Why do I MOOC, the experiences of a MOOC learner #mooclib

The only formal talk this afternoon at the MOOCs and libraries event #mooclib was Sally-Anne Betteridge, University of Birmingham, on Why do I MOOC, the experiences of a MOOC learner.
She is a graduate trainee in professional services, and a recent graduate. She was interested through curiosity, an element of professional development and also initially the idea of continuing "academic" study. She signed up initially for courses on Gamification (which she enjoyed, but she moved house before it finished which was very- time-consuming, so she will finish another time). Then she did the Education and Digital Cultures course (i.e. the one Sian Bayne talked about earlier) which was her favourite course ("I still speak to a few of the people I met through that course"). Ones on Aboriginal Worldviews on Education and The Camera Never Lies have been enjoyable in terms of content, but not so good as regards the way they are delivered. Thyere was one on art education in museums (sorry, didn't get the title) which she was currently following. She has also done World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts Leadership Development Programme - she wasn't sure it was really a MOOC, but she included it as it served the same sort of purpose, involving online learning with people she didn't know. There were also 3 she signed up for but which she never even started, but she stressed this was for personal reasons, not because of the courses.
She noted that her favourite course did have any lectures! She did not like recordings of "proper" lectures (i.e. in a lecture hall "it was like I was watching other people learn"), and preferred the Gamification lectures where it was simply the lecturer talking at his desk.
She preferred "in course" assessments to ones where you had to do something outside the course structure. She did not like "endless multiple choice quizzes". Where the assessments were interesting she did them, even when they were optional.
In terms of interaction, she preferred Twitter to discussion boards (which seemed to link back to poor experiences of discussion boards in formal learning). It was good when interaction through social media was encouraged. She hadn't been to a face to face MOOC meetup, but hadn't been to one yet - but mostly because there hadn't been one in her home city.
Sally-Anne talked about course resources. They usually seemed to be open access (since she could access them), with a lot of BBC and Guardian articles, and some other news sources. Some resources were only available in one particular country (e.g. only in Canada). As a result of these problems, she didn't tend to go and read additional resources. For quizzes, she might skim (rather than try to understand) resources, which is why she preferred other types of assessment (i.e. the quizzes didn't help her learn anything).
Finally, she enjoyed the experience, but she didn't feel it served any real academic purpose, so she wouldn't see it substituting for formal education and she wouldn't be interested in certification or paying for a MOOC. However, she mentioned that the EDC course at Edinburgh had led to her considering their distance Masters course, and left her with a good opinion about Edinburgh University. She also mentioned another MOOCer saying that she used MOOCs to judge the quality of universities that she might want to study at.
The rest of the day is a workshop, so I will not be liveblogging those, as I need to be a live participant instead! I will probably blog about it afterwards, though. Inj fact I have some further thoughts on Sally-Anne's presentation too, but I had better stop, since I'm currently not concentrating properly to the briefing for the workshop exercise....

Challenges for Libraries, a US Case Study #mooclib

Challenges for Libraries, a US Case Study from Jennifer Dorner, University of California, Berkeley is the final talk at the MOOCs and libraries event #mooclib this morning. The university is part of EdX. My liveblogging fingers are getting a bit numb, so apologies to the speaker and you for inadequacies in capturing this talk. Also I abandoned attempts to get a decent picture of the speaker: here's a flower arrangement at the Pullman hotel (conference venue).

The speaker talked about summer courses offered at Berkeley, mostly taken by existing students and new blended on campus/ off campus courses. There were also undergraduate students (possibly on extension courses) who were not graduating within four years because of issues of accessing core classes. So MOOCs are seen against this kind of background.
She said that so far the MOOCs had been from electrical engineering and computing, though others have plans. Librarians were already providing support to summer classes etc. because those students were already enrolled, and had not been involved with extension classes where students were not formally enrolled. There was a lack of consultation with librarians initially, but the librarians have themselves drawn up guidelines. There are still issues to be worked out concerning support of the diverse range of learners. Dorner noted the range of roles adopted by other libraries e.g. some involved actively in design of materials. However, this can depend on where the library sits organisationally (e.g. if they are in the same division as learning teachnology, or educational developers it is likely the library may adopt a wider role).
Dorner talked about the group that librarians from different universities have formed, and some of their work. I think she said that one team was looking at information literacy, but she talked a bit more about advice/experience that they have shared on how to share content on MOOCs (advice/experience which they could bring to MOOC designers/teachers in their own institutions).
Dorner looked at existing MOOCs in her university to examine library-related learning objectives, or where there was potential for such objectives. They identified a range of tactics to approach teachers and help learners. Their position is that they would support the teachers, rather than trying (with limited resources) to support learners directly (this was not seen as sustainable). They felt that any faculty-librarian developments were likely to come out of existing relationship, rather than representing new opportunities for collaboration (which I would say seems a bit of a shame - but she talked about new collaboration in terms of cold-calling, whereas I would say new collaborations would come if you show that you already are out there and have experience, which would require taking the risk of developing your own MOOC, perhaps...)
Having said that, the librarians' working group also identified that creating a research skills (infolit) MOOC for universities to share could be valuable. It could concentrate on helping learners navigate the free resources available. The speaker also talked about other things which interested her (if she could find the time) which did involve interacting with learners, encouraging them to crowdsource etc.

