MOOCs and the Expansion of Open Knowledge COLLECTION UNIVERSITY EDUCATION EDITORIAL BOARD ICE - OCTAEDRO Director Teresa Pagès Costas (Head of the University. ICE, Faculty of Biology, University of Barcelona) Editor Juan León (Director of Editorial Octaedro) Editorial Board Antoni Sans Martín (director of ICE, Faculty of Education, University of Barcelona), Mercè Gracenea Zugarramundi (ICE secretary, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Barcelona), Pilar Ciruelo Rando (Editorial Octaedro), Salvador Carrasco Calvo (ICE, UB), Josep Carreras Barnés (Faculty of Medicine, UB), Miquel Martínez Martín (Faculty of Education, UB), Atilà Herms Berenguer (Faculty of Physics, UB), Mar Cruz Piñol (Faculty of Philology, UB), Miguel Pereyra García-Castro (School of Education Sciences, University of Granada), Miquel Oliver Trobat (director of ICE, Faculty of Education, University of the Balearic Islands), Carmen Saurina Canals (Faculty of Economics, University of Girona), Pedro Allueva Torres (Faculty of Education, University of Zaragoza) Technical Secretary of the Editorial Board Lourdes Marzo Ruiz (ICE, UB), Ana Suárez Albo (Editorial Octaedro) Rules for submission of original: http://www.ub.edu/ice/llibres/eduuni/Normas_presenta.pdf Reviewers: http://www.ub.edu/ice/llibres/eduuni/Revisores_Octaedro.pdf Esteban Vázquez Cano Eloy López Meneses José Luis Sarasola Sánchez-Serrano MOOCs and the Expansion of Open Knowledge University Education Series Title: MOOCs and the Expansion of Open Knowledge Translation: Christine Sagar This book is part of the results of the research processes from the Higher Institute for Cooperative Research IVITRA (ISIC-IVITRA) under the Generalitat Valenciana Excellence Program for the Constitution and Accreditation of Higher Institutes of Cooperative Research (Ref. ISIC / 2012/022), and Ref projects. Prometeo / 2009/042 and Ref. PrometeoII / 2014/018, within the Generalitat Valenciana Prometeo Program for research groups in excellence I+D, cofinanced by the European Union-FEDER: First edition: May 2015 © Esteban Vázquez Cano, Eloy López Meneses, José Luis Sarasola Sánchez-Serrano © Ediciones OCTAEDRO, S.L. Bailèn, 5 – 08010 Barcelona Tel.: 93 246 40 02 – Fax: 93 231 18 68 www.octaedro.com – [email protected] Universitat de Barcelona Institut de Ciències de l’Educació Campus Mundet – 08035 Barcelona Tel.: 93 403 51 75 – Fax: 93 402 10 61 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright folder. ISBN: 978-84-9921-702-4 Design and production: Editorial Octaedro Contents Declaration of Intent 9 Foreword 11 Introduction 13 Chapter 1. MOOCs: Virtual Environments for the Massive Expansion of Knowledge 17 Chapter 2. The MOOC Educational Model: Teacher and Learner Roles 29 Chapter 3. Creating and Participating in MOOCs 45 Chapter 4. Towards a Sustainable Model of Mass and Open Education 77 To Conclude 101 General Bibliography 107 Annex 111 About the Authors 113 Index 115 7 Declaration of Intent Ever since massive open online courses (MOOCs) started in 2008, we have witnessed six exciting years in the world of education. A new education landscape has come into being and the time has come to take a closer look at its defining features. This book presents some straightforward keys to understanding the MOOC movement. We aim at providing readers with a clear and precise contextual framework for building and spreading open knowledge. We wanted to avoid a glorified picture of MOOCs; as usual when innovations captivate the educational and global academic worlds, initial fever has given way to controversies that we did not want to leave unanswered. Readers will therefore be exposed to the pros and cons of the movement, enabling them to form their own educated opinion about the free and massive principles applying to general and Higher Education. If you google the MOOC acronym, you’ll obtain more than 2 billion search results including articles, blogs, news, forums, databases ... This amount of data is difficult to apprehend. Here, in 25,000 words, we put you on the main tracks to start your MOOC journey. We have tried to clear the way, place sign-posts and direct the MOOC-hiker on a course, free of initial obstacles. Fetch your torch and bag, and when you’ve fin- ished reading, head “To infinity...and beyond!” (Toy Story). THE AUTHORS 9 Foreword ROSABEL ROIG-VILA CHRISTINE SAGAR University of Alicante This book by Profs. Vázquez, López and Sarasola is a landmark in its field. It is a globalizing work on Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) that starts by addressing general issues to delve into the most concrete, inno- vating and current questions arising from a model that has recently burst onto the