has. We are starting to reach the point that an instructor has to explain why he is using a commercial textbook.
This report is final outcomes and describes the framework they developed:
This Framework identifies 10 dimensions of open education, giving a rationale and descriptors for each. The goal is to promote transparency for collaboration and exchange of practices among higher education institutions. Without a framework, stakeholders could overlook important questions and could put effort into matters that need little further investment. It is a tool to be used mainly by higher education institutions, but it is also very relevant for EU policy makers and other types of educational institutions.
Opening up education is an item on the European agenda because of three reasons:
it can help to reduce or remove barriers to education (e.g. cost, geography, time, entry requirements).
it supports the modernisation of higher education in Europe, since contemporary open education is largely carried out via digital technologies.
it opens up the possibility of bridging non-formal and formal education.
The framework can be used on different levels:
at university management and decision makers for defining the overall strategy.
at those staff members of HE institutions who actually design educational strategy. It offers a framework which can help them think through critical questions, such as: why is open education important and what is it exactly? What benefits can an open education strategy bring to an institution, to students (and to others out there), to a region, country or to Europe as a whole?
at European level for relevant for policy makers since it can help them formulate policies to encourage institutions to open up education.
Framework
The OpenEdu framework consists of 10 dimensions for opening up education. It is a holistic view of open education which includes different areas where universities can be more open. Many experts (including me) were involved in the development and evaluation of the framework.
The 10 dimensions of the framework are divided into two categories: core dimensions and transversal dimensions. There are 6 core dimensions (access, content, pedagogy, recognition, collaboration and research) and 4 transversal dimensions (strategy, technology, quality and leadership). All dimensions are interrelated; the core dimensions are not more important than the transversal ones. Core dimensions represent the 'what' of open education and transversal dimensions indicate `how’ to achieve it.
Core Dimension
Access
Access in open education is the removal or lowering of economic, technological, geographical and institutional barriers which obstruct the doorway to knowledge. It grants permission to learners to engage with educational content, courses, programmes, communities of practice, networks and other types of knowledge sharing environments, media and activities in formal and non-formal education. It is also about enabling informal and independent learners to seek and get recognition of their learning.
Content
Content in open education refers to materials for teaching and learning, and research outputs, which are free of charge and available to all.
Pedagogy
Openness in pedagogy refers to the use of technologies to broaden pedagogical approaches and make the range of teaching and learning practices more transparent, sharable and visible.
Recognition
Recognition in open education has two meanings: a) it is the process, usually carried out by an accredited institution, of issuing a certificate, diploma or title which has formal value; b) it is also the process of formally acknowledging and accepting credentials, such as a badge, a certificate, a diploma or title issued by a third-party institution. These credentials should attest that a set of learning outcomes (e.g. knowledge, know-how, skills and/or competences) achieved by an individual has been assessed by a competent body against a predefined standard.
Collaboration
Collaboration in open education is about connecting individuals and institutions by facilitating the exchange of practices and resources with a view to improving education. By collaborating around and through open educational practices, universities can move beyond the typical institutional collaboration patterns and engage individuals and communities to build a bridge between informal, non-formal and formal learning. It is a live and evolving practice which is shaped by individuals according to context, goals, resources and possibilities, contributing to the lowering of barriers to education. It is therefore a concept that must be as dynamic as its practice.
Research
Openness in research is about removing barriers to access to data and research outputs, and also about broadening participation in research.
Transversal Dimensions
Strategy
Strategy in open education is the creation of a unique and valuable position on openness, involving different sets of activities.
Technology
Technology in open education refers to technological infrastructures and software which facilitate opening up education in its different dimensions.
Quality
Quality in open education refers to the convergence of the 5 concepts of quality22 (efficacy, impact, availability, accuracy and excellence) with an institution's open education offer and opportunities.
Leadership
Leadership in open education is the promotion of sustainable open education activities and initiatives via a transparent approach from both the top-down and the bottom-up. It paves the way to creating more openness by inspiring and empowering people.
The Open University (UK) has published an interesting report on MOOC research that was done at the OU from the start of the MOOCs in 2008 up until February of this year. The authors, Rebecca Fergason, Tim Coughlan, Christothea Herodotou, have searched the university’s Open Research Online (ORO) repository that use the word ‘MOOC’ in their title or abstract. Studies are divided thematically, and the report contains sections on the pedagogy of MOOCs, MOOCs and open education, MOOC retention and motivation, working together in MOOCs, MOOC assessment, accessibility, privacy and ethics, quality and other areas of MOOC research.
The report discusses 58 recommendations that have emerged from the research – each of which is linked to the research study that generated it. Some of these recommendations extend or reinforce what the University is already doing, some are very specific, and some are small scale. Overall, the research highlights ten priority areas for University activity.
MOOC priority areas
Influence the direction of open education globally
Develop and accredit learning journeys
Extend the relationship between learners and the OU
Make effective use of learning design
Make use of effective distance learning pedagogies
Reference Ferguson, Rebecca; Coughlan, Tim and Herodotou, Christothea (2016). MOOCS: What The Open University research tells us. Institute of Educational Technology, The Open University, Milton Keynes.