Part 3: Content is key

This is the art to developing any MOOC - capturing the content and transforming it into an engaging learning experience.   Start with a simple question, "what do you want your students to learn?

Now start to break down the content into bite sized chunks.  I find that 1 week of MOOC learning content can be handled within a couple of hours.  How you record this meeting is up to you.  I always use big paper and pens.  Sometimes I video record, but you always need to ensure you choose a recording solution that makes your academic feel comfortable.

Once the meeting is done process it fast, follow up any resources your academic has recommended and start writing the content in some form of design document.  Remember you are not the expert!  You will have to get used to being an intellectual windsurfer - be able to skim along the surface of a range of subjects at high speed.  If you don't understand some of the content that you've noted, write footnotes for your academic in the design documents so they can "fill in the blanks". Don't feel guilty doing this, you are doing them a big favour by doing the " donkey work".  Producing a Design Document is an art.  But it's vital -  without a Design Document you will not have an agreement as to what the learning content consists of.  I'll address the art of the Design Document in my next post.

Part 3 (continued): Harness technology

Before I tackle Design Documents I have a few more thoughts on using technology to get the best of meetings that are designed to gather learning content with your academic(s).

Bizarrely you start with marker pens and big sheets of paper.  This is good, it’s always reliable, cheap and helps with the creative process.  However, once that initial brainstorming of ideas is underway there are some readily available and really useful technologies that can be harnessed to enhance the design and development process of your MOOC.

1.  Video the design sessions.  This is immensely powerful.  Simply get a smartphone or tablet and record your academic “doing their stuff” explaining things on big sheets of paper.  capture all of the nuances of the conversation.  I've used my smartphone and tablet to make these quick videos and I've published them to my cloud storage to watch later when I’m developing the design document and storyboard.  Of course you need the consent of your academic to do this.  Some will be happy, some will not.  But if you can persuade them that it will be confidential and it will be destroyed after you've finished with it you should be fine.

2.  The big picture.  If you are using big sheets of paper or whiteboards (this is crucial if you choose these!) to record your academics content during a content meeting photograph everything at the end.  Why?  Well, when you get back to your desk you don’t want to be attempting to shuffle A1 sized sheets of paper around.  Photograph them and upload them to some sort of cloud storage.  I prefer Evernote for this because I can add additional notes to each of the photographs and easily keep track of the development of the content across a range of devices.  And, if you need to, it’s easy to share the content.

Part 2: The $64 question

How long will it take?

 If you get the opportunity to even ask this question it's good news, because most academics will automatically think they don't have the time.  So, if you get the opportunity to ask this question you need to be extremely well prepared:

Itemise activities.   What exactly will they have to do and how long will it take?  Depending on the academic there are a limited list of activities:

• A meeting to discuss content and identify what the students will learn. 
• Some time to review draft design documents and storyboards.  
• Time for video shoots and for audio recordings and a bit of time for testing and checking.
• Oh, and don't forget activity planning.

Assuming an instructional designer can draft the content in the form of a design document/ storyboard these activities usually add up to about a working day for a typical week's worth of learning content.

A day per week of MOOC.  Once they realise that a typical 8 week MOOC is going to take about a fortnight (though not a continuous stretch, it will need to fit into diary slots) it becomes a quantifiable and digestible proposition.

Part 1: Engage an academic

Any MOOC needs an academic, or group of academics  who have the drive and passion to promote the passion for their research to a none fee-paying audience.  Of course, some of the leading academics in the MOOC field will be savvy enough to do it themselves.  But most will need to fit in such development within a fiendishly program program of work commitments.  Most academics have to walk a tightrope between their teaching and their research commitments.  In the UK context most academics have a salary that is bound to their research output.  The paradox here is that UK universities are mostly funded by tuition fees.  But academics in  UK, for the most part are paid to research, not teach.  So getting an academic to commit to producing a MOOC needs a special kind of academic or a special kind of persuasion. 

You need to convince them of what's in it for them;

1.  Reputation and Research Profile.  A great way to convince an academic to embark on producing a MOOC is to get them to see it as a method of disseminating their research.  Why not produce a MOOC that is a "taster" for their research focus?

2.  Time Saver.  Creating any kind of on-line courses is an investment.  Yes, the need a lot of planning (you can "wing it" in a live lecture, but not in an asynchronous online course!), yes they need more care and attention than a a face-to-face lecture; but once created they can be used again and again to a potentially vast audience.  If an academic sees the opportunity to use some helping in creating one, he/she would be a fool not to take advantage of such an opportunity.  Right?

Their calendars are packed so plan early and book early.  The first meeting with them is crucial.  You will be faced with scepticism and a fear of “I simply don’t have the time”.

Straight away, help them to visualise and quantify what needs to be done and enlighten them into a process of instructional design that isn’t an amorphous blob of work - rather its a series of well defined and quantifiable steps.

Of course, even if you've done this and even if you work in a university where you can provide some labour and material support many academics won't engage.  Usually for one reason.  And that's the subject of my next post.

How to make a MOOC

MOOCs are set to revolutionise University Education.  A lot has been written about their potential impact.  The futurist viewpoint is that a University education is an expensive (increasingly) commodity.   The value to students as prospective employees continues to grow hand in hand with the demand.  And it's global.  The emerging economies, the MINTs (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey) and the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China) represent an economic powerhouse that is fueling this growth.  Satisfying such a demand cannot be met, it is argued, by campus-based education in the traditional form.  The future the, lies on-line.  A future where students can design their own personalised, modular, degree from providers of their choice.  It's unlikely that the campus will die out altogether. After all, learning is a social experience and no matter how connected we are by Google Hangouts, Skype and virtual classrooms; face-to-face will always, in my view at least, play a key part in learning.  But, having said that, for millions, the internet and MOOCs as a manifestation of on-line learning have the potential to transform the existing university education paradigm.  A shift from the on-site campus based model to one where there is a blend of face-to-face and on-line is underway.

I'm working for a University that is at the forefront of this shift.  A university who's reputation has, traditionally, been based on the quality of its campus experience.  This is the story of the making of a MOOC.

Most MOOCs have, thus far been created by technologically-savvy academic enthusisats. However, these are in limted supply.  This story will focus on how to engage the portion of the academic community who would love to produce on-line courses (MOOCs) but don't feel quite ready to take the plunge themselves.

Follow my story...

MOOCs and the future of Academia

A fascinating insight into how university education may have to change in the face of the MOOC movement.