MOOCs for Development - Day 2

The Challenge of MOOCs Panel



Stephen Downes

Please see my presentation and audio here: http://www.downes.ca/presentation/339

N.V. Varghese

- view from developing countries
    - largest expansion of the system in this century
    - did not rely on public resources at all - shows willingness to pay
    - GER (gross educational? resources) disparity worldwide
    - OECD countries universalized higher ed, but developing countries still in an elite system
    - social demand far outstrips brick-and-mortar solutions

- can MOOCs address this?
    - enormous potential
    - Tsinghua (#1 in BRICs) created a consortium of leading universities to teach Mandarin
    - IIT in India relies on MOOCs for skills in IT sector
    - 330 million in India will have Internet in 2015

Constraints
    - technology and infrastructure
    - language constraint - courses are in English
   
Who benefits?
    - mostly the elite - already have degrees (80%)
    - they are proficient in English, they are employed, they're not looking for a degree

So - MOOCs serve privileged students, not a reliable way to increase equivalent access to higher education
    - private institutions and commercial interest in MOOCs
    - are the MOOCs taking all the money?
    - MOOCs give them a way to feel like they are contributing even if they aren't
    - disparities in access are getting narrowed, but disparities in achievement are not
    - argument that MOOCs are widening the disparities
    - propose partnering with existing institutions as an initial step to make them more
        widespread in developing countries


Russell Beale - The MOOCs Challenge - FutureLearn / U of Birmingham
    - inspire learning for life by telling stories, celebrating progress
    - nothing has more potential than MOOCs - range of views from sceptics to advocates
    - challenges:

        - MOOC 1.0 to MOOC 2.0
            - not just putting materials online
            - MOOCs 2.0 - more social, learning for life (SD- note that this was part of original vision)
            - activity feed, social network ethos
            - based on empowering not just learners but also educators

        - pedagogy of the massive
            - basically a social constructivist approach
            - we want educators to engage with learners
            - go beyond what we currently know - invent new pedagogical approaches
            - we don't think completion is a sensible metric
            - peer review, peer assessment, that will work on a massive scale
            - (yet!) - exams, statements of participation

        - mobile first
            - responsive design - apps for specific things, aware of bandwidth       

        - delightful user interface
            - we are competing with people causally watching TV, watching cat videos
            - this might not be the same in the developing world
            - still, UI is important - but this is very hard to do
            - can do without it, but makes it more engaging

        - insightful analytics
            - transactional analytics - who viewed what
            - interactions - how did people work through the people
            - conversational - who did they talk with, what did they say

    - "unlike Stephen, we do have courses and we do have course structure, and students seem to like that"
        - long lectures don't work
        - shorter videos are more engaging
            - eg by identifying when and where and how people view videos
            - eg. we can show people like the ebb and flow of the course
        - various other statistics from FutureLearn
            - eg. 34% are social learners - contributing to discussions
        - we can understand the learning design (eg., paragraph from Halmlet)
            - 23% would write their contribution only after reading the other discussions first
        - in general the feedback is good - 90% would recommend FutureLearn to other people

Comments
- we could have both - we could have he massive courses, plus we could have the community-based courses
    - but what is happening now? there is this fear that the big boys will drive everybody out
- for Russell Beale - are your users also young, male, highly educated
- if your model stopped unless you reached the developing world what would you do
    - you have to have equal inputs to achieve equal outputs
- MOOCs may enlarge the gap within developing countries
    - many people at the bottom do not have the access to connect
    - MOOCs - not just going to be superprofessors - if open for personalized teaching could be good
        - but remember MOOCs 1.0 are just eBooks
        - when MOOCs are combined with local prrofessors the learning can happen locally
- celebrating the movement from knowledge transfer to knowledge exchange
    - what can technology to to support deeper learning and mastery
- issue of language, culture, local anchoring of education
    - education was once nation-building, today it is future-building
    - isn't this calling for a new kind of partnership - between local learning forces & universities
        (SD - Triad Model)
- have MOOCs been crowdsourcing funding?

