The Marvels of Moocs

About five years ago I attended a higher ed workshop where the panelists introduced MOOCs (Massive Online Open Courses) and were discussing their potential impact on higher ed. There was a note of panic in their voices, because, after all, MOOCs are free and the mooc providers were "giving learning away", which might interrupt the revenue stream (read cash cow) in higher ed. The MOOC providers continued to publish, and the learners kept learning. You can read some interesting stats about them in Class Central's 2015 analysis of MOOC trends. 

Who's Taking Them and What are people learning in MOOCs?

Since 2011, over 4200 MOOCs have been created and at least 35 million people have signed up for at least one according to Class Central's 2015 report. Coursera, the leader, has 17 million students on their rolls. That's nothing to sneeze at! Subjects vary, but for the most part there's a MOOC for just about anything you'd want to learn. What's been interesting is that the demographics of MOOC users are roughly about 1/3 high school grads, 1/3 college grads and 1/3 those with graduate degrees. For the most part, MOOCs aren't about the credits, but about the learning. That's key for us.

MOOCs aren't about the credits. They're about the learning.

2015 MOOC course distribution, according to Class Central

What can we learn from MOOCs?

There are some big lessons for us as designers around the popularity of the MOOC.

1. There is a group of people who just like to learn, and work to keep their skills up. People will take a MOOC because they are interested in the subject.  There are MOOCs that offer a paid certificate to prove completion, but the buy-in for colleges and the workplace is mixed as to what that means. It does demonstrate that you have upped your skills, which is an indicator of the type of student or worker you are. It may let you test out of a course level and move to more advanced work when you're paying for college credit, but it may not. You'll need to sell it as such and demonstrate the skill.
   
   For us, perhaps our learning ecosystems need to offer MOOC-like learning to these kinds of learners and give them "credit" for "training". Can we curate a list of MOOCs and include it in our list of available options?
   
   
2. Completion rates are not the measure of a MOOC's value. There's lots of press about the "failure of MOOCs" because their completion rate is relatively low.  In February 2013, The Chronicle of Higher Education suggested that the average MOOC enrolment was 33,000 students, with an average of 7.5% completing the course (Kolowich, 2013) and in 2014, Jordan's research documented the average MOOC course enrolls around 43,000 students, with 6.5%  competing (Jordan, 2014).  
   
   We must remember a few things here. First, people may sign up for a MOOC with good intentions, and life gets in the way. When something is free, there is no skin in the game, and nothing is really lost from dropping out. Students who sign up for a completion certificate, or verified certificate are more likely to complete the course. These tend to be the achievement oriented learners and have a secondary reason for taking the course.  Second, many people sign up for MOOCs and "lurk", watching the videos to gain the information without doing the homework and projects required for completion. They come for the learning. That's their goal, and they meet it. I've done that myself. 
   
   Perhaps we need to rethink how we measure the value of our learning. Check the box completion courses are the bane of my existence. Value is in the eyes of the learner. We force them to value things through documented completion, rather than as available resources to solve problems. Training evaluation (note that the root is VALUE there...) isn't a once size fits all measurement as we tend to make it.
   
   
3. MOOCs make learning accessible. MOOCs recognize their learners are on the go. The majority have mobile apps that sync with their online versions so learners can pick up where they left off jumping from device to device. Students can leverage the power of the few minutes waiting on a line or waiting for the kids to emerge from soccer practice for a learning tidbit. 
   
   
4. MOOCs are a great place for us to sharpen our own skills. I've completed at least 25 MOOCs. I've studied Gamification, Human Computer Interface Design, Design Thinking, Watercolor, and a plethora of other fun topics. I find the insights of different disciplines inform my work as a designer, and the tangents the send me on often inspire new realms. It's the bricolage process of inspiration I wrote about earlier. 
   
   Before you whine at me about not having enough time to take a MOOC, think how you might fit a MOOC into your schedule. I listen to MOOC lectures when I'm driving or riding the bike at the gym. When I've taken them with the intention of completion for a certificate, I've done my homework on a Sunday night. The time commitment isn't as crazy as you might think.
   
   
5. MOOCs offer models we can leverage in our own work. Since many MOOCs are offered through colleges and universities, they have resources to build them well. Observe their design and processes; how they build lectures. Think about what keeps your attention and loses it. There are some great tricks in them that you can showcase with your SMEs as you give them examples of possibilities that their elearning can contain. 
   
   Consider building a MOOC-like format for a course you're building. Who says elearning needs to be a single-event start-to-finish item? Consider multiple pieces in multiple formats completed over time. It's a full course, built in modules. ADP and Tenaris have done so with great success. ADP's course wasn't really a MOOC, because it wasn't open, but the course leveraged the lectures, discussions and interactions over a period of time that MOOCs use. Tenaris leveraged their industry experience and built a MOOC on EdX to strengthen their industry. Employees enroll and complete the course on the EdX platform.
   
   One big takeaway from MOOCs is their grading system. MOOCs embrace success for the learner, and offer multiple opportunities to retake quizzes. This lets the learner profit from their errors. MOOCs often incorporate rubrics and peer reviewed grading processes. I find I learn just as much reviewing someone else's work as I did creating my own homework.  How might we leverage that with the work we do with our own students? It's worth pondering.

Where do I start? Where can I find MOOCs I'd be interested in?

With 4600 identified courses out there, there's bound to be something to pique your interest. You can start by searching google for a topic you're interested in and adding MOOC to your search terms. You can leverage CourseTalk for recommendations or even review this month's listings at Course Central, though I've found their links sometimes send you in circles. You can browse the catalogs of some of the top providers: Coursera, EdX, Canvas.net, or troll through provider lists like this one from Knowledge Lover. Even Khan Academy, which used to be math tutoring, has expanded to include cool things like Pixar in a Box where you can learn animation tricks and some neat museum-based pieces. All for FREE! If you're a student, the Center for Online Learning has a nice catalog of resources and information on MOOCs.

There are also a new breed of low cost MOOC-like courses created and offered by individual "experts" that are worth checking out. The quality varies more here, but for the most part, I've found them to be pretty good. There are subscription based services like Skillshare, and inexpensive pay-per-course based offerings through Udemy and Craftsy. You can go high end and enroll in the offerings of Lynda.com if you have a bit of a budget. I've found their work to be exceptional, and targeted well to our needs as instructional designers.

There's lots to learn out there! What are you waiting for?

References

• Jordan, K. (2014). Initial trends in enrollment and completion in Massive Online Open Courses. ​The International Review of Open and Distance Education. Retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/viewFile/1651/2813 
• Kolowich, S. (2013, March 21). The professors who make the MOOCs. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/TheProfessors-Behind-the-MOOC/137905/#id=overview