Massive Open Online Courses: Everybody’s Doing It, What’s In It For Me?
Thursday, June 6, 2013 #2013ssp
What is a MOOC? (to wikipedia!)
“…an online course aimed at large-scale interactive participation and open access via the web. In addition to traditional course materials such as videos, readings, and problem sets, MOOCs provide interactive user forums that help build a community for the students, professors, and TAs. MOOCs are a recent development in distance education”
…everything old is new again State of the Art Multimedia…
Learned Academic
http://www.open.edu/openlearn/education/educational-technology-and-practice/educational-technology/1973-maths-beards-and-props
Major MOOC Providers • Coursera (2011)
Founders: Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng 62 institutions, 220 courses 3.1 million registrants $16 million in VC Funding (Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers & New Enterprise Associates
• edX (2011) Founded by MIT & Harvard (led by Anant Agarwal) 12 universities, 15 courses, 700,000 registered users ~$60million in funding? Harvard/MIT (+ undisclosed hedge fund investment)
• Udacity (2011) Founded by Sebastian Thrun, David Stavens, Mike Sokolsky 20 active courses 400,000 students $15+ million in VC funding (Andreessen Horowitz, Charles River Ventures)
Other Providers • Khan Academy ($150 million BMGF) • Udemy • NovoEd (Venture Lab) • Futurelearn • iversity • Open2Study • UniMOOC • “Online Course Enablers”: 2U, Deltak,
Embanet/Compass, Academic Partnerships, Canvas Network
(cough) Business Model(s)? Step One: Build Platform (Academics/Universities + tech + user base) Step Two: ??? Step Three: PROFIT! See also “Where are MOOCs on the Gartner Hype Curve?” & “Are they Christensen disruption or a good old fashioned bubble?”
Plenary Format
1) Intro (we’ve nearly finished) 2) Meet The Professor, The Librarian, The Service Provider and The Publisher 3) Four short (~5 min) presentations 4) Q&A / debate until coffee time
The Professor & The Librarian The Professor Dan McFarland, Stanford University Libraries • Associate Professor of Education, Sociology, and Organizational
Behaviour • Director of Stanford’s certificate program in Computational Social
Science. • Holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Chicago • Dan has taught courses in organizational behaviour / social
network analysis at Stanford for over a decade
The Librarian Mimi Calter, Stanford University Libraries • Manages the Stanford University Libraries’ facilities and business
services departments • Also serves as a policy coordinator for the organization. • Manages a variety of special projects, with a special emphasis on
copyright issues. – inc The Stanford Copyright Renewal Database, – & intellectual property rights for the works of William Saroyan.
The Service Provider & The Publisher The Service Provider Franny Lee, SIPX, Inc. • Co-Founder & Vice President, University Relations & Product
Development of SIPX. • Originally a composer and jazz musician,-drawn to copyright & digital
communication by experiencing firsthand its effect on the music industry. ..
• Lawyer in United States & Canada, & has litigated digital rights & internet Qs in the entertainment, media & communications industries.
• Holds a BFA from York University, a LLB / JD from Queen’s University, & a LLM in Law, Science & Technology from Stanford University.
• Served as Resident Fellow for CodeX (the Stanford Center for Legal Informatics)
The Publisher Laura Leichum, Georgetown University Press • Intellectual Property Manager at Georgetown University Press • Her experience in scholarly publishing encompasses the areas of
digital publishing, rights, marketing, publicity, and sales. • Member of the Association of American University Presses & serves on
the AAUP Copyright Committee.
What was the course? Organizational Analysis Organizational theories are a great way to comprehend and manage organizational contexts. Every week, we discussed cases (non-profits, firms, universities, policy arenas, etc) and applied organizational theories. ~ humanities and social science courses: develop conceptual understanding (lectures), dialogue (forums) and applications (cases). 45 Stanford students in class 81203 Coursera students on-line (as of 6/3/13)
What were my goals? 1. Provide high quality course content to the world. 2. Engage students. 3. Offer free & discounted readings. 4. Enable peer evaluation of term papers. 5. Study the course so as to improve it. 6. Offer a flipped classroom to Stanford students.
F o r r e v i e w s e e h t t p s : / / c l a s s . c o u r s e r a . o r g /organalysis-2012-001/lecture/207
Conclusion WHAT KIND OF STUDENTS WERE THEY?
International and part-time Strong expectation that everything be free Lecture was text
WHAT WOULD YOU IMPROVE?
First round hit technical snags – tech support early! Shorter units - 2-3 courses! Looser deadlines Most students want short assignments Peer grading needs work Forums need more guidance
WOULD I DO IT DIFFERENTLY?
With enough help and funding, yes, I’d make a dramatic change Not be a “course” but an interest network of expanding content?
Conclusion HAS DOING THE MOOC AFFECTED MY REPUTATION?
Not really – it’s exposed me to a different network population THOUGHTS ABOUT ASSIGNED READINGS CHANGED?
On-line students will find a free way if there’s much cost I’ll provide my lecture notes as a purchasable text I will look for more affordable readings (~iTunes)
MOOCs and the Academic Library Society for Scholarly Publishing 6 June 2013 Mimi Calter AUL & Chief of Staff Stanford University Libraries [email protected]
MOOCs Impact at SUL
• Copyright – Student access to licensed resources – Faculty use of material – Ownership
• Learning Management Systems & Tools – Growth of the flipped classroom
• Video & Media Support • Training
– For staff – Could be by staff in the future
Vice Provost for Online Learning
• “The vision of Stanford Online is to continue Stanford’s leadership in providing high-quality educational experiences to its students and to people around the world by unleashing creativity and innovation in online learning.”
• Support innovation through three efforts: – Pedagogy – Production – Platform
Feedback on MOOCs
• The hype cycle is peaking • The business model is unclear • The level of effort required to develop a
class is significant • Some disciplines lend themselves to
MOOCs than others • The impact on pedagogy is real
SSP Annual Meeting 2013 MOOCs: Everybody’s Doing It -- What’s In It For Me?
One Content Platform’s Experience #
6/8/13 20
Franny Lee#Co-Founder, VP University Relations and Product Development#
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MOOC Professor MOOC Student
Librarian MOOC Provider
Copyright Agents Open Sources (HathiTrust,
Crea?ve Commons)
Schools and
Libraries
Observing MOOC Content Behaviors#
Publishers and
Creators What kind of content do professors select?
Will students buy?
What new methods are publishers trying?
SIPX Confidential (c) 2013 SIPX, Inc., All Rights Reserved
6/10/13 22
• Cloud-based technology service that solves many copyright frustrations#
• Brings together all stakeholders, critical data, and both open and pay-per-use content#
• Can blend into campus systems like LMS’ and online education platforms like MOOCs#
End-to-end solution to manage, distribute and measure course materials for higher education#
What is SIPX?#
SIPX Confidential (c) 2013 SIPX, Inc., All Rights Reserved
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SIPX in MOOCs#
• Professors assign what they want#• Save schools time from clearing
readings#• Pay-per-use for students to buy
and access their own copies#• Students benefit from their
school’s library holdings#• Publishers experiment with pricing#
SIPX links offer users contextually appropriate access and pricing#
SIPX Confidential (c) 2013 SIPX, Inc., All Rights Reserved
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1. Opportunity#– SIZE: Very big classes even with high attrition rates#– REACH: Global adoption of content#– SEGMENT: Most new students not university-affiliated #
2. Most MOOC students differ from campus students#– Different motivations and desired outcomes#
Need flexible content approaches to meet the demand !» Unbundled options#» Differential (geo-)pricing #
Maximum reach and cost accessibility##
Early Observations#
SIPX Confidential (c) 2013 SIPX, Inc., All Rights Reserved
Discovery for publishers, schools and educators#
– Most popular articles?#– Cost tolerance across geography?#– What subscribed content and non-
subscribed content is selected?#
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Analytics Show Why#
Recommendations and predictive data on content#
– Used in other astronomy courses?#– Used by successful students?#
SIPX Confidential (c) 2013 SIPX, Inc., All Rights Reserved
Massive Open Online Courses: Everybody’s Doing It, What’s In It For
Me? A Publisher’s Perspective
Laura Leichum [email protected]
Intellectual Property Manager
What is the Publisher’s Role in MOOCs?
• Publishers are already providing quality course materials for tuition-based distance learning courses and hybrid/blended courses for enrolled students.
• MOOCs seem to be evolving toward more familiar distance learning and hybrid/blended models, now sometimes referred to as xMOOCs.
• The type of MOOC may determine our role: How “open” is it? Free, freemium or strictly fee-based? What subject area? Demand for open access materials vs. licensed materials? • TEXT STILL MATTERS! Interaction with texts is vitally
important for engagement with certain topics, particularly in the humanities and social sciences.
Opportunities for Publishers • New possibilities for content delivery to
potentially wider audiences and more diverse audiences.
• Could increase discoverability and use of content on a global scale.
• Ability to find and serve the independent learner and/or non-traditional learner as well as communities of practice.
• What type of scholarly communication is needed? A chance to rethink how content can be packaged and delivered—e.g. several publishers are already producing “shorts” or “in brief” works and these texts might fit the current MOOC pedagogy very well.
Some Challenges and Concerns COPYRIGHT • Massive plagiarism = massive piracy? • How can we provide quick, simple, and copyright-compliant
access to materials for participants in a truly open MOOC? • MOOC platform provider or professor or institution may own
copyright to classes and may license them to other institutions—how to monitor third-party material usage and retrieve usage data?
CONTENT DISCOVERY AND DELIVERY • How can we streamline content selection by professors and
content access by students via MOOC/LMS platforms? • How can we securely deliver excerpts and/or full text
content to a massive number of non-enrolled learners and enrolled learners simultaneously?
Some Challenges and Concerns SUSTAINABILITY • Big Picture: overall sustainability of open access
publishing and open access education? • Free class = free materials? • “Hungry, will work for access to big data” model OR
traditional fees? • How might we adapt the traditional business model
for course packet permissions fees? • In a truly open MOOC, course enrollment is
unpredictable and unstable, so how should pricing be determined?
• How can we handle the collection of micro-payments from users located all over world and perhaps apply geographical pricing?
GUP’s First MOOC Experience
• MOOC pilot program was a good experience. • Our paid material was one of the twenty-three
required readings. • MOOC students did not expect to pay for
materials and despite this fact, more than 3300 downloads of paid materials occurred.
• Our participation was facilitated by being able to provide easy and copyright-compliant access to materials (via SIPX).
• Resulting data provided breakdown of when and where materials were purchased as well as usage of paid vs. free materials.