Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs): Educational Innovation or Threat to Higher Education

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1 Massive Open Onine Courses (MOOCs): Educationa Innovation or Threat to Higher Education Dr. Brad Mehenbacher Past President, ACM SIGDOC Department of Leadership, Poicy & Adut & Higher Education NC State University Raeigh, North Caroina OSDOC+ISDOC 2012, Workshop of the ACM SIGDOC EuroDOC Chapter (Sponsored by the ACM and IUL-ISCTE) June 11, 2012

2 MOOCs: Outine MOOCs: Acronyms everywhere MOOCs defined A brief history of MOOCs MOOCs and the media MOOCs and money Chaenges to Higher Education Strugges in Contested digita spaces Students as consumers Chaenges facing Information Systems and Communication Designers MOOCs and the future of instruction Higher Education and Goba Economic Coapse.* Downoaded from: *To downoad this presentation, see

3 MOOCs: The Importance of Acronyms M for Massive: Define massive? How many students? Duration? Retention? O for Onine: Can there be offine versions? Study groups? O for Open: Open enroment? Openy icensed content? Open source patform? Open-ended casses? Free in what way?* Course: Or connection, connectivism, community, credit, certificate? Masters, K. (2011). A brief guide to understanding MOOCs. The Internet Journa of Medica Education, 1 (2). Avaiabe onine: Watters, A. (2012). The anguage of MOOCs. Hackeducation.com, June 7. Avaiabe onine: *Wiey, D., & Green, C. (2012). Chapter 6: Why openness in education? In Diana G. Obinger (ed.), Game Changers: Education and Information Technoogies (pp ). Louisvie, CO: EDUCAUSE. Avaiabe onine:

4 MOOCs: A Crib Sheet Features of a MOOC: Wiki or bog for course materias, open enroment, readings or recordings, networking between students, activities, sharing knowedge, student-driven assignments, participation, and content production. Shaffer, J. (2011). MOOC crib sheet. Workshop at ISTE Avaiabe onine:

5 MOOCs: The Beginning MOOC coined in 2008 by Dave Cormier (U of PEI) in response to onine course designed by George Siemens (Athabasca U) and Stephen Downes (NRC Canada) First MOOC: 25 tuition-paying students at U of Manitoba and 2,300 genera students who took Connectivism and Connective Knowedge cass for free RSS feeds, Moode discussions, bogs, Second Life, synchronous onine meetings. Connectivism (2008). Extended Education and Learning Technoogies Centre, University of Manitoba.. Avaiabe onine: 28November_ Massive open onine course. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Avaiabe onine:

6 MOOCs: The Media Attention Stanford U aunches set of free onine courses Sebastian Thrun s Stanford U AI MOOC attracts over 160K users (25K compete the course) from over 190 countries Thrun founds Udacity, a forprofit start-up based on the course Daphne Koer and Andrew Ng at Stanford spin off Coursera (16M venture funding). Coursera. (n.d.). MOOC start-up. Avaiabe onine: Lewin, T. (2012). Beyond the Coege Degree, Onine Educationa Badges. The New York Times, March 4. Avaiabe onine: Lewin, T. (2012). Instruction for Masses Knocks Down Campus Was. The New York Times, March 4. Avaiabe onine: Simon, S. (2012). Startup aims to riva Ivy League onine: Eite Internet university to see top students from around the gobe. Edmonton Journa, Apri 6. Avaiabe onine: Thrun, S., & Norvig, P. (n.d.). Introduction to Artificia Inteigence. Avaiabe onine: Weissmann, J. (2012). Can This Onine Ivy University Change the Face of Higher Education? The Atantic, Apri 5. Avaiabe onine: /

7 MOOCs: The Money MIT OpenCourseWare announced in 2002 with over 2K courses onine, funded by the Wiiam and Fora Hewett Foundation, the Andrew W. Meon Foundation, and MIT (edx has $60M MIT and Harvard funding) Saman Khan starts the Khan Academy in 2009, funded by the Bi & Meinda Gates Foundation and Googe Ben Neson secures $25M in venture capita from Benchmark Capita in 2011 to start an onine university, Minerva Project. Khan Academy. (n.d.). The team. Avaiabe onine: Koowich, S. (2012). How wi MOOCs make money? Inside Higher Ed, June 11. Avaiabe onine: MIT OpenCourseWare. (n.d.). Unocking knowedge, empowering minds. Avaiabe onine: Weissmann, J. (2012). Can This Onine Ivy University Change the Face of Higher Education? The Atantic, Apri 5. Avaiabe onine: /

