5 Reasons to Organize a MOOC (Title

@miquelduran Universitat de Girona Univ Vigo 24/4/2014#vigomoocs
5 reasons not to organize a
MOOC. And a few to do.
Universidade de Vigo, 24/4/2014
Miquel Duran, Universitat de Girona
miquel.duran@udg.edu
@miquelduran
Presentation available at http://slideshare.net/quelgir

Do you realize that in the last two
years…
• Almost everyone has a smarthone
• Video production and consumption is more
easy than ever and sustainable
• Bandwith is large enough both at home, at the
university and at street level
• These are probably the causes of the MOOC
re-evolution.

Pathways

El País, 20/4/2014
“La FP en España no enseña lo que quiere el
mercado”
El maltés James Calleja dirige desde otoño el Centro
Europeo de Desarrollo de la Formación Profesional.
“… en España tienen el fenómeno de los moocs
(cursillos online gratuitos). Estoy muy
sorprendido de lo populares que son allí. Es muy
interesante.”

Tony Bates’ blog
“Time to retire from online learning?” (TB is 75 yo)
“I can’t express adequately just how pissed off I am
about MOOCs – not the concept, but all the hubris
and nonsense that’s been talked and written about
them”
“I am concerned that the computer scientists seem
to be taking over online education”
http://www.tonybates.ca/2014/04/15/time-to-retire-from-
online-learning/

2014: The Year the Media Stopped
Caring About MOOCs?
• If 2012 was the “Year of the MOOC,” as The New
York Times declared, and 2013 was the year of
the MOOC backlash, what is 2014? The year that
MOOCs ceased to be interesting—at least to
anybody not working on them directly?
• … the company’s MOOCs should be thought of as
“additive to what universities are doing, not
disruptive.
• http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/2014-the-year-the-
media-stopped-caring-about-moocs/51737

This is me and my digital
circumstances
My TweetCV:
Twitter profile at @miquelduran
University professor. Research in
Quantum Chemistry. Digital Science
Communication, Magic and
Science, MOOCs, TEDx events, Open
Knowledge (see also @quelet)

¿Cómo será la universidad del futuro?
Genís Roca. Deusto 2018
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aV5ghNWPUE0

Stephen Downes @ INTED
València, 2014
The MOOC of One: Personal Learning
Technologies
• “A MOOC is a Web, not a Website”
• “What makes the MOOC special is that for
each person taking it, it is essentially the work
of the one. Yourself”
http://creaconlaura.blogspot.com.es/2014/04/t
he-mooc-of-one-personal-learning.html

Pedro Pernias, 14MOOCs14, Barcelona
• “A MOOC is Internet”
• “MOOC: whan Internet meets Education”
• “Producing a MOOC is like creating a start-up
company”
• “MOOCs are experiments”
• http://www.slideshare.net/ppernias/vullferunmooc

Now some commercials
What is a quantum chemist like me doing in a
the flamed MOOC battlefield?

This is me and my MOOCs
• MiriadaX 2013,14: Comunicación Científica 2.0.1:
claves para una sociedad digital; coordinator
• MiriadaX 2013, 14: Historia de la Química, team
member
• MiriadaX 2014: Magia, Ciencia y Secretos
Confesables, coordinator
• OpenMOOC (?) 2014: Química Zero (pre-Univ
level), team member
• EdX Open (?) 2014: Introduction to Advanced Catalysis
and Molecular Modeling (pre-Master level), team
member
Low-Cost, Sustainable, Quasi-DIY MOOCs

MOOCs and Universitat de Girona
• MiriadaX spring 2013 + late spring 2014:
– History of Chemistry
– Science Communication 2.0.1 (2000 in, 400 out)
(funded by GenCat, MOOC call)
• MiriadaX late spring 2014
– Changes in contemporary tourism
• Other key courses
– Gastronomy (By *** El Celler de Can Roca)
– Introduction to programming (GenCat MOOC call)
– Etc.

