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Why MOOC OERs are “ultimate necessities” in higher education


Researcher discusses 3 strategies to open up MOOC content.

OER-open-MOOCAre MOOCs truly the open education innovation they were designed to be?

That’s the question one researcher says those in academia should be asking. Though MOOCs are based on ubiquity (suggesting an evolution of the Open Learning Movement), in contrast with open educational resources (OER), MOOC content is often paywalled and copyrighted.

“Philosophically, the main problem with MOOCs is the inaccessibility and inadaptability of their resources, challenging democratic open access to knowledge,” explains Javiera Atenas, learning technologist at University College London (UCL). “MOOC openness is often related with openness to enrollment, and does not point to openness of the contents and the resources…A number of authors and organizations consider it an ultimate necessity to open up MOOC resources.”

According to Atenas, there are three “main problems” with MOOCs available today, ranging from retention to funding, and allowing content for OER could help alleviate these problems.

(Next page: 3 problems and 3 solutions)

Understanding many of the current problems with MOOCs means first understanding the conditions associated with four of the largest MOOC platforms commonly used by colleges and universities.

Coursera, currently used by over 80 universities, prohibits its participants from reproducing, duplicating, copying, selling, reselling, or explaining the content of the site, which includes code, images, text, design styles, illustrations, audio and video, HTML, and any other content, thus allowing only the downloading of the content for personal use without commercial exploitation, notes Atenas.

Udacity (6 universities), and EdX (29) have similar conditions, while Future Learn (27) implements similar conditions, yet “paradoxically declares that openness of teaching material to be used and reused is a moral good and supports its staff and partners to contribute to repositories of OER,” says Atenas.

These conditions are “the key problem of MOOCs,” she emphasizes. “Some of the higher education institutions that develop and offer MOOCs consider that selling the course content might help them to recover the investment on course production cost,” but perhaps they should consider alternatives or urge platforms to reconsider their conditions.

Consideration of alternatives, like OER, to using platforms that lock down content could help alleviate three main problems of MOOCs, she says; specifically:

Problem #1: Lack of pedagogy leads to low retention: According to Atenas, MOOcs lack valid instructional design because promoters are more focused on hiring programmers to develop the platform than experts in tech-enhanced teaching and learning. This can be linked to high dropout rate, as participants are affected by a lack of elements that “facilitate and motivate their learning, as this seems to be fragmented, diffuse, and diverse due to missing official certification.”

Solution: By opening up content as OER or OpenCourseWare (OCW), other educators may be able to tweak content for better online learning design.

Problem #2: Not reaching intended audience: One of the main criticisms of today’s MOOCs is that in trying to open access to education worldwide, MOOCs instead reach participants who already have a degree and are digitally literate. Atenas explains that this lack of reach is mainly due to language barriers and lockdown of content. For example, Future Learn says that the official language of the courses is English; therefore discussions must be carried out in English only. Coursera is the only provider that offers courses in multiple languages. “Course organizers should design content that can be used transversally and adapted to the different participants’ profiles, aiming to provide, regardless of their skills, a positive learning experience.”

Solution: Other educators or institutions may be able to work with MOOC content for translation and customization for specific user-profiles and demographics.

Problem #3: Lack of funding leading to contracts with locked-down content: Many universities are looking for a way to recoup costs associated with MOOCs, turning to platform providers with strict copyright conditions. These contracts can then lead to the problems listed above.

Solution: Urging both platform providers and a commitment from governments as funding agencies to provide either relaxed copyright conditions or more funding [respectively], in order to allow for teaching to “truly democratize access to information, education, and knowledge,” says Atenas. “Commercial and non-commercial organizations must converge in providing a high quality and sustainable offer that promotes authentic learning experiences…”

(Next page: The three paths to MOOC OER)

According to Atenas, there are three ways MOOC content can fit within a Creative Commons license:

1. Opening the contents as OER: Each individual object can be added to OER repositories, so the materials in the courses (photographs, videos, exercises and assessments) can be deposited in these repositories under Creative Commons licenses. In this case, notes Atenas, the intellectual property attribution must be syndicated both for the individual authors of the resources and the university where the MOOC originated, allowing the reuse of resources individually by not only those who have participated in the course, but also by academics who are interested in the subject.

2. Opening the contents as packages or unites of data: This means that content (text, images, videos, exercises, and assessments) for each week or unit can become downloadable—and, therefore, translatable and profile customizable by those who need it—as data packages and stored in OER repositories under Creative Commons licenses. Those interested in accessing the materials can download the resources contextualized as packages of learning units with a structure, a schedule, and a final evaluation. Each packet should be attributed to the authors of the unit and/or individual materials and to the university that hosted the course.

3. Transforming the MOOCs into OpenCourseWare courses: Once the course are finished, MOOCs can be converted into OCW courses as unguided open courses within the Creative Commons licenses, allowing anyone to access them, and download materials and evaluation exercises. These courses do not require registration to access them, and materials can be reused by the users. “One advantage of this model is that data use and content downloads can be analyzed and there is no need to transfer the resources into OER repositories, so the efforts by the team of authors would be minimal and they would only need to remove the personal data of the registered participants from the course,” says Atenas.

“…access to the resources [provided in MOOCs] should be considered a right for all citizens who are interested in increasing their knowledge and improving their skills,” Atenas concludes. “To promote democratic access to these courses and to their resources, universities must use platforms that allow free access to, and use of, contents and avoid offering these courses on closed commercial platforms that impose restrictive clauses regarding the use of resources…”

For more information on Atenas’ research, read “Model for democratization of the contents hosted in MOOCs” here.

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