MOOCs for Opening Up Education The role of Quality and Openness Used at Masterclass MESI - 24 September 2014 Some slides used at ICDE-MESI Conference – panel 27 September 2014

1. MOOCs for Opening Up Education
The role of Quality and Openness
Darco Jansen
Masterclass MESI - 24 September 2014
ICDE-MESI Conference – panel 27 September 2014

2. MOOC for e-skills?
• What is a MOOC? (and what isn’t)
• OpenupEd as a MOOC provider?
• Macro drivers behind MOOCs / analysis MOOC providers
• Institutional drivers
• Drivers for learners
• Why openness matters?
• Barriers and incentives to open education
• Why quality matters? / OpenupEd label

4. SURF 2014
Open
Education
Trend
Report.

6. • Definition Wikipedia: course aimed at unlimited participation
• Definition OE-Europa: massive, in the sense of no limit to
attendance
• Definition EU-projects: course designed for large number of
participants
• Number of participants is larger than can be taught in a ‘normal’
campus class room / college situation (>148 = Dunbar’s number)
• The (pedagogical model of the) course is such that the efforts of all
services (including of academic staff on tutoring, tests, etc.) does not
increase significantly as the number of participants increases.

8. • Definition Wikipedia: course open access via the web.
• Definition OE-Europa:
• 'Open' in the sense that it can be accessed by anyone
anywhere as long as they have an internet connection.
• Free of charge (not including the certificate of completion)
• Definition EU-projects:
• Course can be accessed by (almost) anyone anywhere as long
as they have an internet connection.
• Open to everyone - without entry qualifications
• Course can be completed for free (full course experience
without any costs for participants)

10. • Definition Wikipedia: an online course / OE-Europa: Online
• The Babson Survey Research Group uses three criteria to define
online course:
• Online courses are defined as those in which at least 80 % of the
course content is delivered online.
• Blended (sometimes called hybrid) between 30% and 80% of the
course content delivered online.
• Face-to-face instruction includes courses in which zero to 29% of the
content is delivered online;
• Definition EU-projects:
• Complete course online - All aspects of course are delivered
online
• See definition of a full/complete course

11. • Definition Wikipedia:
• In addition to traditional course materials such as videos, readings,
and problem sets, MOOCs provide interactive user forums that help
build a community for students, professors, and teaching assistants
• Definition OE-Europa:
• Structured around a set of learning goals in a defined area of study
• Executed according to a specific time frame with a start and end date
• Offers possibilities for interaction such as social media channels,
forums, blogs or RSS feeds to build a learning community
• Course materials such as videos, readings, and others, are provided
free of charge by the course designers, teachers, facilitators or even
students themselves (cMOOCs)
• Includes assessment or evaluation, self assessment or peer
assessment

12. Definition EU-projects:
• Unit of Study
• The total study time of a MOOC is minimal 1 ECTS
• Offers a full course experience (for free) including
• educational content
• facilitation interaction among peers (including some but
limited interaction with academic staff)
• activities/tasks, tests, including feedback
• some kind of (nonformal) recognition options
• a study guide / syllabus

13. MOOCs?
• EU-projects: MOOCs are online courses designed for large numbers
of participants, that can be accessed by anyone anywhere as long
as they have an internet connection, are open to everyone without
entry qualifications, and offer a full/complete course experience
online for free
• Wikipedia: A massive open online course (MOOC) is an online course
aimed at unlimited 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
students, professors, and teaching assistants

15. MOOCs expansion from the US …
• MOOCs: predominantly US
-where it all started as of 2011 and expanded massively
-and which houses major providers Coursera, edX (Udacity)
• Response in Europe …
-some universities joined US initiatives, others started themselves
-country/language-based platforms: FutureLearn (UK),
MiríadaX, UNEDcoma (Spain), Iversity (Germany), FUN (France)
• First and so far only pan-European initiative OpenupEd
(April 2013 / EADTU & 11 partners, 12 languages / referatory
portal / 8 common features / currently big provider)

16. OpenupEd
OpenupEd is an open, non-profit partnership on MOOCs
OpenupEd aims to contribute to opening up education to the
benefit of learners and the wider society while reflecting values
such as equity, quality and diversity.
Offering over 174 MOOCs in 12 different languages.
With > 100 with an option to do a formal exam (ECTS credits).
Darco Jansen

17. OpenupEd partnership
• from the EU: France, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands,
Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, the UK
• outside of the EU, from: Russia, Turkey, Israel
• planning to join, from: Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, France (+1),
Greece, Ireland, Poland (2x), Slovenia, Spain (+1)
• Open to other potential partners (> 20 requests)
Fred Mulder Darco Jansen

19. Macro level drivers behind MOOCs (1)
1. Need for education
- Education is a 7 trillion dollar industry (570 times online
advertisement and 7 times lager then mobile industry).
- On a personal level higher level of education yields to higher
earnings
2. Access to affordable higher education
- Today: 165 million people enrolled in tertiary education.
- 2025: peak at 263 million in 2025.
- Additional 98 million students would require more than four
major universities (30,000 students) to open every week for the
next fifteen years (Sir John Daniel).