8 Ben Neson: On Higher Education Is this a good industry within which to start a new company? Here are the industry characteristics. Here is a muti-biion doar industry providing a service that s doing gross margins of about 80 percent or so. There are a coupe dozen competitors in this industry, the most recent entrant of which wi turn a hundred years od next year. The industry provides a service that has grown in price three times the rate of infation in 30 years. So the service has become substantiay more expensive. And for the priviege of buying that service, this industry serves approximatey 10 percent of market demand Neson, B. (2011). Taking on the Ivy League. TEDx SF: Independenty organized TED event, December 5. Avaiabe onine:

9 Ben Neson: On Higher Education Another 10 percent approximatey is serviced by peope outside of that industry and substitute goods and about 80 percent just don t get that service, they just can t buy it, even though they have the means and the abiity to take advantage of the service, they just can t buy it. Now the ast characteristic of this industry is that the service that it is deivered by service professionas who not ony have no training to deiver the service but, in the course of their evauation, their promotion, their compensation, etc., not ony are not monitored in how they deiver the service, they re not trained in how to deiver the service, but there s absoutey itte to no, and mosty no, penaty or reward for providing this service we. Neson, B. (2011). Taking on the Ivy League. TEDx SF: Independenty organized TED event, December 5. Avaiabe onine: Sumagaysay, L. (2012). GMSV Q&A with Ben Neson, CEO of panned eite onine university. MercuryNews.com, Apri 4. Avaiabe onine:

10 Richard Lanham: 10 Assumptions that Organize Higher Education Assumption 1 The idea education is face-to-face, oneon-one education Assumption 2 Higher education, in its idea form, proceeds in a setting sequestered in both time and space Assumption 3 The education that every university offers shoud be generated in-house by resident facuty empoyed fu-time for this purpose Assumption 4 The idea pattern of empoyment for a university facuty is one that combines a maximum of narrowness and infexibiity in job description with a maximum of job security: the tenure system Assumption 5 The purpose of the university administration is to protect the facuty from the outside word Lanham, R. A. (2002). The audit of virtuaity: Universities in the attention economy. In S. Brint (ed.), The Future of the City of Inteect: The Changing American University (pp ). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

11 Richard Lanham: 10 Assumptions that Organize Higher Education Assumption 6 University facuties are animated by a purity of motive different from, and superior to, the word of ordinary human work Assumption 7 Universities are unique institutions. As such, they cannot be meaningfuy compared to any others Assumption 8 Inefficiency is something to be proud of Assumption 9 The new eectronic fied of expression does not change what we are doing but ony how we are doing it Assumption 10 The university ives in the same kind of economy it has aways ived in (pp ). Lanham, R. A. (2002). The audit of virtuaity: Universities in the attention economy. In S. Brint (ed.), The Future of the City of Inteect: The Changing American University (pp ). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

12 Contested Digita Spaces What unites and distinguishes these digita writing environments from those in print is their materiaity their existence through the hardware and software that shape their design or what Lessig (2006) cas architecture (p. 508) Whie digita writing spaces are coded in diverse ways, they a exist in and through digita technoogies, and as such they enabe, constrain, chaenge, reproduce, or question estabished practices, socia orders, and hierarchies rooted in print materiaities whie aso offering aternative practices and socia orders to those estabished around print (p. 508) Each new discursive space is a unique consteation of participants and digita software codes (p. 403). Starke-Meyerring, D. (2008). Genre, knowedge and digita code in web-based communities: An integrated theoretica framework for shaping digita discursive spaces. Internationa Journa of Web Based Communities, 4 (4), Starke-Meyerring, D. (2009). The contested materiaities of writing in digita environments: Impications for writing deveopment. In R. Beard, M. Myhi, J. Riey, & M. Nystrand (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of writing deveopment (pp ). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

