Here come the "Micromasters!"

What is a "MicroMaster's" qualification? It is a new approach to 'credentialling' for the digital age; a "re-imagination of the admissions process" being introduced by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), as that institution launches a new 'blended/online' one-year Masters  in Supply Chain Management (SCM).  

One of the founding institutions (along with Harvard) involved in the EdX Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platform, MIT has taken a bold leap into the for-credit online degree world with this pilot programme.  MIT News announced this week that the program will allow learners worldwide to take "a semester’s worth of courses in its top-ranked [SCM] master’s program, completely online, then complete [the] MIT master’s degree by spending a single semester on campus."  Worthy of note, there will be no admissions requirements, the online coursework will be available for free, and "will be open to anyone".  Students who do exceptionally well in the courses and in a comprehensive examination upon the successful completion of the online courses, and who opt to pay "a modest fee" for verified certificates, will be awarded the new "MicroMaster's" qualification which puts them in line to progress to the full masters.  

“Inverted admission has the potential to disrupt traditional modes of access to higher education,” Professor Sanjay Sarma, MIT’s dean of digital learning and Professor in Mechanical Engineering is quoted as saying, adding “We’re democratizing access to a master’s program for learners worldwide.”

Here at Cave Hill, in a presentation to the Faculty of Social Science's Postgraduate Studies Retreat held earlier this year, I quoted the former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Southern Queensland who suggested that universities in the 21st Century have to be "fast, flexible and fluid" in their efforts to meet the changing needs of learners and be competitive in this digital age.  This move by MIT is a small step with big implications.  MIT Professor and CEO of EdX, Anant Agarwal described the new MicroMaster’s  as "an important modular credential for the digital age, [which] promises to serve as academic currency in a continuous, lifelong-learning world.”  He suggested that "It also affords an evolutionary path for universities in the face of mounting costs, and a way to leverage technology to blend online and on-campus learning pathways.”

You can read the full article from MIT News HERE.

Could a Machine Teach Like You Do?

Dan Butin

Last month I attended the Institutionalising Best Practice in Higher Education Conference at the UWI St. Augustine Campus.  I was part of the organizing committee as the CETLs were co-hosts along with the Quality Assurance Units.  It was a great conference, with some excellent keynote speakers.  One of them was Dan Butin, Associate Professor and Founding Dean of the School of Education at Merrimack College and executive director of the Center for Engaged Democracy, USA. He gave a rousing address on the need to flip the university, and create an impact-centred, engaged institution; an institution that is transformative; that scaffolds deep, authentic learning; that provides students with rich experiences of learning.

Now here I am looking back at a few "draft" post on this blog that never made it to the light of publication, and among them is a link to this tongue-in-cheek article, penned in the early days of the arrival of the MOOCs (massive open online courses), an article in which the same Dan Butin wonders if his student would be better served taught by a machine! Take a read, and ask yourself the same question!!! http://www.nebhe.org/thejournal/i-am-not-a-machine/   .

"Most of what we do is based on a transmission model of education, and most of what we transmit is low-level content knowledge to help students just get the basics. This is why MOOCs have become such a sensation. If all we have experienced is being lectured at, then, sure, Wikipedia, the Khan Academy and MOOCs should replace us. I hope, instead, that MOOCs will prompt us to refashion what we do in the college classroom and how we do it."  

Georgia Tech Launches a "Masters Mooc" in Computer Science!

MOOC MASTERS! 

The higher education world is watching as Georgia Tech launches a "Master MOOC"! ... the Master of Science in Computer Science costing a mere $6600.00, less than one sixth of the cost of their residential programme.  READ HERE about the programme and the kinds of people who have signed up. (Check the comments section too.)  What do you think of that?

Optimal Video Length for Student Engagement

For those persons using or considering using online video lectures in their courses, as occurs for example in "flipped classroom" or other models of blended learning,  you may be interested in this post (https://www.edx.org/blog/optimal-video-length-student/1239)  in which Philip Guo, an assistant professor of Computer Science at the University of Rochester whose main research interests are in human-computer interaction and online education, shares preliminary results about video usage in blended or online courses.  The post is based on findings published in a Wall Street Journal article, An Early Report Card on Massive Open Online Courses, obtained from initial analyses of a few math and science courses on the edX system.  The findings seem to support what is currently recommended as best practice for use of instructional video.

Guo reports that the data suggest "The optimal video length is 6 minutes or shorter -- students watched most of the way through these short videos. In fact, the average engagement time of any video maxes out at 6 minutes, regardless of its length. And engagement times decrease as videos lengthen: For instance, on average students spent around 3 minutes on videos that are longer than 12 minutes, which means that they engaged with less than a quarter of the content. Finally, certificate-earning students engaged more with videos, presumably because they had greater motivation to learn the material."

Guo ends with a "take-home message for instructors" using or thinking about using videos in their classes, as occurs for example in "flipped classroom" approaches or other models of blended learning.  The message is that in order to maximize student engagement, video lectures should be broken up into small, bite-sized pieces.