An overview of MOOCs and Libraries to date, based on OCLC Research #mooclib

Next up in my liveblogging at the MOOCs and libraries event #mooclib is An overview of MOOCs and Libraries to date, based on OCLC Research: from Merrilee Proffit, Senior Program Office, OCLC Research.
Proffit was reporting on information gathered (via email or phone call) from partners in the OCLC network. They also hosted an event in the USA in March. There is a lot of information, on the OCLC research blog, at http://hangingtogether.org/?cat=58
Those libraries that WERE involved were either entrepreneurial or had strengths/ services that evidently matched with the needs of MOOCs (e.g. dealing with rights issues)
Themes that emerged were as follows. Most emphasis (in existing practice reported) was on this use of resources (e.g. fair use, permissions/licensing, linking, questions on who owns new MOOC content, open access issues). This may involve being hands-on, or taking on an advice role. Although obviously important, Profit identified this as "the intellectual property cul-de-sac", indicating that there can be a less restricted area for library involvement. This isn't to underestimate the intellectual role, as the expert librarian in this field can become "the most important person in the building".
Also librarians thought this was a great opportunity for faculty to rethink teaching on-campus e.g. providing a sandbox for experimentation (for staff and students). It gives librarians an opportunity to rethink how what she called library instruction (ie information literacy) connects and supports this form of learning and teaching. There may be opportunities for new ways of working with teachers and learners. It is more challenging because there is no one way of delivering MOOCS (although I will throw in the observation that this goes for face to face teaching too!)
Proffit mentioned Eleni Zazani's small scale survey of MOOC members about their use of information for the MOOC. You can find this linked from a post I did about MOOCs  at http://information-literacy.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/moocs-librarians-online-event.html
Like Bayne, Proffit mentioned the large amount of social media around the MOOC (learner or teacher initiated) - this is an area where librarians could get involved. In general Proffit recommended signing up to or getting to know the MOOCs being offered, to learn how they work and work out how the library could get involved. You can also develop relevant skills (e.g. in video making) and tap into conversations and learning opportunities (like this conference ;-)
Proffit said that the increasing amount that US students/ their parents are paying for higher education is one of the key concerns (an "ugly" in terms of good/bad/ugly) that is driving interest in things like MOOCs.

MOOCs at Edinburgh #mooclib

MOOCs at Edinburgh: challenges and successes was the next talk from Sian Bayne, Edinburgh University, at the MOOCs and libraries event #mooclib which I am liveblogging.
She explained that Edinburgh already had a culture of digital education, including off campus Masters programme. Reasons included reputational gain, new partnerships, exploration of a new pedagogical space and - fun (nice to see that mentioned)!
They joined up with Cousera and offered 6 MOOCs over a wide range of subjects.
There was a big sign up - even "Equine nutrician" had 23,00 sign up. 309,00 signed up over the 6 MOOCs, 123,000 accessed the courses, 36,000 took final assessments. There was variation in course completion(between courses), also variation in pedagogic approach. They did follow up surveys. They found that 28% were from the USA, 25-34 was the dominant age group. 95% had found the course at least "good". The results can be looked at in detail at http://www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk/bitstream/1842/6683/1/Edinburgh%20MOOCs%20Report%202013%20%231.pdf
Then Sian talked about E-learning and digital cultures MOOC in more detail: she was part of the core team. They drew on open access videos and readings, because they didn't want to take a talking-heads approach. She talked about how they emailed people in advance to encourage people to blog, tweet etc. about the MOOC, and during the MOOC they aggregated the blog feeds of learners, so there was a learner blog around the MOOC. They used Google hangouts and Cousera discussion, but Sian emphasised that it was what the learners created in and around teh MOOC was important. As someone who signed up to this MOOC specifically to lurk and learn about running MOOCs (I was definitely a non completer) I would say that this didn't come out of nothing - the course was designed to suport and encourage people to use different in-the-cloud tools and interact.
Sian showed a slideshow video from one learner who identified all the different ways (lots of them!) in which members of one group used their skills and web-based applications to document, create and learn.
Sian identified that whilst some learners were stimulated by this model of learning, others felt overwhelmed by the social media information flood (some people create more of a road map is a future plan) and some asked "where are the professors" - wanting a more evidently teacher-led experience and more visible teacher presence.
Sian showed some of the digital learning objects (videos etc.) that were created as the final assignment (I will add some links later!) The course had good feedback.
Fuinally, the are now doing MOOC evaluation, making recommendations for the future, and they have also joined the Futurelearn consortium.

