MOOC Design Guide

Background

The research which is the basis for this guide is an amalgamation of different principles derived from research of many scholars, then supported with scientific findings from experimental studies. This guide gives the framework to aid a MOOC maker, educational designer or academic the steps to make a MOOC that will be engaging for students, which will avoid overloading their
mental capacity while learning, to help facilitate memorizing the material. The principles outlined will also help the material be delivered in a way that will bide the new knowledge to previous knowledge, making it easier to recall.

Once the core principles to ingrain into your educational material is covered; an array of platforms will be covered. Each platform currently available have strengths and weaknesses, the main concern in choosing is whether it is suitable for your target student.
A checklist is provided and explained to progress through to build your design; goals, personas, platform choice, development and utilization of feedback. Once these are outlined and aligned with your curriculum your design in complete, in order to solidify the course to be successful the principles must be applied throughout, this possibly will mean converting demonstrations, expanding class size or getting more staff to handle the feedback.

The Principles

These principles are the embodiment of the format of your learning material. For instance, if the study of a play was part of the curriculum for your course; then instead of showing the script or a video of the play being enacted then the material would have to adapt to optimise its effect.

Principle 1: Authentic Relatable Demonstration

This principle takes something that needs to be learnt and makes it tangible for the student and attaches it to memories and knowledge they already possess. By making these connections in the student’s mind the learning is accelerated as they make connections and verify their own knowledge while learning new knowledge. This aligns with constructivist pedagogy, the idea of
building knowledge upon foundations to form a whole. Taking the example of a play, instead of having a video of the play being enacted, the elements that are important need to be highlighted. Ideas:

  • Have subtitles to the play in plain English to avoid the unusual language being a barrier to understanding
  • Have a relatable situation be shown before a scene, for instance if there was a conflict between a mother and daughter in the play, then have a domestic real life example a similar argument, this will help the student relate to the material and draw parallels
  • If the set-design, lighting or actions are important to note then show that element in isolation and compare with a similar more

Implementations of Principle 1

Now we have seen the principle these are different ways to implement it into your MOOC as a
digital platform

  •  Full demonstration videos, ensuring to make it authentic to real life situations that the students can relate to, or at least understand the basic notion, if that is not possible to ensure similarities to other situations are drawn to increase chances of connecting to previous knowledge
  •  Animated gifs or videos to show relatable examples, step by step through the explanation; assisting any text with further supporting demonstrative media
  •  Webinar components to demonstrate directly
  •  Organise students to perform a task for hands on experience, and upload first hand reports
  •  Setting task to gather examples of a concept and to share them on social media (embed a twitter feed on the MOOC), a forum or gallery image upload.
  •  Using commonly known items or brands when doing examples, and giving supporting imagery to fortify the connections
  •  Gather data on your students through surveys and questionnaires to ensure that examples are relevant and relatable for your student body

Principle 2: Collaborative Integration

This principle doesn’t just mean group work; the focus is more on the proactive interaction of the students with others, this could be with the staff, classmates, other students, friends, family or strangers. This can be also can be a 1-0 relationship, it’s about gathering people’s knowledge, ideas and opinions to fortify the students understanding and to grow the knowledge from beyond its current state. Granted back and forth interaction with multiple people is a great practice to develop soft skills, however this is about the gathering of information from people regularly in the student’s day to day life. In a world of social media and almost continual internet connectivity for some this Integration is achievable for some very easily. Some examples to explain:

  • Business skills can be taught however different approaches and analyses are needed for different situations.
  • Seeking advice from professionals is easier these days, posing ideas through social media with other business enthusiasts can broaden a student’s skillset and bring different context and scenarios to the knowledge gained on a course.
  • Part of business is organisation and social skills, these can be integrated into day to day life, organising social events or scheduling meetings, even using board room tactics to get an upper hand in normal conversations.
  • This is putting these skills into practice, “practice makes perfect” is a common sentiment in many pedagogies.
  • Taking time to integrate learning into your daily life is integration, making it collaborative is sharing this; reading the latest business news and discussing it with family, friends, classmates and strangers is a great simple way to engrain the knowledge learnt.
  • By reading the news the lessons will gain more context, for instance if you learn about corporate take overs and then read about one then you gain more knowledge of the impacts and logistics.

Implementation of Principle 2

  •  Course made Wiki content, asking students to add to the online encyclopaedia with research and information gathered during self-study
  •  Embedding GitHub, or other repositories to work on group projects
  •  Social media groups and pages private for course use to promote continual discussion and involvement in the course material
  •  Embed twitter feeds to promote public discussion of course content
  •  Student blog pages setting assignment topics to fill the pages
  •  Forums for each unit to build each year as questions are tackled and searchable for the next batch of students
  •  Comment sections on course units and sections to allow for discussion or expansion on the
    topic
  •  Set tasks to teach others, and have questionnaires to be filled out as proof of the knowledge being shared
  •  Ask for creative ideas for application of a principle taught and keep it visible for inspiration
    of other course takers

Principle 3: Feedback

One of the most obvious forms of feedback is formative and summative feedback from exams, tests and assignments; these are still important for a course to truly be a course. Without verification of the learning objectives being met then you only supply a VLE or set of learning resources. Feedback as a principle means encouragement to have the student gain feedback throughout the course. Another way to give feedback is by giving messages to tell the student they are on the right track, congratulating them for completing a section or giving them a progress tracking page. Feedback doesn’t always have to come from the course itself evident in these examples:

  • If a student is studying computer programming, then a student going on forums or GitHub to gather feedback and advice on problem solving and creative solutions.
  • Using taught knowledge gained on the course to use at Game-Jams and Hackathons other teaching other team members and learning from others to fill gaps in knowledge and develop coding skills.
  • Having friends and family to beta test assignment programs to weed out bugs and design flaws.

