Is There a MOOCy Way:A Binge-Learning Teacher's Perspective

Author(s):

Patricia Huion(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2014

Network:

01. Continuing Professional Development: Learning for Individuals, Leaders, and Organisations

Format:

Paper

Session Information

01 SES 04 A, Different Forms of Professional Learning

Paper Session

Time:

2014-09-03

09:00-10:30

Room:

B032 Anfiteatro

Chair:

Patricia Huion

Contribution

MOOCs or massive open online courses are supposed to solve many problems. They alleviate financial pressures of educational organisations reaching many students and drawing in "real students" for the lecture-based courses.They reduce teachers' workload as the knowledge clips, online assignments and peer review take over (part of) their job. Finally, MOOCs improve teaching praxis thanks to the learning analytics of its back office and the possibility to experiment with innovative pedagogies (Sharples et al, 2013). Yet MOOCs have a high dropout rate and not every teacher likes to move from the "sage on the stage" to the "guide on the side". MOOCs are very expensive to create and there is no return of investment model. Still, as the 2013 Online Educa conference stated educators cannot ignore them.

MOOCs are linked to the new pedagogical paradigm of the Flipped Classroom (Bergmann & Sams, 2012). Flipping the class means knowledge clips are studied at home freeing class time for personal feedback and creative communicative tasks. The master flipped classroom allows students to work at their own pace and engage in wherever, whenever, whatever learning. Students unable to attend class can easily catch up in their own time. Khan Academy, TeacherTube or the Flipped Class network share knowledge clips for teachers to use. Yet some teachers are wondering what they have to do in their free class time and question their role as teacher. However many teachers testify they are happy to move towards a student-centred learning environment. They like the discussions with their students and are enthusiastic about the meaningful learning activities.

MOOCs and flipped classes both work with knowledge clips as homework. But they are not synonymous. In fact there are three kinds of MOOCs: cMOOC, xMOOC and flipped MOOC. MOOCs do solve a problem master flip classes were dealing with: if you allow your student to watch a tutorial whenever he feels like it, you have to store these knowledge clips. In a MOOC you create chapters containing several tutorials called episodes. You can also upload the assignments and transfer the discussion to a forum and Facebook group. MOOCs can also add further reading lists and tutorials. Finally they can insert quizzes to obtain feedback about the quality of the knowledge clip and some even include a random peer evaluation where every participant has to grade three other participants. However, MOOCs do not organise physical classrooms. Yet this might be a good idea as some participants have set up reading groups to study a MOOC together.

Flipped classes are still formal teacher-driven classes with exams and diploma's. MOOCs, on the other hand, are informal learning environments without certificates. But they clearly tap into a societal need for education as there are so many people who register. It is this enthusiasm which caught my attention.

As a learner I come from a lecture-based background, preferring theoretical frameworks in books. Nowadays, however, I have adopted digital scholarship, relying on open online resources such as OER; morphed into a connected educator, embraced crowd learning following several online communities, participated in a citizen inquiry organise trying to define happiness, ventured into a European community of practice on storytelling and signed up for a knowledge-based xMOOC on "The Future of Storytelling" designed by Iversity affiliated with the university of applied sciences of Potsdam, Germany. In this presentation I will make sense of this experience reflecting on what I thought, felt and did while participating; how I engaged with the tutorials, quizzes, further readings, extra YouTube films, forum, Facebook, assignments and mail messages; and why I supposed MOOCs could be the way to enthusiastic binge-learning..

Method

This research seeks to define the learning experience of MOOC-participants. It is the first phase of a European design research project on Flipped MOOCs for teachers.. It is part of our university policy to facilitate blended and virtual learning. Furthermore it is connected to two other European projects. Learning to Learn By teaching is a Grundtvig-project (2012-2014) in which we question which effect knowledge clips generate on adult language learners. Tales (Comenius 2013-2015) researches how we can use digital storytelling as a didactic tool. In the Grundtvig-project we have devised a MOOC on a moodle platform but it is still not open.Both projects are examples of interventionist research. In this case we opted for a reflective, narrative approach to make sense of MOOC- learning.We created a Mystory (Denzin,2003). A mystory seeks a "new set of traditions" (Denzin, 53). It presents different perspectives : personal, popular and academic. It starts from an epiphany: in this case the researcher's awareness that she was hooked on the MOOC. It develops as a narrative following Victor Turner's model: conflict, tension,crisis and resolution. The audience is a co-performer. So the story changes every time it is performed. The purpose is to allow the audience and performer to see things differently. Denzin calls this an awakening. To tap into this desired state we will rely on a story format called "The Three Wishes" (Boal, 66). We grant every audience member three wishes. The first wish should improve the student's wellbeing. The second wish should benefit the teacher's community and the third wish can be anything. While listening the audience members raise their hand or shout "that is my wish" when the narrative fulfils one of their desires. At the end participants share their unfulfilled desires thus creating another storylayer. This allows us to understand the potential of MOOCs in the twenty-first century. Finally, we validate our research findings following the principles of autoethnography as put forward by Carolyn Ellis (2003).).In "The Ethnographic I" she charts the differences between impressionist and realist ethnography. in this paper we stick to the first genre with its focus on stories and dialogue which should be "co-constructed, lifelike, mainly concerned with meaning, ( with an) emphasis on expressive communication, multi-voiced, unique, one-of-a kind" (Ellis, 359- 360).

Expected Outcomes

We hope to co-create a story which resonates with the audience's experiences. This story should facilitate a conversation in which other stories on educational innovation are shared. Thus we could co-create a new story-layer which will become the point of departure for the new MOOC-project. This story should meet the following criteria: "Does the study take into account the whole person (including emotions and body), help readers communicate with others, offer a way to improve lives? Is it useful?" (Ellis, 361). Does it "speaks to readers about their experiences or about the lives of others they know or are unfamiliar with?" (Ellis, 361). Finally, the performance becomes reliable through the audience's feedback. In this project this would mean the performance invited people to envision and talk about their own MOOCy Way.

References

Bergmann,J.& Sams,A.(2012). Flip your Classroom. Reach Every Student in Every Class Every Day. USA: ISTE Boal, A.(1995). The Rainbow of Desire. The Boal Method of Theatre and Therapy. London: Routledge Ellis, C.(2003). The Ethnographic I. A Methodological Novel about Autoethnography.USA: AltaMira press Denzin, D.(2003). Performance Ethnography. Critial Pedagogy and the Politics of Culture. California: Sage Publications Donk, C. van der& Lanen.B. van (2009). Praktijkonderzoek in de school. Bussum: Coutinho Gerstein, J. (2012)The Flipped Classroom: The Full Picture Based on an Experiental Model of Learning.Creative Commons Young, J.(2013) Beyond the Mooc Hype: A Guide to Higher Education's High-Tech Disruption. Washington/ The Chronicle of Higher Education. Orey, M.(2011-..) Emerging Perspectives on Learning, Teaching, and Technology.Georgia:Department of Educational Psychology and Instructional Technology. www.oercommons.org/courses/emerging-perspectives-on-learning-teaching-and -technology Sharples,M., McAndrew,P., Wellens,M., Ferguson,R., FitzGerald,E., Hirst,T., and Gaved,M. (2013). Innovating Pedagogy 2013: Open University Innovation Report 2.Milton Keynes: The Open University. Waard, I.I., de.(2013). Mooc Yourself. Set up your own MOOC for Business, Non-Profit, and Informal Communities. Creative Commons.

Author Information

Patricia Huion (presenting / submitting)

Catholic University College Limburg

central

Hasselt

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