The Changing Face of MOOCs #mooclib

The Changing Face of MOOCs was the first talk, given by Hugh Davis, Southampton University at the MOOCs and libraries event #mooclib
Davis is covering rather a lot of content rather quickly in this talk, so I won't be able to capture it all! He started out by defining MOOCs (Massively Open Online Courses) and identifying some characteristics, such as the need to deal with the very large volume of assessment e.g. by having peer assessment. He identified some motivations for universities, such as increasing flexibility and accessibility and enhancing the reputation of the university. There can be a hope that you pull people through from informal learning with the university (looking at Youtube videos by university staff, and then the next stage is MOOCs) through to formal learning (taking individual modules and then whole modules).
How can MOOCs make money? Through certifications, sponsorship, authenticated assessments, corporate learning (with companies paying) and selling access to student records. Who does MOOCs? - Davis showed a slide about an Edinburgh University MOOC which showed that 40% already had postgrad qualifications, and 30% had undergraduate - so these were well qualified learners. There are now various consortia offering MOOCs, including Futurelearn (which Sheffield University, my university, has now joined). Davis' university is also a member, and he said that his university is aiming at obviously popular subjects (like business) and unique/strong offerings e.g. Oceanography or Web Science at Southampton.
Davis briefly touched on patterns for socal learning and flagged up MOOCs as being about social learning - though my personal observation was that, overall, his presentation tended towards the corporate approach to MOOCs, rather than the more radical social constructivist roots of MOOCs.
Davis framed MOOCs as potential disruptive technology, with "education having its Napster moment" (e.g. because of there being so much content around, because of opportunities for private sector companies, employers looking to skills rather than qualifications). However, some people are quite robust about the future lives of universities, but may feel that the student experience needs to change more.
Davis outlined a structure for MOOCs at Southampton, with each MOOC or mini-MOOC having so many learning blocks (i.e. a sequence, e.g. video-text-discuss-quiz). Finally, Davis talked about various decisions that had to be made about the amount of time devoted to MOOCs, and this included use of resources (and thus the involvement of libraries). They need to identify high quality existing materials that are either open access or could be licensed by the university for all MOOC participants. Davis also flagged up that further intellectual property issues were being brought into focus (e.g. could an academic use material if he/she moved institutions).
At Southampton they have various teams and groups focused on MOOCS, including a steering group with includes "The Librarian" (I assume his means the library director). The role of the library was identified particularly with resource discovery and rights clearance (so, not explicitly information literacy - my observation, not his). Davis siad a MOOC was likely to be costed at several tens of thousands of pounds each (I won't be more precise as I'm not sure I heard it correctly).
A good question after this talk was about the role of public libraries (which hadn't been mentioned at all).

MOOCs and libraries #mooclib

I am at the at the first EuropeanMOOCs and libraries event #mooclib and it started with an introduction from Belinda Tynan, Pro Vice Chancellor, Learning and Teaching, The Open University. The subtitle of the conference is "the good, the bad and the ugly" (a reference to the Clint Eastwood film) and Belinda asked us to briefly discuss which of these we thought we were. Some of us thought, as regards MOOCs, at the moment we might be more like the extras who got downed by a stray bullet from Clint .... I have been thinking about MOOCs and information literacy for some time, and I have come along to this conference as part of the process of making those IL MOOC plans more concrete. Otherwise, Belinda highlighted the overall context of changes in the higher education landscape and the choices and opportunities for learners. The conference is chaired by Nicky Whitsed, Open University Libraries, by the way. I will be liveblogging the event.
Photo taken in the Pullman Hotel, London, where the conference is.