Science Communication 2.0.1
MiriadaX Spring 2013 (Spanish)
• Almost 25% completion rate
• Awesome experience
• Started from a doctoral-level area-
independent course
• Specific target: graduate students, junior
researchers
• This MOOC was produced almost on the spot

NYT & MOOCs (20/4/13)
2012: The Year of the MOOC

Online learning: Campus 2.0
(Nature 13/3/2013)

Flipping Chemistry Classrooms
C&EN 25/3/2013

Howto, Keysto, Qu
estionsto
Content ahead:
- MOOC course outline
- 23 keys to low-cost, sustainable production
- Moodle-based online courses vs. MOOCs
- 10 questions
Visit our #moocaton14 poster page
http://iscico.wikispaces.com/23clausposter
http://www.slideshare.net/quelgir/20140305-malagaposter13claus

Brainstorm on MOOCs

Course “23 keys to organize a MOOC, to
be successful and to actually enjoy it”
Modules:
1. Let's talk about MOOCs!
2. Let's plan a MOOC!
3. Let's shoot video!
4. Let's link resources with a learning flow!
5. Let's design assessment!
6. Let's foster student collaboration!
7. Let's advertise our MOOC!
8. Let's assess the course!
Visit http://iscico.wikispaces.com/23clausmooc

23 keys to organize a MOOC

23 keys to organize a MOOC (1/3)
1. Find an enticing subject
2. Have an expertise on the contents
3. Think about tentative audience
4. Know regulations applying
5. Set your course within a broader project
6. Choose a suitable platform
7. Assign various Open Educational Resources
to each submodule

8. Reuse own existing resources and those (open!) from
others
9. Shoot short and sustainable videos
10. Take care of good sound and video production
11. Assign each content to actual fulfillment of
competencies
12. Link resources to a clear learning path
13. Maintain tension and interest for the course with
challenges and rewards
14. Evaluate student progress with intention
15. Mix test, p2p and other tests in equilibrium

16. Use proactively social networks
17. Organize hangouts/Q&A sessions, and discussions on the
Net
18. Publish an attractive promotional videoclip
19. Create an interesting presentation video
20. Identify and use the most efficient procedures for
international marketing
21. Place surveys before, during and after the course period
22. Make proposals for future improvement
23. Communicate publicly the innovations brought about by
the course

Video: key element in MOOCs

A case study: Magic & Science MOOC

A case study: Magic & Science MOOC
#magcimooc

A case study: our future Magic & Science MOOC (1/2)
An applied mathematician (Fernando Blasco ) and a quantum
chemist (Miquel Duran) met a few years ago because of magic. Now
they share a passion and an academic interest: use of magic as an
educational tool.
One year ago: why don’t we write abook on Magic & Science?
One year ago + a few weeks? This MOOC stuff seems attractive
A few months ago: Let’s start a MOOC!
October 2013: a 20 km roundtrip walk from Girona to a local
Sanctuary with magnificent vista point over the Pyrénées and the
Costa Brava.
Uphill: what can be teach and leverage? Are there enough interested
people? Which is our target audience? Can we do it?

Lunch: thinking about landscape, Nature, Maths and Science. And
food.
Downhill: Settle with modules. Change perspective: what will
students get from this course?
How are we assess learning?
Are we using many videos, commented ppt’s, existing resources?
Will be give away many secrets? Or will we showing a trick in one
module, luring students to continue, because we will provide the
solution two modules later?
Will secrets be told in the first two modules? (no! – better wait)

Before arrival back to office:
Will be have fun?
Will it cost us too much energy?
Will we be able to reuse the resources created?
Will it provide us with recognition (i.e., research assessment)?
Are there other similar courses?
Will we be able, later on, to adapt the course to other target
audiences, environments or languages?
We thought about it, and decided: “Yes, Let’s do It”
We built immediately a website magcimooc.net and recorded a
promotional short video. And the story still goes on. And created
hashtag #magcimooc

Moodle-based online learning vs. MOOCs

Moodle-based online learning vs. MOOCs (1/2)
• Many students (massive!) vs. limited number of students
• Leading star: video vs. video as an optional element, usually inexistent
• Short video clips vs. long, classroom shots
• Large dropout on first modules vs. small dropout
• Free registration, usually vs. normal costs of registration, most times
• Common use of peer-to-peer (P2P) assessment vs. no use, in general, of
P2P
• My use internet hangouts to interact vs. real meetings to interact
• No specific schedule vs. likely hourly limitations
• Use of Open Educational Resources vs. use of non-OER packages
• Rather unstructured Learning path vs. clear learning path
• Free election of subject vs. subjects limited usuarlly to field of expertise
Visit http://iscico.wikispaces.com/MOOC+Comparison

