Making moocs on a budget/1st Meeting

== 1st physical LoCoMoTion meeting March 2, 2015 ==

9 a.m. to 4 p.m. TU Delft

Attending: Brian, Janine, Sílvia, Miquel, Grainne, Matthias, Jörn

Minutes:Jörn I did some re-ordering to defragment the discussion in case a topic cropped up several times. - J.

Decisions/Actions

Measure of success? Brian: number of secondary MOOCs Janine: number of registrants, number of "finishers" Brian: Measure like the "big" MOOCs are being measured. Can we achieve 80% of the satisfaction with 20% of the effort? Satisfaction with primary MOOCs. Quality of primary MOOC, secondary MOOCs. Grainne did quantitative and qualitative evaluation of two FutureLearn MOOCs Miquel: How different are we from other MOOCs that address MOOC production? Brian: We have a specific focus on low cost, even though others may address that issue in part. Brian: Sustainability means earning more or spending less. Janine: Content is available, reuse Sílvia: How to measure the cost of a MOOCs? Brian: Need a survey tool (e.g., to learn about the hours put into production); may get some data out of platforms Janine & Brian: scaling by institutional support, workflow

[later] All: Which number of MOOCs of participants would be disappointing? Twenty. Brian (at the end of the meeting): For the first run, a smaller number may be more appropriate. Time for marketing is short.

No firm agreement on what constitutes success but we were moving towards some quantitative value of 20 - 30 secondary MOOCs, and a significant level of satisfaction among participants (for this we need to use a similar survey tool to existing MOOCs) plus collection and sharing of cost-effective experiences We use a practical, engineering-like, approach: 1. create, 2. evaluate, 3. improve which means we are not aiming for a perfect primary MOOC Website Brian: WordPress is up and running (thanks to Miquel), have the domain name moocs4all.eu and an e-mail address moocs4all.eu@gmail.com Grainne: What about a logo? Something about cascading. Mothership and babies. Janine knows an inexpensive designer

Jörn and Miquel: How do you make money in a sharing economy? Giving stuff (such as logos and music) away for free won't pay for your rent. Janine: add link to musicians' website; promotion for them

Miquel: Should twitter, #moocs4all. Reference to website already included in moocs4all profile on Twitter Miquel [later]: collects Facebook names and Twitter handles etc. of everybody to invite Miquel: create film short "commercial"

Brian: The website is for people who want more information (after learning of the project through other means). Brian: certificate for primary MOOC by straightforward assessment (design etc.); then actually conduct the secondary MOOC to get, say, ten ECTS credits on master's level? Does someone in our group have a master's program toward this could count? Brian & all: in addition, almost by default do a certificate of participation

Brian: Most participants may not be interested in a certificate; they may just want to build a MOOCs. Miquel: Training for staff of our own university. Grainne: Make a connectivist approach central? Being part of a community. CloudWorks.eu for sharing and discussion ideas in education. Brian: Build a community website or link into another community? Need something that last longer than the MOOC. Decision:  We will require a community of practice as a project outcome

Jörn: requirements for imprint (legal variant of "contact" and "about us") for website? Grainne: reference to EU funding; statement that everything is under CC license. Automatic Twitter feed

Miquel: Curate other people's content, e.g., write blog posts about the EMOOCs conference. Grainne: include a growing list of resources on the website Jörn: may get confusing and outdated, can backfire Brian: tension between freshness (cf. blogging) and structure (cf. Wikipedia) Jörn: blog with defined tags/categories Jörn: blogging in different languages? Staff of non-English universities may only access content in their mother tongue.

Content Grainne: rename "instructional design" (week 4) to "learning design"

Brian: Introductory week may not be a good idea; rather do a week 0; people want to start.

Brian: Switch pedagogy in front of technology because pedagogy defines technology. Jörn: Most participants will have questions about technology in their heads. Better to address that first even though design should happen the other way around? Matthias: Show simple tools first and say "Go build something". Brian: Show criteria, pros and cons. Participants need to decide by themselves. Janine: Start from: What do you want (learning objectives etc.), what are your restrictions (institutional platform etc.)?

Janine: Technologies for assessment are missing.

Miquel: Depending on the institution, one may not be able to freely choose a platform and hence not appreciate a discussion on which platform to use. Grainne: need to share each other's experience through Google Docs etc.; everybody has something to contribute to each week all: first collect content in Google Docs and then decide on order and number of weeks

Action:  We will describe content in more detail in a shared document and then re-order and divide into weeks - get this process started - Brian - lets work from the course specification  document

Grainne: Take short video clips of people such as George Siemens Brian: weekly webinar with prominent guests better for second delivery; may simply use Skype and ask serious questions

Which topics (and hence parts of the primary MOOC) are to be headed by whom: Introduction: Janine Technology: Jörn Pedagogy: Grainne Institutional services: Brian with collaboration by Janine Accreditation & mobility: Brian, but needs help [Brian: rather than providing an encyclopedia make people aware of the issues and the initiatives such as OERu. Jörn: Here the national differences may be of huge importance; make use of our knowledge of our own national systems. Brian: Bring in the participants' knowledge.] Assignment: Janine [Brian: Requirement to successfully complete the primary MOOC: Design a MOOC. This task needs explanation, rubrics.]

Janine: Everybody give an estimate on how much time they need for their topic.

[later] Brian: Need to advise people on how to design multiple-language MOOCs in a low-cost fashion; need to practice ourselves.