Discussion
- SD - elites?
    - view of the elite swamps view of the smalls - eg. origin of MOOCs, eg. MOOCs 2.0
    - also - based on bad data - the votes of the people who already use the system
    - question of sustainability - the largest *must* create income which pushes toward a revenue model
- SD - on private participation
    - on one hand, we hear people in developing world talk about how much of their system is based
        on private enterprise
    - on the other hand, they talk about how the educational system favours only the elites

- Russell - interesting that MOOCs being promoted higher education - but concerns that they will
    displace HE are misplaced
        - the people building courses for the millions are not the people we will get the impact from
        - need a complex web of materials
        - disseminate down and outwords

- moocs will make the elites in various countries more alike, but will increase disparity
- agree with
   

Expanding Inclusion
Masennya Dikotla - South Africa
Why current strategies are insufficient
    - they do not meet the needs of marginalized children and youth
        - most programs function outside the mainstream, creating a second rate citizenry
        - most exclusions are based on excuses from elite groups - eg. 'we will not give you this computer system because you don't have electricity, or you don't know what to do with it, or you will just steal them' - and so they just wait
   
What Can be Done?
    - curriculum should meet the needs of a wide range of different learner
        - these need to be legislated
        - teaching and learning should be in first language of the learner
    - schools should accommodate all children, no matter their intellectual, social, linguistic or other conditions

Case Study - Bridges to the Future Initiative

http://www.moltena.co.za/media


Minghua Li - China
    - initiatuve to provide education to migrant workers in the factories sponsored by ministry of education
    - looking at how MOOCs
    - students - working in facories like foxcom (?)

    Networks of learning clusters:
        - problems: physical accessibility problems - transportation, long working days, living conditions,
            internet
        - approach - network of learning centres in close walking distance
            - to establish community college edu
            - local social sypport for learning - social learning incubator

    MOOCs come...
        - classes from all over the world
        - but do they develop the kind of courses specifically targeted to these workers
        - MOOCs can play a part - the open market concept which aims to break the monopoly on education
            - broadcast of learning not enough, we need local support - mentors, facilitators, even teachers
            - eg. 'MOOCs Inside' courses (like 'Intel Inside')   
        - also - these migrant workers also need eductational credentials

    Two-market picture of MOOCs
        - one parket it the degree market
        - a parallel independent course market
            - how do they work together? Core courses for degree + additional courses from independent
        - how do we determine MOOCs meet standards? missing point - an institution to accredit independ courses

    minghuali@gmail.com

    - currently working with a group of US community colleges to form an alliance to develop individual
        courses just to meet the standards for associate degrees

Barbara Moser-Mercer - InZone, Universite de Geneve
    - Higher Education in Emergencies - education as a humanitarian response
    - where we started - education something we impose on them as something we think they need
        - changed to blended course - we go onsite into conflict zones - in our own learning environment
        - we also need knowledge - that's what MOOCs can offer
        - but do MOOCs hold up in the fragile states we work in

    - Education in fragile states
        - contributes to political stability
        - primary & secondary education, virtually no tertiary
        - convention on refugees - Article 22

    - UNHCR - higher commission for refugees
        - has developed a new education strategy - goal of 100% access to higher edcuation
   
    - study of MOOCs
        - principle - you can't just do a project and extract data for your norther project
        - the recipients have to receive a benefit
        - hence, the drop-out rate isn't acceptable
            - the principles of humanitarian law say you have to get them to the finish line

    - challenges
        - tech - negotiated special deal with Coursera to download all the materials to USB keys
            - but they keys would be used as a last resort
            - most access to info from mobile phones
            - forums - basically inaccessible, too chaotic, to much data to download
        - the geography of thought
            - how people think in different cultures
                - not as a barrier, but how to leverage the learning of differnt cultures
        - the students need skills & MOOCs aren't good for that
            - but to learn skills you need knowledge, and MOOCs can help with that


Driss Ouaouicha - Al Akhawayn University, Morocco
    - anglophone university in Morocco (francophone and arabic environment)
    - weakness - mismatch between education and needs of industry
    - advantage - widespread access to mobile (& therefore internet - 52% use of internet)
    - recent conference - recommendations
        - create a National e-learning centre at the university with ministry support
        - train the trainer approach
        - use open educational resources
        - success factors: HR, technology, partnership

    - As Russell said today, the MOOCs in higher ed are an accident
        - we need to address public and secondary - esp. dropouts
        - 'second opportunity' school
        - 28% of the population are illiterate
    - we may be overestimating the power of the MOOC
        - UK person - 'a MOOC is like a book' - it's not going to solve all your problems
    - cooperation is extremely important - gap between north and south


