Resource optimization to achieve quality and

quantity in the creation of MOOCs: experiences

from the University of SouthamptonKate Dickens, Institute for Learning Innovation & Development (ILIaD), University of Southampton

11/03/16

2013 – Web Science 2014 – Exploring our Oceans; Archaeology of Portus; Developing Your Research Project; Shipwrecks & Submerged Worlds; Digital Marketing; Understanding Language 2015 – Contract Management; Wellington 1815; Agincourt 14152016 – Linked Data & the Semantic Web; Power of Social Media + …

12 courses 27 course runs completed 8 runs scheduled

392,672 joiners 173,291 learners11/03/16

2 years + 3 months …

Why? recruitment onto online MA Understanding Language: Learning

and Teaching144,761 joiners/66,245 learners so far from 3 runs. This course has been jointly developed with the British Council and is aimed at native and non-native speaking English language teachers.

13/01/16

We are using the FutureLearn ‘student recruitment tool’ to encourage learners to sign up to our joint online MA. This has been overwhelmingly successful.

24 – 25/10/15

Why? pre-university & global outreach Developing Your Research Project

This course is aimed at 16-18 year olds undertaking an Extended Project Qualification or International Baccalaureate extended essay. Total 42,120/22,814 over all 4 runs. Successful penetration of new markets in UK & overseas.

Why? revolutionising education

Graeme Earl – Educator on ‘Archaeology of Portus’“Before I talked the talk about ‘flipping’ the classroom and the value to a mass audience. It’s only when you do it you appreciate how extraordinary and how enthusiastic a self-learning community are.”

David Millard – Educator on ‘Web Science’“Has it changed the way I do my day-to-day teaching? What you get from the MOOC is that it opens up the internal conversation from students that you are simply not party to normally. You get to understand the things that they get stuck on, the things that delight them, the things thatconfuse them. So it helps you reflect on your ownpractice.” 13/01/16

Learning designer

Project lead

Assets & copyright

co-ordinator

MOOC educators (Professor

s)

Legal team

Media Production

team

Online facilitators

(PhD students)

Facilitation co-

ordinator

LibraryMarketing

& Communic

a-tions

Southampton’s MOOC Core team

Challenge 1: copyright clearance, permissions & legal agreements• ‘Groundhog day’ ie happens every

MOOC – unexpected rights clearance, permissions or legal agreements.

• Project team need to be pro-active in eliciting information about project partners, logos, assets, filming locations, existing licensing eg CC-BY before project ‘kick-off’ meeting

Challenge 2: sustainability• How do we maintain the quality of our

MOOCs whilst increasing the quantity of course runs?

• Split into shorter courses eg 6 week Web Science now a collection of 2 week courses

• Review content after first run but don’t change for subsequent runs unless out-of-date and update ‘change register’ if we do

• Add content to institutional repository

Challenge 3: supporting the professors & the learners• How do we ensure quality of provision

for learners and support for the professors?

• Centralise facilitator training and co-ordination

• Provide regular email ‘digests’ of learner activity to the course educators (professors) & the rest of the MOOC delivery team

Challenge 4: capacity and capability building• How do we cascade knowledge on

across the university?• Encourage experienced

educators/facilitators to mentor/train other professors/PhD students

• Promote via ILIaD Associates community of practice

Institute for Learning Innovation

and Development

Follow us on twitter @ILIaDsoton

www.iliad.soton.ac.uk

www.facebook.com/iliadsoton

MOOC Gateways: peer review framework (under review 3/16)

MOOC

Lifecycle

Key Aims

Identify the aim of the MOOC and how it delivers against the University’s strategy and / or Faculty plans.

Ensure that the MOOC is set up to succeed; clarify the learning outcomes, secure resources, develop a plan for delivery.

Ensure the project is delivering as set out in the plan.

Ensure that everything is in place for the MOOC to be publicly launched for learners to sign up.

Final check to ensure that everything is in place to go live.

Key Outpu

ts

• Course Proposal Form• Project ‘kick-off’

meeting with core team

• Course Design Document

• Media Production PIDs• Project Plan

• Course Assets• Asset Register• Weekly Reports

• Launch Assets• Marketing Plan

• Full Course• Completed Asset

Register

Key Questions

Does the MOOC have the support of the Dean of Faculty/Head of Professional Service?Has the lead academic been identified?Is there a clear reason for developing the MOOC?Have targets / success measures been identified?Are any legal agreements required? Have likely copyright and permissions needs been identified?

Is the pedagogical approach sound?Are the learning outcomes clear?Have the required media assets been identified, specified and resources allocated?Is there a plan in place for delivery and have the team signed up to it?Does this remain aligned with the University / Faculty plan; is buy-in still maintained?Are there any known issues that require assistance to resolve?

Is the project delivering on time, on budget and to the required quality?Have all assets so far been cleared and recorded on the asset register?Are there any known issues that require assistance to resolve?

Have all launch assets been cleared and recorded on the asset register?Is the marketing plan in place and resourced?Has this met the deadline?Are there any known issues that require assistance to resolve?

Have all assets been cleared and recorded on the asset register?Is the full course uploaded onto the platform?Has this met the deadline?Is there a plan for user testing and quality assurance? Have facilitators been identified and trained?Are there any known issues that require assistance to resolve?

Key Owne

rs PEER

S

MOOC Programme BoardPEERS

PEERS PEERS PEERS MOOC Programme BoardPEERS

Represents a gateway; at each stage, the key owners are required to approve continuation to the next stage, defer the decision and request further information / clarification or halt the work. N

1 2 3 4 5Design & PlanInitiate Develop Launch Go Live

How can we further enhance our peer review framework?• Balance ‘agile’ and ‘traditional’ project

management approaches whilst being conscious that it is less easy for the legal team and the media production team to be ‘agile’ as their time needs to be scheduled well in advance

• Peer co-creation to adapt this process so that itevolves to be more flexible and less linear whilstmeeting stakeholder requirements

• Use a relational database to track the asset management including rights & permissions – would help us to identify issues earlier

https://www.futurelearn.com/partners/university-of-southamptonKate Dickens, MOOC Programme Lead, University of Southamptone: kate.dickens@soton.ac.ukt: +44 (0)23 8059 714911/03/16