Brian: We should have something on recorded live sessions, for instance through Google Hangout

Pedagogical Approach Brian: rather a cMOOC, but also "deliver" material in xMOOC fashion, have simple quizzes; hope to bring in ideas from participants Brian + Janine: Accompany and learn from the MOOCs built by the participants. Use the knowledge gained for the second run of the primary MOOC. Grainne sends around dimensions for MOOC classification Janine: xMOOC may be much more user-friendly for participants not accustomed to MOOCs Grainne: four layers: videos, quizzes, discussions, social media

Grainne: core (one recipe) plus extended activities; core activities 3 h/wk, extended activities 2 h/wk, active & learner centered, learners discussing and sharing experiences; short orientation videos each week; encourage to participate, twitter (hashtag!), etc. Brian: Is it possible to award credits for the participation so that the xMOOC is the required part and the cMOOC is an optional part?

Jörn: Bertold Brecht has the actor stepping from the stage and address the audience directly, breaking the "fourth wall". Could we comment in a similar fashion on our intention to (not) include a certain element? (not so much in terms of didactics but in particular in terms of cost) Perhaps similar to a footnote in a book so that most participants can ignore this potentially confusing information and, possibly, discussion. Like putting up a sign "Here be dragons". Miquel: create table of what has been done why

DecisionStart date Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Platform Brian: Use a platform that the participants can use as well for their MOOCs. Brian: Platform should allow free reuse. Brian: As our application says we are making the material freely available, we may need to upload them on an accessible site anyway. Miquel: Are comments, video annotations etc. free? Will they remain available after the course is finished?

Miquel + Brian: platform should not have legal restrictions concerning the reuse of comments; however, participants may not be glad about their contributions (and names?) being visible Brian: Support cohort-based learning and self-paced learning? Miquel: can't do peer assessment in self-paced learning; would need different assessment options Janine: open the course for self-paced learning after the cohort has moved through; alternatively, self-paced learners can look up the material provided for download Brian: Let's document those criteria.

[later] Janine: mooc.org may not be available for some time Brian: use canvas.net Jörn: How to get data (quizzes, forum discussions) out of Canvas? Easier to do when hosted on one's own server.

Janine: If TU Delft was a major contributor, the MOOC would be required to be on edX. Anyway, TU Delft could also offer the course on edX. Jörn + Brian: The reach through edX would be terrific. Brian: We may not be ready for that.

Action:  MAke up a decision table/spreadsheet for scoring platforms - Brian

Criteria: Discussion fora, Peer Assessment, Attractiveness, Analytics, Easy to use/build, Avialability to participants to build their own, restrictions, Openness, PErformance, handling cohorts and self-paced, existing user base, mobile

We are leaning towards canvas.net

Action:  If we choose canvas we may need to register our institution and request a course - Brian

Marketing Jörn: better have something of value (on the website?) before spreading the word “Marketing” should also be included in the meta-MOOC General Action: check with your Marketing departments (if existing/willing) for Low-cost Marketing activities, SEO for “How to build a MOOC” Logo Miquel: low-cost MOOC means low-cost logo, low-cost website Brian: "LoCoMoTion" or "MOOCs4all" need not appear in the logo. Miquel: come up with some sentences to inspire designer All: Teach the world Be a rock star professor Deliver your imagination Open up your classroom Release your knowledge Cascading innovation Unleash the teacher in you Let the world see you Expand your (teaching) horizons Push/break your teaching limits Teaching without limits (yours and your students) Breaking the barriers Sustainable teaching University in a box (with transparent walls?) Teaching around the world Limitless education

Jörn: Remember to get all the rights from the designer, in particular for the use by third parties (in any medium, possibly ones not yet invented).

Action:  Ask designer to come up with something based on a series of tag lines suggested during the meeting:  Janine

Conferences Brian: don't go unless we're presenting; need leaflets etc. Miquel: hand leaflets to colleagues who attend other conferences; put a slide in their deck Grainne: OER15, EDEN Jörn: GMW and DeLFI in Germany (the two most relevant scientific conferences in German language, co-located this year), deadline in two weeks

Action:  Continue to submit abstracts to relevant conferences - even local ones - Everyone. Journals Jörn: academic journals may be too slow and difficult; rather user professional magazines (teacher training etc.) Miquel: mass media, press Grainne: only publish in open-access journals Brian: blogging; ask other bloggers to talk about us Brain: paid advertising? All: No. Jörn: Websites such as e-teaching.org Miquel: start a Wikipedia-like project for free collaboration but also start a page on MOOCs4all on Wikipedia Jörn: What is the search behavior of our target audience? Brian: Push the message to key persons. A lot of potential participants may not be actively looking. Miquel: Open Knowledge Foundation; EU people in Brussels; education departments of universities Brian: Could teachers in secondary schools be a target audience? Go through professional associations. Sílvia: Would be great (though difficult) if the MOOC could officially count as professional development. Brian: Everybody look and see what can be done about secondary school teachers in his or her own country. - Action - everyone.

Promotion video Miquel: Record 30-second video. "If I have done it, you can do it."

Action:  Record 30-second introductory video - Brian

Joint MOOCs Brian: feels disinclined to acquiesce to this request; already enough complexity

Secondary MOOCs Janine may convince some people at TU Delft to do low-cost production for edX.

Dissemination Brian: not as pressing

Other business Brian: MetaMOOC = primary MOOC, but these terms are FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY.

Jörn's remark in Google Docs: How to avoid lean production leading to poor quality? Brian: some guidelines (cf. the Pirate Code) on presentations, quizzes; provide links Janine: checklist for quality assurance Brian: demonstrate mistakes in (short) video

Jörn: How to get our hands at the funding? Brian: Unclear what the partners have to return on how the money is being spent. Gets some EU training on March 16.

Jörn: Any relations to other EU MOOC projects? Should we provide anything to them, can we send something through their channels? Grainne is involved with EMMA

all: agree on date for next physical meeting through Doodle

Action:  Setup doodle for next meeting in Bath Spa - target early May - Brian

-END-