Are MOOCS a Good Alternative to Text Books? This Prof Thinks So

There has been a lot of hype about massive open online courses (MOOCs) and their future place in higher education.  While some trumpet MOOCS as the great transformer of all that is wrong in higher ed, or the great leveler of the playing field, others point to some of the delivery format's current short-comings, such as the low completion rates, as "proof" of long-term failure, and others still choose to ignore these developments completely, perhaps at their peril.

Then there are those who have chosen to embrace MOOCS on their own terms, to explore the possible nexus between the traditional and new.  Panagiotis Tsigaris, a professor and chair of the Department of Economics at Thompson Rivers University, Canada is one such person.  In this Times Higher Ed article entitled MOOCS are a Good Alternative to Books, http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/comment/opinion/moocs-are-a-good-alternative-to-books/2008345.article, Tsigaris reaches the conclusion that MOOCS can be a positive addition to his courses.

"There is no question in my mind that the printed textbook will die out soon. In Canada, British Columbia is taking the lead as the first province to offer students free access to online textbooks for the 40 most popular post-secondary courses next year. However, I also think it is important to accommodate different student needs – so now I plan to offer “à la carte” course materials. Students will have the choice of buying a textbook – either printed or electronic – or using free online educational resources. My guess is that most students will choose the latter, since, as my experience has shown, they are similar enough to be considered almost perfect substitutes for traditional textbooks."

In response to the article, one reader, commented:

"I think that this is a terrific article that expresses the growing trend of MOOCs and education in general. I am currently a student taking online Master's courses. What has been somewhat unsatisfying to me is the approach taking by many professors. It is the same approach that you would see from classroom lectures. I like the idea of integrating MOOCs and other online resources to change the learning process, similar to what is described in the article. I have found myself searching for my own alternative forms of learning through sites mentioned in the article as well as other ones such as www.CourseWorld.org in order to shift away from strictly reading. I hope that more teachers will take this approach in the future as well."

 What do YOU think?

The MOOCS Are Coming, Are We Ready?

W hen over 160,000 people signed up for a course in artificial intelligence offered by two academics at Stanford, in the Fall of 2011, this sealed the eruption of MOOCS as “the hottest topic of discussion in higher education in the U.S”.  Things in the MOOC realm have been moving “fast and furious” ever since.

I have the wonderful pleasure of being the facilitator for the course Advancing Teaching and Learning with Technology in the Certificate in University Teaching and Learning (CUTL) programme at the UWI Cave Hill Campus.  This course provides for stimulating interactions with faculty as we engage in online discussions of various issues impacting on teaching and learning in higher education today. 

One of the issues discussed with the current cohort is the rapidly developing phenomenon of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) that is sweeping across the Higher Ed landscape, primarily in North America.  Interestingly, no one on the course had heard the term before, but all were immediately intrigued by it.

A MOOC is a type of online course aimed at large-scale participation and open access via the Internet. The term  is only about five years old, and really only came to prominence within the last year, as the involvement of some of the USA’s leading universities, including Harvard, MIT, Stanford and Berkeley, triggered a media frenzy about the potential of MOOCs to revolutionize higher education on a global scale. 

MOOCs  sprung out of the open educational resources  (OER) movement with its lofty goals of  alleviating the digital divide “between the global North and the global South”, and contributing to the development of less advanced economies.  Much of the attention behind MOOCs  currently focuses on making e-learning more scalable and sustainable. While there is no commonly accepted definition of a MOOC, two key features are:

• Open access. MOOC participants do not need to be a registered student in a school to "take" a MOOC, and are not required to pay a fee.
• Scalability. Many traditional courses depend upon a small ratio of students to teacher, but the "massive" in MOOC suggests that the course is designed to support an indefinite number of participants. (Wikipedia)

When over 160,000 people signed up for a course in artificial intelligence offered by two academics at Stanford, in the Fall of 2011, this sealed the eruption of MOOCS as “the hottest topic of discussion in higher education in the U.S”.  Things in the MOOC realm have been moving “fast and furious” ever since - Colleges are entering into deals to offer credits for MOOCs  http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/11/13/moocs-college-credit/1699671/.  The American Council on Education, ‘a non-profit organization that represents most of the nation’s college and university presidents', is working on a process by which MOOCs can be assessed for academic rigour leading to approval for academic credit, although the decision as to whether to accept approved courses for credit transfer will remain up to the individual institutions.  MOOCs are rapidly gaining popularity in rural communities and developing countries where access to traditional schools is limited.

So the big questions emerging are these, "Will MOOCs destroy academia?" http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2012/11/156587-will-moocs-destroy-academia/fulltext; or will history prove them to be the cataclysmic “game-changer” in higher education in the 21^st century; the "big experiment” that if successful, “will give people all around the world access to high-quality, online classes without having to pay a dime”, allowing people to educate themselves based on what they want to learn…. allowing stay-at-home parents to take real classes in their spare time to stay current, business people to improve their resumes, and high school students to "get a head start on college when they’re bored?" http://distancelearn.about.com/od/isitforyou/a/How-Moocs-Are-Changing-The-Way-People-Learn.htm.

More importantly, what threats and opportunties might this avalanche bring for institutions like UWI? 

I welcome your thoughts…