[LINK] MOOCs with Books

[Tom Worthington]

On 21/03/13 15:19, stephen at melbpc.org.au wrote:
> ... we have quite a way to go to sort out online learning yet ..
> <http://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/publications/adaptability-to-online-
> learning.html>

It would be worrying if educational institutions used on-line courses as
a way to cut staff, without regard for the effect on quality of education.

> 1. Require the university to supply on-line TA's to help the
> stragglers in on-line courses. ...

Australian Vocational and Higher Education institutions are required to
have sufficient trained staff to be accredited. When I have been on
accreditation panels, we looked at the number and suitability of staff.

> It is a lot more time consuming to respond in writing to students
> than it is to have a ten minute face to face conference. ...

Writing to students is time consuming, but effective. There are ways to 
streamline feedback by being well organized and using on-line tools. 
Common problems students have can be anticipated and this can be 
included in the course, so you do have to correct it later. Many 
university teachers have not been trained in the use of "rubrics" for 
example and how these are now supported by software.

> 2. Require on-line classes to have on-line class meeting with
> real-time video interaction ...

Real time video interaction may make the students and staff feel good, 
but it is not a particularly effective method of teaching. I run a 
completely on-line course with no video or other "real time" interaction 
at all and it works fine: 
http://www.tomw.net.au/technology/it/green_computing_professional/

This takes careful course design and preparation of the students. But 
without the careful organizing, video conferences descend into chaos anyway.

> 3. Allow the faculty to own the copyright to the course-ware they
> develop and share royalties with the university. ...

I have found institutions are flexible with copyright arrangements, but 
don't expect to get rich as a result. The simpler option is to make the 
material open access and earn money from ancillary services, which seems 
to be the business model for MOOCs: give away the course and charge for 
certification.

But the issue I have is the lack of recognition of the months of effort 
needed to prepare a course. I expect one MOOC course would cost about 
$250,000.

> 4. Require universities to have real IT professionals for their
> support ...

Outsourcing the LMS works well. But keep in mind that Australian 
universities are subject to privacy legislation and placing the student 
system off-shore may be illegal.


-- 
Tom Worthington FACS CP, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
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Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Research School of Computer Science,
Australian National University http://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/COMP7310/