Topic outline
HOW TO DESIGN A MOOC?
WORKSHOP OF THE ERASMUS+ PROGRAMME STEM-CPD@EUni
TAKING PLACE ON-LINE FROM THE FACULTY OF CHEMISTRY AND CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF LJUBLJANA, SLOVENIA
Organizing committee: Assist. Prof. Dr. Črtomir Podlipnik and Assist. Prof. Dr. Krištof Kranjc
Goal of the Workshop: participants shall achieve skills and competences to be able to develop and create microMOOCs for CPD activities on their own. They shall be able to recognize the positive impacts of the use of such MOOCs in their institutions and to further spread their application among lecturers at other institutions.
PROGRAMME OF TRAINING WORKSHOP
Pre-training (at home) activity (3-4 h all together):
More details in https://micromoocs.eu/moodle/course/view.php?id=2#section-3
Wednesday, Feb 17th 2021:
18.30 - 19.00 Introduction to the meeting by Krištof Kranjc
chairperson: Krištof Kranjc
19:00 - 20:00 1st Keynote Lecture: Prof. Dr. Paul Taylor, University of Leeds (35 min + 10 min discussion):
Improving Public Understanding of STEM Research through MOOCs
20.00 - 21.00 Get together - Social Evening (Neža Krek)
Thursday, Feb 18th 2021:
chairperson: Črtomir Podlipnik
9.00 - 9.45 2nd Keynote Lecture: Prof. Dr. Marko Radovan, University of Ljubljana (35 min + 10 min discussion): Pedagogical aspects of formative assessment in MOOCs
9.45-10.00 Coffee break (individual)
chairperson and discussion facilitator: Iwona Maciejowska
10.00 - 11.00 Discussion and reflection on pre-activity assignment(s) (reading the paper)
11.00 - 13.00 Time for group work - planning, design etc. (each group separately in its own break-out room)
13.00 - 15.00 Lunch (individual)
chairperson and discussion facilitator: Matti Niemelä
15.00 - 15.45 Group discussion on the work done by each separate group (in previous activity)
15.45 - 16.00 Coffee break (individual)
chairperson: Krištof Kranjc
16.00 - 19.00 1st workshop (Hands-on Session) H5P (Sanja Jedrinović, UL) and possibly Coursera as well (if we will get it...)
19.00 - 19.15 Closing remarks and instructions for the next day (Krištof Kranjc)
Friday, Feb 19th 2021:
chairperson: Črtomir Podlipnik
09.00 - 11.00 Time for group work - planning, design etc. (each group separately) and/or "hands-on" guided activity.
11.00 - 11.15 Coffee break (individual)
chairperson and discussion facilitator: Natasa Brouwer Zupancic
11.15 - 12.00 Group discussion on the work done by each separate group (in previous activity)
chairperson: Črtomir Podlipnik
12.00 - 12.30 Presentation 1 (Iskrić, CTK): Key concepts of Open science in a MOOC
chairperson: Krištof Kranjc
12.30 - 13.00 Presentation 2 (Nadya Stels, iSpring): How to create a course with iSpring Suite Max in 20 mins
13.00 - 15.00 Lunch (individual)
chairperson: Krištof Kranjc
15.00 - 15.45 3rd Keynote Lecture: Prof. Dr. Andy Parsons, University of York (35 min + 10 min discussion): Exploring Everyday Chemistry: MOOCing an Impact
15.40 - 16.00 Coffee break (individual)
chairperson and round table facilitator: Sanjiv Prashar
16.00 - 17.00 Round Table (Brain Storming ....) - each group shall provide at least one topic/question for the round table; including GDPR and relevance of the data management
17.00 - 18.00 Time for group work - planning, design etc. (each group separately), groups can work longer if they want/need to
18.00 - 18.15 Closing remarks and instructions for the next day (Črtomir Podlipnik)
Saturday, Feb 20th 2021:
chairperson: Krištof Kranjc
9.00 - 9.45 4th Keynote Lecture: Prof. Ddr. Barica Marentič Požarnik, University of Ljubljana (35 min + 10 min discussion): Developing teaching competencies of academic staff
9.45 - 10.00 Coffee break (individual)
chairperson: Vincenzo Russo
10.00 - 11.45 Short Presentations - Flash posters (5 min - each), including group reflection
11.45 - 12.45 Coffee break (individual), also possible to (finish) the completion of the post-training questionnaire
12.45 - 13.30 Conclusions by Črtomir Podlipnik (+5 min concert), personal reflection on the post-training questionnaire; final words of participants - take-home messages (things not included in the post-training questionnaire)...
Disclaimer: The European Commission’s support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
Abstracts
Improving Public Understanding of STEM Research through MOOCs
Prof. Paul Taylor, University of LEEDS
‘Discovering Science’ started as a proposal for a module internal to the University of Leeds, for students from any discipline to be exposed to exciting STEM research, and STEM researchers, in an accessible, practical format. We could not schedule synchronous classes including busy research scientists and students from many programs, so a MOOC format was attractive. Furthermore, a MOOC would allow us to present our research beyond the University.