13 Strugges in contested spaces Strugges over Equa access Inteectua property and sharing Privacy and surveiance Impications Poicy engagement and research attention: what student writers, citizens, and others wi be abe to access, buid on, what kind of knowedge they wi be abe to make (p. 520) Reconsidering writing pedagogies, poicies, and infrastructures: that aow students to criticay anayze and engage in the design, use, and reguation of the spaces they inhabit (p. 522). Starke-Meyerring, D. (2008). Genre, knowedge and digita code in web-based communities: An integrated theoretica framework for shaping digita discursive spaces. Internationa Journa of Web Based Communities, 4 (4), Starke-Meyerring, D. (2009). The contested materiaities of writing in digita environments: Impications for writing deveopment. In R. Beard, M. Myhi, J. Riey, & M. Nystrand (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of writing deveopment (pp ). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

14 Students as Consumers: Appea 21M teenagers between use the Internet and 78 percent primariy at schoo (16M) (Hitin & Rainie, 2005) These students want To compete their education whie working fu-time A curricuum and facuty that are reevant to the workpace (vocationay oriented) A time-efficient education Their education to be cost-effective (and costs have increased) A high eve of customer service (and cass sizes are growing) Convenience (Biggs, p. 2; De Ava, pp ). Biggs, J. (2003). Teaching for Quaity Learning at University: What the Student Does. Buckingham, Engand: Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University Press. De Ava, J. K. (1999/2000). Remaking the academy in the age of information. Issues in Science and Technoogy, 16 (2),

15 Students as Consumers: Probem The earners-as-consumers mode of educationa interaction probematic because If universities are abe to maintain their atruistic goa of serving the pubic good, earners may not be satisfied with the workpace preparation offered by some institutions; Athough customers of financia institutions expect high returns on their investments in imited amounts of time, the business of financia institutions does not aow this promise to be made; so too are earners subject to the compexities of resources that are brought together to provide them with rigorous and usefu courses and programs; Mehenbacher, B. (2010). Instruction and Technoogy: Designs for Everyday Learning. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

16 Students as Consumers: Probem The earners-as-consumers mode of educationa interaction probematic because Universities serve many constituents, not simpy earners, and are therefore going to be continuay faced with decisions that require trade-offs between satisfying one customer base versus another; and Convenience, which presumes agreement and a good fit and frictioness programs, is not the responsibiity of higher earning institutions (i.e., many more appicants woud ike to attend MIT or Harvard than are admitted, which is, again, simiar to the situation with financia institutions). Mehenbacher, B. (2010). Instruction and Technoogy: Designs for Everyday Learning. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

17 Information Systems and Communication Design Professionas: Our probems have Changed Our probem situations are unstabe, demand fexibiity and a creative abiity to organize across simiar but aways different probems and demand that we understand, argue, and evauate our work both conceptuay and pragmaticay (Schön, 1983). Schön, D. A. (1983). The Refective Practitioner: How Professionas Think in Action. New York, NY: Basic.

18 Our Understanding of Knowedge has Changed Our understanding of knowedge has changed: knowedge is no onger represented in the form of ists, primary sources, controed areas of expertise, or fixed private states of understanding; instead, knowedge is contingent, framed by higher-order and changing structures, pubicy distributed, and drawn from mutipe, emergent sources (Resnick, Lesgod, & Ha, 2005). Resnick, L. B., Lesgod, A., and Ha, M. W. (2005). Technoogy and the new cuture of earning: Toos for education professionas. In P. Gårdenfors and P. Johansson (eds.), Cognition, Education, and Communication Technoogy (pp ). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erbaum.

19 Our Organizations have Changed Work is characterized by downsizing, automation, fattening of work hierarchies, increasing numbers of reationships between companies, continua reorganization, the breaking down of sios or stovepipes in organizations, and the increase in teecommunications (Spinuzzi, 2007). Spinuzzi, C. (2007). Introduction to TCQ Specia Issue: Technica communication in the age of distributed work. Technica Communication Quartery, 16 (3),

20 Our Definitions of Expertise have Changed Expertise is contextuaized and socia (Lave & Wenger, 1991). Expertise comes in many different forms, e.g., in the abiity to think criticay or creativey or practicay or wisey (Sternberg, 2003). We can be both experts and novices simutaneousy (Brown & Duguid, 2000). Brown, J. S., and Duguid, P. (2000). The Socia Life of Information. Boston, MA: Harvard University Press. Lave, J., and Wenger, E. (1991). Situated Learning: Legitimate Periphera Participation. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Sternberg, R. J. (2003). What is an Expert Student? Educationa Researcher, 32 (8), 5-9.

