Can MOOCs offer useful support for students in

transition?Experiences from the UCT MOOCs Project

Andrew Deacon, Janet Small & Sukaina WaljiCentre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching

University of Cape Town

24 November 2016ICED & HELTASA Conference, Cape Town

Outline• What are MOOCs?• As conceived• UCT MOOCs Project• Course landscape in higher education

• As used to support students in transitions• UCT created MOOCs• Using MOOCs to support students

Massive

• Have many thousands participating

Open

• Open to anyone with an internet connection

Online

• Everything is online

Course

• Course is organised to support learning

M O O C

MOOCs occupy ‘in between’ spaces

which are neither formal nor informal but draw on both the skills of formal learning and the informal identities that have a kind of authenticity

(Farrow, 2014)

Traditional formal courses

MOOCs

Informal learning from books, web, …

Expect high engagement, but

small numbers reached

Lower engagement, with large numbers

reached

https://philosopher1978.wordpress.com/2014/09/02/liveblog-catherine-cronin-keynote-at-altc-altc2014/

MOOC platforms & university partners

2 1

UCT - Coursera & FutureLearn

Wits – edX

Stellenbosch – FutureLearn

Around 250 universities have

partnered with these three MOOC platform

UCT MOOCs Project• Develop 12 MOOCs

• Research educators’ open educational practices

As conceived

Goals of the UCT MOOCs Project• To showcase the teaching and research excellence of UCT

• To give exposure to African content and knowledge

• To profile key postgraduate programmes and research areas aligned with the university’s strategic goals

• To support students in academic transitions

• To make UCT’s knowledge resources globally accessible

• To develop models and expertise in online learning that could be deployed in mainstream degree programmes

Interest in supporting transitions• Rise in interdisciplinary programmes

• Academically generally well prepared• Students from other disciplines don’t know context

• Pressure to admit more students• Varying levels of academic and research preparedness • Students without some core skills

• Show study opportunities• Lack awareness of fields of study and opportunities• Students unaware of study and career options

e.g. Short courses Global Citizenship Write Science courses

e.g. most degree programmes

Showcase teaching and introduce topics with high-profile ‘rockstar’ presenters

Introduce fields and support students in undergraduate study

Develop skills and introduce topics for postgraduate study.

Showcase research and special interest topics of interest to postgraduate level

Showcase professional careers for continuing education and qualifications

Inwardly focused gateway and transition courses

Outwardly focused showcase courses

As it happened

Becoming a changemaker: Introduction to Social Innovation

Climate Change Mitigation in Developing Countries

Education for All: Disability, Diversity and Inclusion

Julia Scientific Programming

Medicine and the Arts: Humanising Healthcare

Understanding Clinical Research: Behind the Statistics

What is a Mind?

Cases with support for transitions1. UCT created ‘gateway’ courses• Postgraduate research skills• Undergraduates’ writing skills

2. Facilitating or wrapping existing MOOCs• Study groups to support postgraduates• UCT MOOCs being used elsewhere

Understanding Clinical Research

29%

5%

15%

2%

25%

24%

Understanding Clinical Research

Overall Coursera has

5% African learners

Understanding Clinical ResearchJuan, thanks for making your wonderful understanding of statistics available in such an approachable and well-presented format. I am encouraging all Paediatric Surgery registrars and other colleagues at Red Cross to do the course! You have made a complex and confusing field a lot less so. Looking forward to your next Coursera course!

Understanding Clinical Research

Understanding Clinical Research

Understanding Clinical Research

Writing Your World: finding yourself in an academic space• Week 1: Starting to write

understanding definitions of identity

• Week 2: Developing an argumentshifting identities

• Week 3: Supporting the argumentsituating identity within culture

• Week 4: Starting to finishwriting the first draft

UCT Office for Postgraduate Studies• Supporting students in transition• Workshops, seminars and open online courses for UCT

postgraduate students• Supporting research, writing and quantitative skills

• MOOCs cheaper than traditional courses• MOOC wrapping - where facilitators additionally:• Provides a social space for postgraduates • Contextualise and clarify content• Encourage and motivate students

UCT Office for Postgraduate Studies

UCT student on wrapped MOOCs• “The course has had a huge implication for me and has now

altered the route of my thesis and where I project myself in the long haul of life”

• “It has been truly helpful! I wanted to tell you that I won best poster presentation at the School of Public Health's annual research day, so thank you - I could not have done without your help”

• “For me I would say the most important and interesting thing I have learned is R-programming, because I didn't know how to use it before”

UCT MOOCs used elsewhere• Wrapped (e.g., with additional student essay)• Reuse of materials (e.g., to show videos)• Translated (e.g., into Spanish)• Community mentors (i.e., volunteer tutors)

© University of Cape Town CC-BY

Conclusions• MOOC strengths• Students appreciate it (run with minimal monitoring)• Scale easily (reaching a global audience)• Helps us understand contexts of students in transition

• MOOC weakness • But students in transition remain uncomfortable• Limited individual support and feedback• Not for everyone and not enough

• MOOC opportunities• Use by others (enroll, flip, wrap, reuse, …)

Project References• Czerniewicz, L, Deacon, A, Glover, M, Walji, S. (2017) MOOC-making and

open educational practices, Journal of Computing in Higher Education.• Czerniewicz, L, Glover, M, Deacon, A, Walji, S. (2016) MOOCs, openness

and changing educator practices: an Activity Theory case study. Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Networked Learning.

• Walji, S, Deacon, A, Small, J, Czerniewicz, L. (2016) Learning through engagement: MOOCs as an emergent form of provision. Distance Education, 37(2):208-223.

• Chapman, SA, Goodman, S, Jawitz, J, Deacon, A. (2016) A strategy for monitoring and evaluating massive open online courses. Evaluation and Program Planning, 57(August):55–63.

• Czerniewicz, L, Deacon, A, Small, J, Walji, S. (2014) Developing world MOOCs: A curriculum view of the MOOC landscape. Journal of Global Literacies, Technologies, and Emerging Pedagogies, 2(3):122-139.