The skill we really wanted to teach was not the details of the research, but the ability to communicate it to others, which became our main learning outcome. We included a science writing unit and assessment points built round learners’ ability to present “news” on a recent development.
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Exploring Everyday Chemistry: MOOCing an Impact
Prof. Andrew Parsons, Department of Chemistry, University of York
Exploring Everyday Chemistry is a Mooc, hosted on the FutureLearn platform, which has been delivered five times between 2017-2020. It has attracted over 20,000 learners from over 140 countries. This 4-week course, designed to show applications of organic chemistry, was targeted at pre-university students and highlighted university teaching and research. A combination of bite-sized videos, text, polls, quizzes, and practical activities was employed in over 80 learning steps – over the five runs, learners completed over 281,500 steps. The talk will discuss how the course was designed and how its impact was measured, including how it affected university applications to study chemistry.
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Bringing your MOOCs to life by engaging audience with interactive learning materials
Sanja Jedrinović, University of Ljubljana
The workshop will focus on the presentation of the H5P tool and the possibilities it offers for educators. We will look at different examples of interactive activities in different subject areas and then challenge ourselves in the creation of various interactive content. After learning about the basic content types, we will focus on the more complex content types that allow us to prepare comprehensive learning scenarios and pathways for our learners. We will pay special attention to the possibilities of monitoring the progress of participants using H5P in combination with different platforms where H5P content can be presented.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Developing teaching competencies of academic staff
Prof. ddr. Barica Marentič Požarnik, University of Ljubljana
In Slovenia we have a comparatively long tradition of initiatives to improve the quality of teaching and learning in higher education, especially by offering appropriate training to tertiary level educators. The lecture focuses on the main forms, aims, content and methods, as well as some of the achievements of teacher training courses in different time periods. The framework conditions for the professionalisation of these activities and the roles individual experts, international cooperation, conferences, research studies, criteria of career development, projects, and publications have played in it are also analysed to find out what has facilitated and what has impeded the development of improving the quality of teaching and learning in higher education. After a critical evaluation of past experiences, some proposals for future initiatives and activities are presented.
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Key concepts of Open science in a MOOC
Mitja V. Iskrić, Central technical library, University of Ljubljana
We will present four concepts of Open science as a research accelerator: Open Access, Open Data, Open licences and Citizen science. There are many benefits of publishing in Open Access. The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) can help you search the scientific articles. Open data is the driving force of Open science and a reason behind the development of European Open Science Cloud EOSC which will also store scientific data under the principles of FAIR data. Open (free) licences help to legally share knowledge online, free of cost or other access barriers. We will also present a new field of collaboration - the Citizen science, which is connecting scientific research in collaboration with academic scientists, the general public and local government.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pedagogical aspects of formative assessment in MOOCs
Prof. Marko Radovan, University of Ljubljana
This talk will focus on the pedagogical features of learning in MOOCs and the importance of formative assesment of participants' progress. The main models of MOOCs (xMOOC and cMOOC) and their theoretical starting points will be briefly presented. We will also address the problems encountered when learning in an isolated virtual environment such as MOOCS and how these can be reduced with appropriate pedagogical support.PRE-TRAINNING ACTIVITIES
(1) Fill-in the pre-training questionnaire (individual activity). Deadline: 8th February 2021
(2) Read and try to comprehend the following paper (individual activity) before the training Workshop:
Students Learning Outcomes in MOOCs(3) For the workshop by Sanja Jedrinović with the title: "Bringing your MOOCs to life by engaging audience with interactive learning materials" see, discuss (inside your group if necessary) and fill-in (individually until the deadline 14th February 2021) the following template. Please send filled template to Krištof email: kristof.kranjc@fkkt.uni-lj.si .
(4) Prepare a plan, select and define an appropriate topic... (group assignment) for a microMOOC - each group shall provide at least one topic. Each group will in the time of the Workshop further evolve their initial idea (with the help of participating lecturers and through the discussion with other groups). Such a result (i.e. a kind of a "proto-microMOOC") shall be after the Workshop in the frame of your group further improved and polished to produce a final version of a functioning microMOOC. This shall be concluded until June 2021 as one of the final goals of our Project.
Postrainning Activity
Post-test for the Training event: How to design a MOOC, Ljubljana (online), February 2021
Planned learning outcomes of the Workshop
After participating at the Workshop the participants should be able to:
1. describe the pedagogical features of the MOOCs and how to avoid common pitfalls
2. describe the principles of open publishing and issues connected to copy right and GDPR
3. use H5P tool to create interactive video material that can be used in a MOOC
4. define an appropriate topic for CPD to develop a microMOOC for it.
5. design a microMOOC for professional development of the university lecturers.
6. design a microMOOC having an engaging and active learning approach.
A TEMPLATE FOR DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF A COURSE IN µMOOC FORMAT
The definition: µMOOC is an online didactic activity in which a topic is usually presented in the most condensed and informative form possible. The duration of the µMOOC, which includes all the activities that the learner must complete in the course, should not exceed two hours. As part of a more comprehensive course, the individual Micromooc can also be a completely stand-alone learning unit. Participants receive a certificate for successfully completing a µMOOC, but can also be rewarded with microcredits, which they then combine. For each µMOOC, the 1–3 learning objectives (ILOs) that describe what students should know or be able to do at the end of the course need to be accurately defined. Participants should in this way be aware of their previous lack of knowledge or competences in the field of the µMOOC.
The structure: A µMOOC should not contain more than 10 activities. Each one must be short: for example, five slides maximum for a PowerPoint presentation; the videos should last between 2–5 minutes. The title of the course should be as short and eye-catching as possible. The same applies to course summaries that should be maximum 10 lines and present the topic of the course, its goals and length. Estimated duration of activity should be provided for each activity.
µMOOC is composed of different activities: Text documents, multimedia documents (videos, photos, PowerPoint documents, Google Docs, H5P) or questions. Each element should also have a specific goal so that the module is not unnecessarily overloaded. It is advisable not to exceed the limit of 10 elements. The elements of micromooc can also be used independently.
The recommended structure for a µMOOC is as follows:
document/video → activity → video → document → activity → activity → video → document → activity → activity → course worksheet.
Important elements of a µMOOC are also cover and teaser video. The cover should be well integrated with the background images (pattern, solid color, etc.). Teaser video should be 1–2 minutes long and provide all the necessary information about the topic, targeted audience, speaker(s) (presenters) and learning objectives. Special care should be devoted to the preparation of these introductory pages. The suggested format could be:
· Title (informative, short and attractive; up to 10 words).
· Abstract/summary (up to 10 lines, could be in a form of bullet points; contains the overview of the topic to be dealt with in the µMOOC).
· Intended learning outcomes (as bullet points).
· Connections (links) with other similar µMOOCs.
· Title photo or graphics (integrated into background) to visually present the contents of the µMOOC.
· Introductory video (could be as a cartoon, or with "actor(s)"; in any case should whet the appetite and catch the attention of potential participants; too long monologues or static shots are to be avoided).
The elements: The elements for µMOOCs can be created using various online (H5P, Google Classrom, etc.) and offline authoring tools (iSpring Suite, Articulate 360, Captivate, etc.) and can sometimes already be a part of the learning management system, as is the case of Moodle and Open EdX.
A few more important aspects of any µMOOC that need to be considered:
· The need to have as many interactive activities as possible could not be overstressed. Most of the tools used for construction of µMOOCs already contain possibilities to incorporate interactions between the participants (for example: an assignment accomplished by one participant is forwarded to another one (anonymously) that has a new task of evaluating his/her peer and thus providing feedback to other participants (and vice versa, of course)).
· Additional interactive approaches could be set up in the way of forums, chats, question-and-answer pages etc. as well as by the interactions (possibly to a lesser degree) with a moderator.
· Setting a dictionary of acronyms, special terms etc.
· Devising criteria (rubrics) to evaluate performance of participants in each activity.
· Issuing certificates at the end of the participation.
· Setting dates of starting a µMOOC as well as considering what time will be allowed for participants to complete the activities (although µMOOC is an asynchronous way of learning, there is still some synchronicity needed).
· As with all intelectual outputs carefully consider who are the authors of the µMOOC and in what order they should be listed.
Constructing a µMOOC is a cyclic process which requires production of an initial test version which is offered (internally) to a limited (selected) set of participants (approximately 10) that already have some experience with making and using µMOOC. They need also to be willing to provide in-detail feedback and opinion on the initial µMOOC thus enabling the authors to improve their product according to the ADDIE model. The second (improved) version could be offered to a bit broader audience, but is typically still limited to the selected participants (maybe from other partner institutions inside our project consortium) providing further feedback and (hopefully) ideas for final polishing of the product. µMOOC thus obtained is ready to be deployed on a broad base via selected (appropriate) MOOC provider, either commercial, academic or self-produced dedicated web page.
Example of a µMOOC template:
µMOOC’s Title: ________________________________________________
Authors: ______________________________________________________
Learning objectives (ILOs):
· __________________________________________________________
· __________________________________________________________
· __________________________________________________________
Keywords:
Summary:
Type of the Activity
Title of Activity
Duration
1. video
2 min
2. H5P presentation
10 min
3. video
3 min
4. quiz
10 min
5. document
15 min
6. audio book
10 min
7. quiz
10 min
8. video
5 min
9. short assay
15 min
10. survey
10 min