21 Understanding Ourseves as Information Systems / Communication Designers Understanding communication design depends on your reationship to it. Understanding differs depending on whether you are a programmer, teacher, document designer, engineer, instructiona designer, information deveoper, etc. Understanding is critica to acting inteigenty in reation to communication design, e.g., how inteigenty you are abe to act in reation to technoogy, managing technica speciaists, deciphering research on communication design, etc. Understanding interacts with interest. Understanding requires some understanding of systems theory, the socia and cutura forces that have shaped and are shaping technoogy and iteracy, etc. Understanding communication design does not mean you can expain it. Expanation heps understanding. Bereiter, C. (2002). Education and Mind in the Knowedge Age. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erbaum.

22 Understanding Ourseves as Information Systems / Communication Designers Understanding Just as no singe correct, compete, or idea understanding of communication design can exist, there can be identifiaby incorrect understandings. Conversations about communication design generay emphasize the products or processes of writing, their usefuness, importance, strengths and imitations, etc. Understanding is conveyed through narratives containing key ideas such as oraity and iteracy, scientific and technica society, discourse, design, etc. A deep understanding of communication design requires a knowedge of deeper things such as stateof-the-art technoogies and historica deveopments in rhetoric, iteracy, communication, and design. Insightfu probem soving is possibe with deep understanding. Deep invovement is required for deep understanding. Bereiter, C. (2002). Education and Mind in the Knowedge Age. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erbaum.

23 Instructors: Emerging Digita Literacies Current strategies for integrating MOOC earning into existing educationa spaces Onine education is aways changing (nonstabe), instructionay and professionay. Coppoa, N. W., Hitz, S. R., & Rotter, N. G. (2002) Becoming a virtua professor: Pedagogica roes and asynchronous earning networks, Journa of Management Information Systems, 18 (4) Jenkins, H., Purushotma, R., Cinton, K., Weige, M., & Robinson, A. J. (2006). Confronting the chaenges of participatory cuture: Media education for the 21 st century. An Occasiona paper for digita media and earning. MacArthur Foundation. Avaiabe onine:

24 Instructors: A Rhetorica Design Approach to Teaching Onine and Off A rhetorica design approach/pedagogy Focuses on critica roe of rhetorica invention, investigative and symboic technoogies and processes of emergent knowedge (writing and design as epistemic) Critiques scientific and technica objectivity as driving principes in the construction of arguments/texts/designs Examines various materiaities and spaces, contested and estabished Highights audience, community, and participation (concepts, vaues, traditions, and stye) Assesses and critiques reductivism and determinism in scientific and technoogica contexts and cutures. Mehenbacher, B., & Key, A. R. (2012). Integrating socia media into onine educationa spaces: Modeing professiona practice in instructiona interactions. Computers and Writing Raeigh, NC: NC State. Mier, C. R. (1979). A humanistic rationae for technica writing. Coege Engish, 40 (6),

25 Higher Education and Goba Economic Coapse Expansion of American universities in 1940s connected to enormous expansion of word economy Reduction in monopoy of socioeconomicay advantaged in 1970s Goba economic stagnation resuts in reduced state investment and investment in externa funding During 1980s and 1990s, universities increasingy privatized, the professoriate stabiizes, creation of adjunct (contingent) cuture Today, universities under attack for serving student popuation poory (in the ight of scarcity) and under attack from anti-inteectua consumer cuture of the U.S. Bousquet, M. (2008). How the University Works: Higher Education and the Low-Wage Nation. NY, NY: NYU Press. Edsa, T. B. (2012). The Age of Austerity: How Scarcity wi Remake American Poitics. NY, NY: Doubeday. Greer, J. M. (2011). The Weath of Nature: Economics as if Surviva Mattered. Gabrioa Isand, BC: New Society Pubishers. Heinberg, R. (2011). The End of Growth: Adapting to Our New Economic Reaity. Gabrioa Isand, BC: New Society Pubishers. Waerstein, I. (2012). Higher education under attack. Energy Buetin, March 1. Avaiabe onine: