How to Milk a MOOCCatheryn Cheal, Associate Professor,

San Jose State University

WritingPlato, c. 370 BC, Phaedrus, speech of Socrates

“The fact is that (this invention) will produce forgetfulness in the souls of those who have learned it. They will not need to exercise their memories…”

Printed BooksPope Alexander VI, 1500”

“It will be necessary to maintain full control over them so that they may be prevented from bringing (these inventions) which are antagonistic to the Catholic faith or which are likely to cause trouble to believers.”– 1500

BlackboardsWilliam Alcott, 1843, The Slate Blackboard and Exercises

In many of our common schools, however, (this invention) has been but barely introduced. The teacher knows almost as little how to use it as his pupils.”

• "Can People Be Taught Like Pigeons?" (Boehm,1960) • "Can Machines Replace Teachers?" (Luce, 1960)• "Will Robots Teach Your Children?"(Bell, 1961)

Teaching MachinesB.F. Skinner

“I’ll never do video!”

Worries that technology will:1. Destroy our mental/social capability.

2. Overturn the current social/political hierarchy.

3. Be misused by faculty and students.

4. Turn us into robots.

MOOCs at SJSU

edX EE98 Online Course

SJSU/edX PartnershipElectric Engineering 98 flipped course/MITx6.002x Circuits and Electronics.

Fall Pilot 2012: Traditional course= 59% passed, 40% C or lower. edX SJSU flipped= 91% passed, 9% C or lower.

SJSU Plus/Udacity Partnership

• Spring 2013--Statistics, Remedial Math, Algebra Summer 2013--Intro Psychology, Java Programming

• Students--280 SJSU credit students & 30,000 Udacity no-credit students

• Cost--$150 for SJSU students and free for Udacity students

Udacity Studio

SJSU Plus (Udacity)

MOOC Development Process by Faculty

• Stipend--$15,000 for 400 hours development work

• Orientation Workshop1. Team construction 2. Online teaching principles3. Amount and type of work

MOOC Development• Meet about construction• Write content• Record video in studio• Write problems and exams• Review content

Methods• Camera over a drawing on paper• Wacom Cintiq tablet with Camtasia or

Autodesk SketchPad Pro and transparent hand captured by camera.

• Questions and audio feedback• Headshot videos of professor—1-2 min.• Interview videos of guest lectures• Onsite videos

Positive Results of SJSU Plus Pilot1. Very good pedagogical, self-paced content

for four courses. 2. Excellent retention rates for 3 courses in

summer.3. High enrollments and low cost.

Spring and Summer Pass RatesPass are Cs or better after W are removed.

Spring Pilot 2013 Summer Pilot 2013 2013 SJSU On-Campus(based on past 6 semesters)

Elementary Statistics

50.5%100 student cap

83.0% 400 student cap

76.3%

College Algebra 25.4% 100 student cap

72.6% 200 student cap

64.7%

Entry Level Math 23.8%100 student cap

29.8%200 student cap

45.5%

General Psychology not offered 67.3% 400 student cap

83.0%

Intro to Programming

not offered 70.4% 700 student cap

67.6%

MOOC Challenges• Contract development• Intellectual property• Faculty roles and course development• Scale up enrollments• Admission, registration, payment, pre-req and

disabilities checking processes• Webpages and systems technology integration

Faculty Issues

• Governance for online conversion• Ownership of course content• Exam Proctoring• External Contracts• Enrollment Numbers

How to Start a MOOCDecide on your purpose: • Publicity for the

university or programs?

• Lower costs?• Greater access for

students?• New content for

better pedagogy?

Future of MOOCs1. Publicity and Global Education

Future of MOOCs2. Individualization

Future of MOOCs3. Interactive Textbooks

Thank You!