MOOCs and the AI-Stanford Like Courses

Research Review & Critique

Doug Sallade
California State University Long Beach, ETEC 551

4-30-14
MOOCs and the AI-Stanford like Courses
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Summary
Introduction
This research paper investigates MOOCs. MOOC is an acronym for Massive
Open Online Course, it is a course that resides online and is available free to anyone
that wants to virtually attend the class.
Research Methodology
The author used 4 different courses; they are: Connectivism and Connective
Knowledge (CCKo8), Personal Learning Environments-Networks and Knowledge
(PLENK2010), MobiMOOC and EduMOOC that are representative of c-MOOCs
(Connectivist MOOC), and AI (Artificial Intelligence) - Stanford courses CS211 and
CS101. The author was fully engaged in the MobiMOOC and EduMOOC, AI-Stanford
CS101 classes and collected both qualitative and quantitative data. For the remaining
courses he used a wealth of published data as source material for the study.
Evolution of Online Education
The study traces the history and evolution of online and distance education; in
addition, he discusses the various different courses and how they have evolved.
Included are c-MOOCs (CCKo8, PLENK2010, MobiMOOCs and EduMOOC) and AI-
Stanford courses. The author includes a number of startling statistics for various
courses; for instance, the sample size of the EduMOOC course was 2,700 participants.
The PLENK2010 started with 846 participants, but increased to 1,616 by the end of the
course. The AI-Stanford courses started with a total of 160,000 registered students of
which 20,000 completed all the coursework.

MOOCs and the AI-Stanford like Courses
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Two Very Different Online Course Formats
The collaborative and instructional tools used were mailing lists, Wikis, Moodle,
Elluminate, Ustream, Facebook, Twitter, Ning, Second Life, Linkedin, Twine, Flickr, and
social bookmarking.
The participants were from a wide diversity of gender, age and profession. The c-
MOOCs included professionals from education, research, design and development. The
AI courses included many professional computer programmers.
Some other phenomena that were identified was the drop-out rate and lurker. In
the first instance, the drop-out or non-complete rate was very high. For instance, in the
CCKo8 course, 2,300 students registered for this 12 week course (Connectivism and
Connective Knowledge) and only 83 completed the final survey. The EduMOOC 8 week
course (Online Learning for Today and Tomorrow) started with 2,700 students and
ended with 27 students. Lurkers made up another population of participants (if you can
classify them as participating!). Lurkers are a particular population that follow the
course, view and listen to recordings, and browse the course resources; however, they
do not participate in discussions, assignments, or assessments.
Discussion and Conclusions
The author concludes that AI-Stanford courses fall into the cognitive-behaviorist
model (with some social connectivism thrown in), and the c-MOOCs followed the
connectivist model.



MOOCs and the AI-Stanford like Courses
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Critique
Introduction
I think this study, while informative about the history, structure and unique
aspects of MOOCs, is really just a rehash of research that has already been. Its as if
the author is simply confirming what has already been studied. Further, of the
interesting characteristics and phenomena related to MOOCs, this study focuses on
whether the author can confirm that c-MOOCs use a connectivist pedagogy and AI-
Stanford follow a cognitive-behavioral model. Aside from my issues with the focus of the
study, I think the author did a good job of quantitative research in gathering and
collating the information regarding drop-out rates and lurker behavior.
Review of Literature
The researcher did not have a formally titled Literature Review. He does spend a
fair amount of time discussing the evolution of online education. I would consider the
Evolution of Online Education section of the paper to be the Literature Review.
However, the author is from Argentina so perhaps this is the way their research papers
are organized in Argentina.
Hypothesis
This is a comparative study which looks at two different course formats: AI-
Stanford and c-MOOCs. The purpose of the study was to connect the course format
with a learning theory and pedagogical model. I felt the hypothesis was weak and
misdirected. A much more interesting study may have looked at course content as the
driver of pedagogical modeling instead of the MOOC model that was chosen.

MOOCs and the AI-Stanford like Courses
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Sample
As with MOOCs is general, the sample sizes are huge. For example, the AI-
Stanford course in Python Programming and Search Engines had a registered
enrollment of 90,000 students. A previous AI-Stanford course (in fact, the first MOOC
course) had a student population of 160,000 with 20,000 students completing the
course. The sample population covered a wide and random sample of the population.
Participants ranged from junior high school students to seasoned industry professionals.
Gender and age diversity was also obvious in the study population.
Instruments and Procedures
The author did observe and participate in a few of the courses; however, much of
his data is from already published data. As I said, no new knowledge was created here,
just a duplication of previous research.
Conclusion
No new ground was broken with this study, it appears to be simply an affirmation
of previous studies.
The study suggests that the c-MOOC and AI-Stanford formats are completely
different pedagogical models with learners that have completely different educational
goals. I submit that they are completely different kinds of classes and that the
pedagogical model is a function of course content, NOT the kind of MOOC model that
was used. The c-MOOC courses contained abstract, theoretical content, while the AI-
Stanford courses contained logical, structured content. I think it would have been much
more interesting to have the AI-Stanford courses taught as a c-MOOC and the other
classes taught using the AI-Stanford model.
MOOCs and the AI-Stanford like Courses
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I disagree with the authors assertion that the two course formats that were
studied have been applied with great success. Drop-out rates of in the 90 to 95%
and higher range are not what I would consider a success. I think we have a long way
to go with the structure of MOOCs (i.e. content delivery, assessment, etc.) before it will
be a viable form of authenticated content delivery. Also, as a business model, MOOCs
will be very hard to transition from the free for everybody for the good of mankind
philosophy to a model that can produce a profit in the for profit environment or
apportionment for public education. Somehow these various MOOC models will have to
face that economic conundrum.

Article
Rodriguez, C. O. (2012). MOOCs and the AI-Stanford Like Courses: Two Successful
and Distinct Course Formats for Massive Open Online Courses. European Journal of
Open, Distance and E-Learning.