20. Marco level drivers behind MOOCs (2)
3. Need for (e-)skills and jobs
- High youth unemployment (across Europe)
- Also many unfilled job vacancies (i.e. mismatch)
- EC “e-Skills for Jobs” multi-stakeholder initiative: deliver the right
skills for the labour market shared between businesses,
educational providers and other stakeholders
4. ICT / technical innovation push
- Innovation: the constant reduction in costs (“Moore’s law”).
- ICT: reduction of both the variable costs and fixed costs
- MOOCs: reducing variable costs (design for unlimited numbers)

21. Marco level drivers behind MOOCs (3)
5. Improving the quality of opportunities for learning
- value of education (e.g., reputation of institutions)
- quality matters as offer of online courses / MOOCs increases
6. Globalization / increasing collaboration
- E.g. to reduce costs, increase quality and reputation
- joint offering of courses with other educational institutions (e.g.,
networked curricula) and with other non-profit organisations and
increasingly with the corporate sector (learning environment,
MOOC platforms, world-wide marketing, etc.)

22. Marco level drivers behind MOOCs (4)
7. Free / gratis as a driver
- Free to compete with a paid product of a competitor
- Free product creates monetizable activity
- Freemium (free high quality product, but limited; Limitations are
raised by paying customers; Paying customers cover costs
- Free as a tool to promote reputation
8. Openness
- enhancing the circulation of knowledge and increasing the pace
of innovation (etc. open access journals, OER)
- European Commission’s initiative ‘Opening up Education’

24. Analysis providers against macro drivers
• Main macro drivers for all MOOC providers:
- need for education, access to affordable higher education,
ICT / innovation push, gratis/free and globalization.
• Providers with a distinct profile
- Udacity: aiming at business training focusing on ict and e-skills
- edX: open source platform and increasingly OER
• Quality & Openness ->> reason why we started OpenupEd

25. Source: http://www.onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/gradechange.pdf

26. MOOC drivers at an institution level
• MOOCs for reputation / visibility
• including student recruitment
• marketing potential / reach new student
• MOOCs as innovation area
- and/or transition to more flexible and online education
(improve teaching and providing viable income by online courses)
- improve quality of on campus offering
• Responding to the demands of learners and societies

28. Drivers for learners - MOOCs for Opening up Education
MOOCs should be designed such that all unnecessary barriers to
learning are removed, while aiming to provide students with a
reasonable chance of success in education.
• All unnecessary barriers to learning should be removed, both at the
entry into learning and along the learning path
• Learners should be facilitated with appropriate incentives to make
progress and to succeed in their learning efforts

29. Barrier Could MOOCs remove the barrier?
1 Economic YES, they do
2 Entry requirements YES, they do (formally)
3 Location YES, they do (but not for exams)
4 Scheduling NO (generally), but YES is possible
5 Network connectivity NO (external factor)
6 Digital literacy YES (by offering a dedicated MOOC)

30. Barrier Could MOOCs remove the barrier?
7 Accessibility over time PROBLEMATIC, but YES is possible
8 Accessibility to all PROBLEMATIC
(language, sanctioned countries)
9 Cultural PROBLEMATIC
(dominant ‘Western’ perspective)
10 Legal YES, but ONLY with open licensing
11 Quality YES, to some EXTENT
(no systems guarantee!)

31. Incentive Could MOOCs offer the incentive?
Satisfaction YES, but it’s a constant CHALLENGE
(motivation, lay-out/text-graphics-video,
learning environment, interaction)
Completion YES, but ONLY with DEDICATION to:
online pedagogics, independent learning,
context sensitivity, small units
Recognition YES, but PRIMARILY with the OPTION
of formal credit & credit transfer (far from reality)

32. OpenupEd
revisited
11

33. OpenupEd’s Mission
1. Contribute to Opening up Education by removing barriers and
offering incentives as much as possible
2. Cherish the Values for Education in societies: equity, diversity,
quality, and autonomy
Characteristics
• Learner-at-the-Centre & Self-study
• High-quality Learning Materials
• Diversity in Language & Culture
• Public Domain & Decentralized

34. OpenupEd’s Score …
Remove barriers General OpenupEd
Yes 4 5
Yes, but … 2 5
No, but … 1 --
Problematic 3 --
No 1 1 (connectivity)
Offer incentives General OpenupEd
Yes -- 2
Yes, but … 3 1 (satisfaction)

35. Suggested Institutional Strategy
• Adapt your institutional strategy to Open up Education
• Merge at the strategic level OER and MOOCs initiatives
• Align the culture and competencies among the staff
• OER-ize your course base hand-in-hand
• with a clever selection for MOOC-ification
• Make quality assurance explicitly part of OER and MOOCs as well
• Set a long-range plan for this operation

37. The OpenupEd quality label:
benchmarks for MOOCs
by Keith Williams
Published in INNOQUAL
Volume 2, No 3, 2014 and Special Issue on Quality in Massive Open Online Courses
By Jon Rosewell1 & Darco Jansen2
1The Open University, UK
2European Association of Distance Teaching Universities, The Netherlands

38. Thank you!!!
Darco.Jansen@eadtu.eu
fred.mulder@ou.nl
a.caine@unesco.org