Implementation of Principle 3

Now we have seen the principle these are different ways to implement it into your MOOC as a digital platform

  •  Embedding GitHub, or other repositories for peer review and testing
  •  Chatrooms for academic discussion monitored by academics to give guidance and support of arguments and discussions
  •  Forums to have work posted for peer, alumni and academics feedback
  •  Submission of coursework online, via blogs, vlogs, YouTube, Twitch, etc… and encouraging them to request, receive and utilise public feedback
  •  Peer / familiars / public feedback on projects, drafts and prototypes via surveys, being
    anonymous or open
  •  Submission feedback from course leaders
  •  Students encouraged to actively seek advice on their projects from professionals in the field on the current area of study
  •  Virtual Showcase open for public feedback

MOOC Platforms

The following is not all the options available however it covers benefits and downfalls of different platforms to utilize.

Main MOOC platforms

Coursera

Popular with Colleges/Universities and businesses alike. The platform is supportive, allows charging for the courses, however is restrictive in its medium. However its standard of video, text and comment section it can be used to still provide a solid course. Examination or testing of knowledge would have to be undertaken outside of the platform, however certification of completion can be linked to the students Linkedin account.

Udemy

An excellent free platform, with lots of guidance and framework to get your course up and online fast. The ability to charge for your course is flexible and you can discount your course to do promotional deals. Your course landing page is populated with recommended courses and reviews to promote your course. Skill Level and other meta data makes it easy for people to discover your course. Digital certification, a notice of completion can be awarded and shared on
Linkedin account profiles.

EdX Studio

Excellent resource however your institution needs to be in association with them. EdX is one of the oldest MOOC platforms available and there are extensive tutorial material, support and framework. Their courses have association with some testing institutes so if your course is academic to warrant awarded points, it would be possible for the student to pay extra for certification or pay even more to attend an examination centre and get awarded a more official and reputable certificate.

Alternative MOOC Platforms

Google Course Builder

In it infancy as a platform and suited for Linux operating systems for the course builder. Once installed it is highly modifiable in its format, however requires programming in web languages and python to do so. Once developed it is hosted by google and your course stands alone, which is good for the independence of your product however means it is not on a browse-able portal for a well of students to be tempted to enrol.

Thinkific

Flexible in layout and design it is rather tailorable with the ability to embed elements into the pages and rearrange the layout, in comparison with others with set layout this can give creative freedom to provide a tailored experience for your course that can set it from the others.

YouTube

Becoming a more popular option a full set of course materials with course leader and peer feedback in the comments with certification and examination elsewhere is an option.

Creation

Checklist

Goals

Outline your course objectives:

  • What will the student know by the end of this course?
  • How will the knowledge be tested?
  • What type of certification will be provided?

To expand on these objectives:

  • Who is the course for?
  • What resources for material creation and course support do you have?
  • What’s your budget and deadline?
  • How much will the course and certification cost the student?
  • What subsections of the course will there be?
  • How will this course benefit you and your organisation?

Personas

Create personas for at least your target user and your secondary user.

This will help shape your language, content and expectations for your MOOC.

Your personas should be a profile of typical target user and each should cover:

  • Age
  • Technical Abilities
  • Education/Skill Level
  • Likes
  • Dislikes
  • Personal Goals
  • Motivations

Choose your Platform

A range of platforms have been covered above; and from your Goals and Personas should guide your choice.

Iterative Development

Break your Course Objective into user stories and then into tasks. Ensuring that the principles are taken into account and see if applicable for the design of each section and each UI.

Produce a taster of your course by having people similar to your target audience test the first section of your first unit, get feedback and use it to progress your course design to become something suitable, usable and desirable.

By creating the course in small sections getting it checked and tested at different points you can ensure that on release your course is going to be successful and engaging.

Feedback

Although there is testing through your development, feedback throughout the life of the course needs to be fed back into updates. Ensuring that your course adapts to updates to curriculum, audience expectations, platform features, material referenced and any extra issues for outlying cases are tackled.

Summary

This guide has covered the important key principles to successful educational material and how it applies to the digital content of MOOCs. Outlining some of the different platforms out there and how they might be used to host a course. Then a checklist of questions to ask yourself to build the design of your course keeping the end user in the design feedback process to ensure its an engaging process.

With keeping the application of the principles in mind, choosing the right platform for future students and the organisations restrictions and having firm design foundations the MOOC is ready to begin. Good Luck!

mooc-guide-pdf