Moodle-based online learning vs. MOOCs (2/2)
• Optional generic certificate, open badge vs. specific certificate
• Cooperative learning vs. top-down learning
• Innovative subjects vs. well-established or closed subjects
• Dynamic courses vs. rather static courses
• Professor finishes production before delivery – becomes dynamizer vs.
professor as a permanent guide along the course
• Assessment is prepared before course delivery, automatic vs. professor
evaluates every student on an individual basis, through interaction
• Specific IT platform vs. standard platform
• Integration into a large marketing structure vs. usually lack of strategic
marketing
• Community beyond course end vs. usual lack of community buildup
• Registration during all teaching period vs. registration only before course
start
• Assessments usually with no definite date vs. clear date for evaluations

10 questions 10

10 questions 10 (1/2)
1. Are MOOCs the idea closest to the methodology
in the Bologna Process?
2. Will MOOCs bring us to Teaching/learning
projects, like in Research?
3. Can each academic Group organize its own
MOOC and thus its own Teaching-Learning Unit?
4. Is the new role of the professor-teacher rather a
facilitator, consultor, dynamizer, coach?
5. Are MOOCs a key element of
internationalization?
Visit http://www.slideshare.net/quelgir/20131129-telspain

10 questions 10 (2/2)
6. Do MOOCs lead a teaching group to entrepreneurship?
7. Are MOOCs a new way to build bridges between
University and its environment/society?
8. Do MOOCs allow to adapt rapidly to changing needs, and
to respond to singularization opportunities?
9. Rather than "A Professor organizes a MOOC", should not
face-to-face universities exhibit a strategy to use MOOC
as an excuse and example to change teaching - and even
change themselves?
10. Are we talking about virtualization of classroom
teaching, or rather about devirtualization of online
learning?

And now some final clues
• MOOCs will be targeted to everyone, and
perhaps there exist just a few. But its
methodology can be implemented locally and
regionally for just a short number of participants.
• Blended learning: the effect?
• Connection Open Educational Resources and
delivering learning is what matters most, despite
it being named a MOOC or another nonsense
word.
• Higher Education management/administration is
disappearing as an intermediary

All in all: find an enticing subject, be an
expert on that, and find your audience.
And then, enjoy every part of your MOOC.

So here are 5 reasons not to organize a
MOOC!

I don’t have time left
Why don’t you consider a MOOC as an
opportunity for task cleanup and lean time
management?

I don’t have energy enough
opportunity to recharge your personal
batteries?

I don’t have any money
opportunity to get some funding through
calls, international collaboration, transdisciplinar
work?

I don’t have any good idea
opportunity for expanding your research activity
into teaching and leaving your usual expertise
field, while adventuring into new areas?

I don’t have digital skills
opportunity to enter the amazing world of the
Internet, online learning, open
knowledge, social networking, …?

I don’t/I am not …
I’m alone
I’m shy
I don’t know how to start with video
I don’t have technical support
I’m not fluent in English
I hate computers and/or computers hate me
I’m underpaid/nonpermanent/part-time
I’m tired
I’m not young anymore

SO

There are so many reasons to organize a
MOOC that the idea or producing, delivering
and assessing one of this courses is indeed
APPEALING
Producing a MOOC is having the right
attitude, rather than having the suitable
resources.
Your attitude is a choice!

Caution
Continued, strong and
stressful involvement in
MOOCs may cause
adiction.
Do Clicks & bricks
Do MOOCs, books & cooks

Thank you for your attention!
This presentation and others on MOOCs, Science
Communication, Quantum
Chemistry, Recreational Science, Digital
World, Science and Magic, … at
http://slideshare.net/quelgir
Text content licensed CC-BY-SA

5 Reasons to Organize a MOOC (Title

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