scene of e-learning. Since the dawn of civilisation, Education, knowledge transmission and teaching have been recognised as essential for society to renew itself and knowledge to advance. Mesopotamian city-states, Ancient Egyptians, Preclassical, Classical and Hellenistic Greeks have left numerous traces of their dedication to transmission and learning. Ancient Egypt had a god for scribes: Thot. Egyptian tombs for scribes allow us to witness the spe- cial care given to the conservation of their working tools as illustrated by the carefully wrapped inkwell (still full of ink) and two feathers found at the site of Oxirrinco. In the Egyptian tradition, these materials helped the scribe continue his noble task in the afterlife. Ever since, working tools dedicated to the tasks of teaching and learn- ing have permeated the walls of history and have reached the present, where the most powerful tool at hand is the Internet. Teaching and learn- ing are carried through this medium, of which MOOCs are an expression. This book by Profs. Vázquez, López and Sarasola is precisely about this new system of knowledge transmission. It is about understanding the nature of this new medium, the strategies and concepts underlying it. Profs. Vázquez, López and Sarasola defend the importance of teaching, methods and technologies that characterise MOOCs, without losing sight of the main priorities which are Education, didactics and what is transmit- ted by didactics. They address not only how we learn over a MOOC but also how we can transmit knowledge over MOOCs ourselves. The book starts by declaring its intents as to the contents to address. The first chapter presents a framework of MOOCs as virtual scenarios for the massive expansion of knowledge via the Web, and then analyzes their genesis, discussing whether MOOCs really do represent disruptive innova- tion to higher education and consequent implications. 11 The second chapter analyses the pedagogical model underlying MOOCs, explaining teacher and learner roles in detail. It provides a typol- ogy of MOOCs and their theoretical groundings allowing us to acquire a much needed birds-eye view from the start. The third chapter thoroughly describes institutions, websites and plat- forms offering their respective MOOCs over the Web and thus provides us with a referential setting. This meticulous analysis, based on fascinating up to date research and market data, is synthesized into an all-rounded description of the MOOC phenomenon and adds value to the content of this book. The Internet Galaxy, as Castells calls it, needs its guidebooks. This work is one of them as we are taken through the MOOC labyrinth along subtle pathways towards clear and bright destinations. To finish, in chapter 4, Profs. Vázquez, López and Sarasola skillfully introduce key issues related to MOOCs that call for in-depth research and debate. The MOOC model is far fom being definitive, and is rather an object of study in constant evolution. This is due perhaps to its novelty or simply because the model is inherently linked to integrating technol- ogy into Education, a general process that is in perpetual motion and progress. While explaining that “All that glitters is not gold’”, the authors lead us towards new questions that define the future of education. They draw our attention to the fundamental issue of authentication, and accredi- tation, and the growing role of “badges”. Well-focused argumentations elicit important points such as “MOOCs: network turbo capitalism or ed- ucational altruism?”, and the “McDonaldisation of Education”, providing us with ideas and paths to build sustainable massive and open learning models. They conclude with a very interesting concept called “sMOOC” or “sustainable MOOCs”. The author’s cautious approach to the question is in itself a source of learning: contributing to the new pilars of Education, the authors Profs. Vázquez, López and Sarasola, far from becoming engrossed, explain the chapters and epigraphs of this book with persistent rigour, modesty and ease characteristic of whoever masters their subject. Facing a new, and unchartered territory, through a reflective and all-rounded approach, grounded in study, they produce a true treatise so that, quoting Ferran Valentí, (the fifteenth century Mallorquin humanist and pupil of Leonardo Bruni)– it may “be of worth and benefit to many”. 12 MOOCs and the Expansion of Open Knowledge Introduction The new learning context in Higher Education is moving towards a model of massive, open and free education using a methodology based on video simu- lation and collaborative student work. VÁZQUEZ CANO, 2013:1 In this 21st century, education is moving towards new models