E-learn Weblog of Willem van Valkenburg

This month there were quiet some interesting articles that are interesting to read. Here a selection (in random order):

• 5 Things Researchers Have Discovered About MOOCs
  In December 2013 a group of academics gathered during a Texas snowstorm and began the second phase of a discussion about massive open online courses. They were not terribly impressed by the hype the courses had received in the popular media, and they had set out to create a better body of literature about MOOCs—albeit a less sensational one.
  
  
• Monetizing MOOCs – When Is it Right to Switch to Self-Serving Classes?
  this blog post explores why someone might want to pay for a MOOC. What can a student expect of a MOOC and is it really worth the time and/or money?
  
  
• Can MOOCs lure international students to U.S. colleges and universities?
  Some online education advocates argue that MOOCs can lure international students to colleges and universities in the U.S. The University of Pennsylvania has developed a MOOC precisely for this purpose: a course titled “Applying to U.S. Universities.” And the State Department has woven online courses into its international education agenda, with the hope that MOOC-driven outreach programs will entice foreign students to study in the U.S.
  
  
• Online learning at research-intensive universities needs a strategic approach
  Online learning has the potential to change teaching and learning at European universities profoundly. Recent trends have greatly accelerated the development of and investment in online learning, at research-intensive universities in particular.
  
  
• ICDE: Ten useful reports on MOOCs and online education
  This digest of reports and papers published over the past year is provided to support the ongoing debate on MOOCs, Open Educational Resources and online education. A brief summary of the contents, dates of publication and extent are given.
  
  
• The Supply and Demand of MOOCs Infographic
  MOOCs offer a flexible and free way to learn ICT skills, which are in high demand by employers. This infographic shows some of the key findings from a study published by the MOOCs for Web Talent Network.
  
  
• Dissertation Roling Moe: The Evolution & Impact of the Massive Open Online Course
  This dissertation attempts to pinpoint the MOOC as a phenomenon and said phenomenon within how society views/ed education in 2014.
  
  
• Coursera shifts focus from 'impact on learners' to 'reach of universities'
  Levin is signifying a change at Coursera, and he is not just a new CEO to manage the same business.
  
  
• Christensen's Disruptive Innovation after the Lepore Critique
  Must innovation disrupt everything so that society might have new and better things?
  
  
• Corporate learning redefined. Prepare for a revolution
  It’s a new age for learning & development. Online content, MOOCs, collaboration tools, and social media now fuel a training model where employees own their skills and experts share knowledge freely.
  
  
• 8 Things You Should Know About MOOCs
  Before Harvard and MIT released data last month on their first 16 edX MOOCs, we already knew a few things: Millions of people register for massive open online courses, though far fewer receive certificates of completion. Most MOOC participants already have a college degree, even those outside the United States. But there was a lot we didn't know, especially about who took different types of MOOCs and how much of the course content they viewed. This information may be valuable to those looking to design and lead successful MOOCs. Here's what we've learned from this first data release covering more than half a million students.
  
  
• MOOCs Won't Replace Business Schools — They'll Diversify Them
  Over the past few years, business school administrators — like other university officials — have been losing sleep over Massive Open Online Courses (or MOOCs), worrying that these low-cost digital alternatives will cannibalize their business model.
  
  
• 11 Differences between a MOOC and an Online Course
  "A MOOC is a non-defined pedagogical format to organize learning /teaching/training on a specific topic in an informal, online, and collaborative way."

The Open Education Consortium has become a member of edX, providing opportunities for our members to transform their existing OER and OCW into openly licensed MOOCs under the Open Education Consortium’s shingle on edX.

In the newsletter we have added some additional information:

Why Open MOOCs?

• We heard from many members that they would like to try MOOCs, but haven’t had the opportunity, or don’t know where to start.
• This provides us the opportunity to leverage existing OER and bring in the benefits of interaction and data collection offered by the edX platform.
• We can build a diverse array of Open MOOCs that combine open content and open enrollment
• The OEC OpenMOOC Committee recognized the benefit of having the exposure and audience of edX, which uses an open-source platform. 

Key points for participation

• Participating institutions and organizations must be OEC members.
• Any MOOC developed must be developed from existing open content (available under Creative Commons licenses). This is not an opportunity to develop a MOOC from scratch. However, members can add to the open content to make it more MOOC-friendly, such as adding video, assessments, additional resources, etc.
• MOOCs will appear on the edX site under our “shingle” (OECx). They will be listed as being offered by the authoring institution, and all credit for content goes to the authoring institution. 
• All content must be openly licensed and marked with the applicable license. The content must also appear in a repository where it can be accessed – in other words, content will not be downloadable from the edX site, but rather it will be viewed on edX and available as open content from the authoring institutions through links posted on edX.
• There is no cost to members to participate, though members have to devote resources to developing and facilitating the courses. 
•  We are doing a pilot with 6 universities to offer courses this coming fall (Sept – Nov). The pilot courses will be in business or environmental/health disciplines.  The pilot will allow us to develop best practice guides and a better understanding of what it takes to create MOOCs from existing open content. Universities for the pilot phase have already been identified.
• Following the pilot, there will be opportunities for more members to participate with courses in any discipline.

I think this is a great opportunity for all Consortium members.Not a member yet? Join today via our website.
This also strengthen the position of EdX in the truly open education world. I will be the board liason to the OpenMOOC Committee.

This week I was invited to introduce the participants of the 2nd International Conference on E-learning, organised by the Egyptian E-learning University, to the field of Open Education. This is one of the things you sometimes have to do as board member of the Open Education Consortium (it is a tough job ;-) ). It was a delight to visit Cairo, although it was only for 1,5 day.

