What types of MOOCs are there?

When most people think of MOOCs, they envisage an online course with video lectures and quizzes, often with tens of thousands of participants. But this is only one type of MOOC – the xMOOC. Since the advent of MOOCs, the concept has diverged into many different types, each with different approaches to online learning. In this post, we’ll look at a few of the key types of MOOCs that exist, and examine how they differ. We’ll also look at the range of ways that participants can receive recognition or credit for their participation.

xMOOC, cMOOC, SPOC, DOCC – what’s the difference?

Connectivist Moocs – cMOOCs

The earliest MOOCs, as discussed in the previous post, are now know as cMOOC, or “connectivist MOOCs”. These courses focused on social learning online, driven by connectivist learning principles. cMOOCs tend to be smaller and more focused on participant interaction and discussion, and they were designed to foster ‘aggregation, relation, relation, and sharing’ (Kop et al, 2011). One example of a cMOOC is Mobile Social Media Learning Technologies, or MOSOMELT, run through Auckland University of Technology.

xMOOCs

Drawing their name from the MOOC plaform edX, with whom ANU became a partner in 2013, xMOOCs are courses which tend to be more content-focused and larger in scale than cMOOCs. xMOOCs tend to include 50,000 students or more at a time. Because of the scale, they utilise computer-marked assessments like multiple choice quizzes, and most of the content is delivered through video lectures. These types of courses are often framed as being part of the movement for global access to education (Bayne & Ross 2014). One example is Duke University’s popular course Think Again: How to Reason and Argue, which boasted over 200,000+ participations in its first iteration.

Small Private Online Courses – SPOCs

In response to the concerns over the low retention rates of xMOOCs, where only a very small number of the enrolled participants make it through to the end, Harvard University began to offer SPOCs, or Small Private Online Courses. While similar to MOOCs in their aims, SPOCs are capped at a more manageable number of participants, such as 500 or so, and include a more rigorous application process to encourage ongoing participation. The first course of this type was CopyrightX, offered by the Harvard Law School  (Hashmi 2013).

Distributed Open Collaborative Courses – DOCC

DOCCs were also created in response to criticisms of MOOCs as instructor-focused and too large for effective instruction, but with a feminist approach. These courses involve open course material, but are offered for credit at a network of distributed institutions and only involve 15-30 students at each institution (Jaschik 2013). “Feminism and Technology is trying to take a few MOOC elements, but then to change them in ways consistent with feminist pedagogy to create a distributed open collaborative course…” (Jaschik 2013) Rather than focusing on one or two academics leading a course as world experts, DOCCs offer small hubs of course material at different institutions to share knowledge in communities.

As you can see from the above examples, most of the other types of MOOCs were created in response to concerns about the effectiveness of the machine-marked, video-dependent MOOCs. SPOCs, cMOOCs, and DOCCs purposefully take different educational approaches in order to address concerns about delivery, retention, and access. We’ll look at some of these concerns in more detail in tomorrow’s post.

Recognition for MOOCs

In addition to many types of MOOCs, there are a wide range of ways that participants might receive recognition or credit for participating in or completing a MOOC, some of which require a small fee to be paid. Some common forms of recognition include:

Digital Badges

Badges are a form of micro-credential representing a specific achievement. They are usually earned automatically after completing specific criteria, and can be imported and exported into different platforms, such as LinkedIn or an online portfolio. For example, Notre Dame University’s MOOC on Math in Sports offered a series of badges for participating at different levels. Badges are also used as an incentive to get participants more engaged in the MOOC and stay with the course through until the end.

Certificates & Verified Certificates

Nearly all MOOCs provide some sort of certificate of participation or completion, which is automatically generated and sent out to course participants. Open Culture curates a list of MOOCs which offer certificates at various levels, and makes note of whether or not they are free or require a fee. A new initiative from edX and other providers is to require participants to pay a fee of $50 or more and provide evidence of their identity in order to receive a certificate. For example, at edX you need to upload a copy of government-issued ID and your photo.

University Credit for MOOCs

As MOOCs continue to grow and expand, many institutions are trying to find ways to offer university credit or recognition of prior learning (RPL) for completing MOOCs. This is a challenging area, as it raises many questions about what constitutes a university degree, how it can be delivered, and who can take university courses. ANU has recenlty offered a “Micro-Masters” series of MOOCs through edX which allowed students to complete MOOC courses and receive course recognition at the university after meeting specific criteria. It is envisioned it will allow for new and more flexible pathways into higher education.

These trends have led to things like No Pay MBA, a site set up by Laurie Pickard to advocate for how individuals can use MOOCs to get the equivalent of an MBA for a fraction of the cost. Pickard matched course outcomes and requirements against MOOCs offered by top universities to create her own MBA degree for less than $1,000.

Read More

Bali, M. (2014). MOOC pedagogy: Gleaning good practice from existing MOOCs. Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 10 (1), 44.

Bayne, S. & Ross, J. (2014). MOOC Pedagogy. Massive Open Online Courses: The MOOC Revolution. Ed. Paul Kim. London and New York: Routledge.

Hashmi, A. (2013). HarvardX Set to Launch Second SPOC. The Harvard Crimson, 17 Sept 2013. Available: http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2013/9/17/kennedy-school-spoc-edx/

Jaschik, S. (2013). Feminist Anti-MOOC. Inside Higher Ed, 19 August 2013. Available: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/08/19/feminist-professors-create-alternative-moocs

Kop, R., Fournier, H., & John Sui Fai Mak. (2011). A pedagogy of abundance or a pedagogy to support human beings? participant support on massive open online courses. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 12(7)

Ross, J., Sinclair, C., Knox, J., Bayne, S., & Macleod, H. (2014) Teacher experiences and academic identity: The missing components of MOOC pedagogy. Journal of Online Learning and Teaching. 10(1). Merlot.

Discussion

We’d love to hear your thoughts and discuss these issues with you. Feel free to share your perspective in the comments or respond to one of the discussion questions below:

• What effects do you think these MOOC qualifications might have for students, employers, and universities?
• Share your thoughts on the advantages and disadvantages of the different MOOC types listed above. Is there a particular model that might work better for your discipline? Why or why not?
• How do you think self-directed MOOC studies, like No Pay MBA, might compare to a traditional university degree? What pros and cons might there be for students to approach their studies in this way?