Copyright and IP Panel


Edward Rock -  UPenn Law Professor
    Coursera / university partnership
    - question - why are you doing this - my leagl background not unimportant
        - issues around ownership of IP and copyright
    - partnerships with Coursera...
        - are non-exclusive
        - IP stays with university, content licensed to Coursera
    - necessary to negotiate ownership up front because
        - ownership may have stayed with faculty, or may have been work-for-hirre - it was unclear
        - we set up a structure to govern those questions up front
        - had to be balanced with responsibilities to paying students
        - used 'internal grants' model for most courses - around $50K / course
            - stipend, assistants, copyright, and videotaping
            - think of copyright as a publishing venture not a teaching venture
    - ownership rights, control rights, cash flow rights
        - content belongs to the faculty member, expression belongs to the university
            - faculty member licenses content to university, university licenses the videotapes
                to the faculty member - eg. university has a veto if faculty want to use a different
                platform
            - university has the right to say whether the course is offered / reoffered
            - the university could offeer the course over the objection of the faculty
                - because it needs to be economically sustainable
                - need to be able to capitalize if it makes money
                - by 3rd run, could run by itself - faculty member would get 30% share of revenue
            - university is in the position of publisher, movie studio, etc
    - course doesn't go into development without the agreement
        - but nobody is forced to develop courses through this process


Candace Reimer - Google - Learning & Development Organization
    - cloud-based open source platforms
    - Peter Norvig is on our team - shared inspiring stories
    - offered initial open online course - 157K - we saw lots of dialogue, we had TAs around the world
    - decided based on this to open-source platform - CourseBuilder
        - runs on AppEngine, ongoing deveelopments in internationalization, analytics, assessment   
    - when EdX announced open source engine, Google looked at collaborating
   
    Discussion of what OSS is - Google OSS these are cloud-based, though
        - anyone can be an author
        - they have full control of the course and the materials
        - they also own the relationship with the student, own the data, own the brand
        - allow course design, customized features, reasearch and community

    Options...
        - is the authorship open or closed
        - do you want hosted or unhosted
        etc


Maureen McClure - Uni Pittsburgh
    - who owns development? MOOCs in a wicked world
    - how can we start thinking about these issues in a way that fits development?
        - issues become very complex in a hurry (so we need expensive lawyers)
        - who owns development? the authors? the investors? the affected?
        - authorship can address moral rights (in perpetuity)

    - question: elite education+ cooperative extension = strategy for development?
    - elite education - experts/authors as doctors, solving the 'knowns'
    - cooperative - we're neighbours, articipation and buy-in necessary

    - the Global Generation
        - development is a generational; responsibility to protect the future's sustainability
        - like radio, TV, MOOCs can impact millions
        - don't want to show up with tech and not address core issues

    - elite education is...
        - radically convenient, no loose ends
        - licensing, export controls, etc., all managed for you
        - they tend to track telecom & engineering schools
        - support national certification efforts
        - can negotiate permanent access to OERs

    - cooperative extension models...
        - stay close to local
        - promote OERs
        - non-forma;l and co-created - sidestep copyright issues
        - can generate a national voice (eg FutureLearn - choice of national cultural institutions)

    - Contexts matter...
        - critical thinking for both employbility and governance
        - more focus on international credit for mobility
        - UNESCO can help address international copyrights
        - Explore 'American Corner' or 'British Council' models
        - do not succumb to conference fever
        - is tech culture an invasive species
        - Putnam Bowling Alone
       
    - two generations of MOOCs
        - democratization of content
        - second generation - cMOOCs - democratization of platforms


 Discussion
    - licensing - any time a lot of money is at stake its a huge political issues
    - licensing and silos?
        - Coursera not open source,
            - universities could make content open course but all of us have chosen not to
            - on the other hand - the iTunes threat - hence the need to keep control over the IP
            - sensitivity to platform dependence - esp. eg. Stanford using multi platforms
            - UPenn not keen to have professors teach at other institutions
        - Google - not trying to break down silos
            - no-one has the answers right now - interested in lots of answers right now
            - area where there can be a lot of discussion
            - Q - what about G+ being locked down? No response - "I can't talk about those aspects"
        - issue of the right to earn money vs an obligation to protect the next generations


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