About 50 people attended the 3-hour workshop. This were people from different universities in Egypt and some companies and NGOs. Most of the people were new to the field of Open Education. Below is the slide deck I used during the workshop:

 In the afternoon I had the opportunity to visit the pyramids of Giza. This is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It was amazing to see such enormous construction of stones. Thanks to EELU for arranging this for me.

Vanwege het opzetten van de Delft Extension School onstaan er ook vacatures in de bestaande organisatie. Er zijn er nu 4 posities beschikbaar:

• Twee Onderwijsadviseurs/docententrainers met specialisatie E-Learning
  Er zijn op dit moment twee vacatures voor onderwijsadviseur/docenttrainer: voor de ene vacature ligt het accent op het ontwikkelen van virtuele leerromgevingen, het begeleiden van docenten in onderwijsprojecten, het geven van didactische trainingen op het gebied van E-learning (Online en Blended Learning) en het didactisch gebruik van digitale tools (ook ten behoeve van Blended Learning). De tweede vacature betreft meer projectcoördinatie (zoals het Grassrootsproject van TU Delft), het adviseren van opleidingen bij onderwijsvernieuwingen en het didactische trainen van docenten op het gebied van E-Learning.
  Meer informatie en solliciteren
  
  
• Twee High Level ICTO Medewerkers
  De functie van High level ICTO medewerker biedt ambitieuze professionals die werkzaam willen zijn op het randgebied tussen onderwijsondersteuning en ICT alle mogelijkheden om zichzelf net zo hard te ontwikkelen als het vakgebied waarin hij of zij actief is. ICTO, DLO, Onderwijstechnologie: als hier je kracht ligt, dan is dit je kans! Je geeft invulling aan de Functioneel Beheerfunctie rond de applicaties Blackboard (Digitale leeromgeving), Maple TA (Digitaal toetsen), Scorion (Peer review) en een aantal kleinere applicaties die in gebruik zijn. Hierbij werk je samen met je directe collega’s binnen Onderwijs & Studentenzaken, maar ook met collega’s die werkzaam zijn bij ICT. Je onderhoudt nauwe contacten met onderwijskundigen, docenten en studenten over het gebruik en de functionaliteit van Blackboard en de andere ICTO applicaties binnen het onderwijs. Jouw taak is om de algemene wensen van bijvoorbeeld de Blackboard-gebruikers te vertalen naar eisen, wensen en randvoorwaarden voor verbeteringen. Je adviseert over wijzigingen in processen en fungeert als vraagbaak voor vraagstukken rond de ICTO applicaties.
  Meer informatie en solliciteren

Absoluut interessante functies op het gebied van ICT en onderwijs.

MOOC Research Initiative (MRI) is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as part of a set of investments intended to explore the potential of MOOCs to extend access to postsecondary credentials through more personalized, more affordable pathways.

28 projects were selected last year and now their reports are available. On the website www.moocresearch.com/reports you find all reports.

Last week I hosted a little conference at Delft University of Technology. For the first time, the EdX Conference was hosted outside the Boston Area. It was hosted in the beautiful building of our library. It was quite some work to organise it, but it was a great success according to all participants.

It is always exciting to see that the plan you set out works out even better then expected. Thanks to my great team of TU Delft Event Solutions (Anneke, Ginny, Natascha and Marie Louise), thanks to all the speakers of the parallel sessions, thanks to George Siemens for delivering a thought-provoking keynote and off course thanks to all the people who participated in the discussions.

Blogs and articles about the conference:

• ScienceGuide interview with Anant Agarwal
• Inside HigherEd blog of Joshua Kim about the conference
• Inside HigherEd blog of Joshua Kim about the keynote of George Siemens
• ScienceGuide article in Dutch

On my Facebook I placed a selection of photos to give an impression.

The last couple of weeks I haven't been blogging and tweeting as much as people are used to see from me. The reason for this, is that I'm extremely busy with setting up the Delft Extension School and also organising the EdX Conference FutureEDU.

For the first time this conference for all EdX Consortium members and partners will be outside of the Boston area and it happens to be at my university. So for me the job to organise together with our office for event solutions.

Next week 200 participants will arrive in Delft to participate in an interesting programme about MOOC, online education, future developments and transformation of campus education.

We have participants from 50 institutions from 17 countries from all around the world (except Latin America). About 50 people are from Europe (excluding TU Delft): Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switserland and the UK.

On Thursday the Dutch Minister of Education, Jet Bussemaker, will open the conference. The closing keynote on Friday will be delivered by George Siemens. In between we have many interesting presentations, panel discussions, round tables and time to talk with collegues from around the world.

I'm really looking forward to meet everyone in Delft. It will be a great conference in a beautiful building.

This infographics shows 7 habits that teachers should have if they use technology for their teaching.

Stanford University published an interesting report (PDF) about their online activities in 2013:

Since the first three Stanford MOOCs were offered in fall 2011, VPOL has awarded 66 faculty seed grants and has helped more than 145 faculty members from all seven schools deliver 246 online courses and blended campus courses hosted on three different platforms. More than 1.9 million people, from almost every country in the world, have registered for one or more free public online courses taught by Stanford faculty. And since the fall of 2012, our global community of learners has interacted with Stanford Online courses for more than 4 million hours.

The strategy of Stanford shows much resemblance with the strategy of the TU Delft Extension School.

There are already multiple classifications of types of MOOCs. The most known are xMOOCs versus cMOOCs. Personally I think that this is too simple. Gráinne Conole from University of Leicester describes MOOCs by using twelve dimensions. In addition, she uses the classification schema to describe five MOOCs. According to Conole this classification can be used for the design and evaluation of MOOCs as well.

 More information on her blog.