MOOCs for Agricultural Professionals Christine Geith, Ph.D.

Executive Director & Assistant Provost MSU Global

ICRISAT Capacity Development Program Appropriate Technologies and Innovative

Approaches for Agriculture Knowledge & Sharing

September 2014, Hyderabad, India

How did they get started?

• 2008 Stephen Downes & George Siemens cMOOC

• In 2011 xMOOC debuted with Stanford’s Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig’s Artificial Intelligence MOOC that attracted more than 160,000

What is a MOOC?

Overview by Paul-Olivier Dehaye

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCE_yhGWl6c

cMOOCs by George Siemens https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW3gMGqcZQc

How many MOOCs are there?

2500+

• http://www.class-central.com

• http://www.mooc-list.com

• http://edspire.com/

• Estimated 4 million users

Common Features of the Product

• Online Open Access to Masses

• The Optional “C”

– Course

– Copyright is openly licensed

– Completion

– Credential

Common Features of the Market

• Brand Alliances

FutureLearn OU UK, 36 university/non-university http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FutureLearn#Partners

EdX 36 founded by MIT & Harvard https://www.edx.org/schools-partners

Coursera Top-50-Ranked Universities https://www.coursera.org/about/partners

http://msuglobal.com/moocs-at-michigan-state-university/

http://msuglobal.com/2014/08/update-moocs-at-msu/

http://msuglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/MSU-Pilot-MOOCs-Summary-4-1-2014.pdf

• 10 MOOCs, 3 platforms

• 3 formats: Instructor-led, peer-to-peer, research network

Food Fraud MOOC

http://foodfraud.msu.edu/mooc/

http://metroagcourse.com/weekly-sessions/week-1-2

Research Network MOOCs What we’ve learned from Food Fraud and MetroAg MOOCs

• Engage and build global networks

• Focus on problems and solutions

• Live webinars leverage expert effort

• Used to gather disciplinary data

• Formal course elements can be added

• Potential to offer as a free event/resource, as a non-credit experience and as part of a for-credit experience.

Instructor-Facilitated MOOCs What we’ve learned from Writing and Science MOOCs

• Global reach

• Focus on building knowledge/skills

• Asynchronous online learning course design

• Designed to be a course (credit or non-credit)

• Requires expert effort to develop and deliver as a course

For MSU MOOCs are:

• a means to expand programmatic reach, influence and connect or strengthen engagement with specific audiences

• a different way to engage with corporate stakeholders from an awareness and professional development/training approach

• a worthwhile approach to conduct research, expand the reach and reputation of a program area or faculty

• OOCs, without marketing and links to distribution channels. These are the critical to meaningful enrollment levels

Self-Organized Meetups

• 661 Udacity Communities http://www.meetup.com/Udacity/

• 4065 Coursera Communities http://www.meetup.com/Coursera/

• 39 EdX Communities http://edx.meetup.com/

Learning Hubs

• Coursera Learning Hub Partners http://blog.coursera.org/post/65596539008/introducing-coursera-learning-hubs-global

MOOC Degree Options

First fully accredited massive online MS in Computer Science from Georgia Tech. Total tuition for the program is initially expected to be below $7,000. https://www.udacity.com/georgia-tech

Agriculture MOOCs

• ICRISAT Open Ag Ed

• Malaysia PutraMOOC • http://putramooc.upm.my/www/main.php

• COL Mobiles for Development • http://m4d.colfinder.org/

• MORE?

FUNDED BY THE BILL & MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION

6 Universities Haramaya University, Ethiopia Makerere University, Uganda Mekelle University, Ethiopia Moi University, Kenya

Sokoine University, Tanzania United States International University, Kenya

4 Programs MSc Plant Breeding/Crop Science

PhD Soil and Water Management MSc Ag Info and Comm Management

Certificate in Agribusiness

http://www.oerafrica.org/agshare/

http://agsharetoolkit.com/

Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, Volume 17:2 - July 2013 A Special Issue on OER and Online For International Rural, and Hard-To-Reach Populations

Christine Geith and Karen Vignare, Editors http://sloanconsortium.org/node/407776

Open Strategies

• open content • open data • open access (research) • open government • open source software • open standards • open policy • open licensing • open hardware

FSKNtraining.org Foodsafetyknowledgenetwork.org

CREATED IN India, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Brazil,

Columbia, Russia, Ukraine, Egypt and the United States

WITH Consumer Goods Forum, Hewlett Foundation,

USAID, World Trade Organization, World Bank, UNIDO,Tata Group, Wal-Mart, Metro

Cash and Carry, Coca-Cola

Designing Corporate Training in Developing Economies Using Open Educational Resources Geith, Chris; Vignare, Karen; Bourquin, Leslie D.; Thiagarajan, Deepa Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, v14 n3 p3-12 Nov 2010

http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ909878.pdf

http://wp.me/pJlTi-82

Systems Approach to Open

http://tinyurl.com/km2emh9

STUDENT

TRANSLATIONAL

SCHOLARS

http://wp.me/pJlTi-8a

USAID HIGHER EDUCATION SOLUTIONS NETWORK

http://gcfsi.isp.msu.edu/

MOOCS for Agriculture Development

• New C’s

– Capacity Building

– Community

– Catalyst for Change

Forbes Thought Of The Day “ The end of all knowledge should be in virtuous action. ” — Philip Sydney

CHRISTINE GEITH, PH.D. ASSISTANT PROVOST, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MSUGLOBAL

KNOWLEDGE AND LEARNING INNOVATIONS MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

MSUGLOBAL.MSU.EDU GEITH@MSU.EDU