Instructional Strategies of MOOC

that We Can Use

Lim Kin Chew
School of Science and Technology,
SIM University, Singapore
kclim@unisim.edu.sg

Abstract - In 2011, Stanford University

launched the online
course
entitled
Introduction to Artificial Intelligence. It
was facilitated by Sebastian Thrun and
Peter Norvig. Enrollment quickly reached
160,000 students. Since then the term,
MOOC, Massive Open Online Course, has
become widely known internationally.
Together with these online courses, we also
see the establishment of various MOOC
platforms such as Coursera, edX, Udacity
and Udemy. Other innovations, such as
SOOC, MOOL, MOOR and even SPOC
began to appear in researchers vocabulary.
In spite of its popularity, MOOC have
attracted many academicians to debate
their upsides and downsides. Many
academicians have pointed out that the
attrition rates of MOOC are very high. At
the same time, there are academicians who
pointed out the sheer number of people who
have benefitted from participating in
MOOC. For example, there were 155,000
students from 162 countries in the MIT
course on circuits and electronics. 7,200
students passed the course. By itself, 7,200
represented only 4.6% of 155,000. But it
would take a professor to teach the same
course twice a year for 40 years in order to
achieve this number. The purpose of this
paper is to discuss the rationale of MOOC
and then highlight some instructional
strategies of MOOC which we can adopt in
our e-learning implementation. Some of
these include the flipped classroom, virtual
science experiments, access to actual
telescopic installations, peer review and
marking of assignments, governmental
support for critical technologies like Data
Sciences and Analytics and adopting an

appropriate business model for universities

joining the MOOC bandwagon. In addition,
the author will examine some challenging
issues for MOOC. One challenging issue is
on the accreditation and recognition of
MOOC. He will also offer his views on the
future of MOOC and e-learning in general.
Keywords - MOOC, Instructional Strategies,
Interactive Learning, Peer Learning,
Assessment
I. INTRODUCTION
This paper examines
some MOOC
teaching approaches or strategies which can be
used in e-learning implementations in a
training or educational setting. Besides that the
author will examine some challenging issues
facing MOOCs.
Over the past two to three years, massive
open online courses, or MOOCs, have erupted
in the higher education landscape. We began
to read of MOOCs with hundreds of thousands
of online students enrolled. In addition, there
is a wide variety of courses offered by
universities in many different countries
including those from US, UK, China, Japan,
Australia, Malaysia and Singapore. Many of
these courses do not require registration or
course fees to be made. So, what are MOOCs
and how are they able to reach out to appeal to
so many students unlike the traditional online
courses?
II. WHAT IS A MOOC?
A MOOC, or massive open online course,
is an online course that is open, distributed and
supports life-long learning [6, 13, 17, 29].

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Lim Kin Chew

According to ([29], p. 6), MOOCs offer a

middle ground for teaching and learning
between the highly organized and structured
classroom environment and the chaotic open
web of fragmented information. Using webbased tools and environment, it is able to
deliver classes without regard for geographical
boundaries, time zones, and large number of
participants. Thus, a student in a far-flung
location can take a particular lecture in his or
her own time zone or a student may also make
up for missed lectures at his or her
convenience.
The term, MOOC, was coined in 2008 by
Dave Cormier and Bryan Alexander. They
were responding to an online course called
Connectivism and Connective Knowledge
which was led by George Siemens and
Stephen Downes, well-known educational
researchers in the field of online learning
[9, 17, 29]. In addition to providing traditional
course materials such as videos, readings, and
assignments, MOOCs provide interactive user
forums that help build learning communities
for students, professors, and teaching
assistants. MOOCs are popular amongst
students as it offers a freer and unrestricted
way of learning when compared to traditional
face-to-face courses. Learning in MOOCs is
flexible and self-paced, so students can revisit
the learning materials as necessary for them to
understand the concepts. Almost all current
MOOCs generally have the following features
[15]:
Massive - i.e. access to a large group of
students, e.g. from 5,000 - 100,000.
Open Access - i.e. not requiring a test of
prior knowledge before starting the course.
Open - i.e. do not require payment just
for access to content and peers. However,
there may be payments for other things (like
tutor support, assessment, participation in
ancillary events).
Online - i.e. online web delivery. Contents
may be in multiple modes - video, audio, text
and animation.

Course - i.e. having a course of study

with a set of learning outcomes.
Online Course - i.e. incorporating
interactions with students and course
facilitators.
To bolster instructional content, many
lecturers are experimenting with how to
integrate third-party content into their classes
or online courses. Whole disciplines (like
computing) have transitioned to a point where
learning at home coupled with hands-on work
in class is the norm [8]. So presuming that
MOOCs are just one of many content sources
that can be leveraged by professors
experimenting with their teaching strategies,
the professors could serve as a valuable
resource as more and more classes get reengineered towards self-directed learning, a
key component of transformative education in
the 21st century. MOOCs play a significant
role by bringing high quality & interactive
learning content accessible to anyone at
anytime.
III. MOOC PLATFORMS
In order to launch a MOOC, the university
has to have the necessary infrastructure to
support the huge number of students
accessing, using and interacting with other
users on the computer system [33]. This is
where the university has to get its platform
right from the start. Essentially, a MOOC
platform refers to the underlying computer
system on which application programs can run
[25]. These application programs help to
deliver the online courses. Currently, there are
a quite few MOOC platforms that are widely
used to deliver MOOCs. These include
Coursera, edX, Udacity, Udemy, Moodle, or
even Google Course Builder [12]. To illustrate
the differences, a comparison of the three of
the more main platforms (in terms of the range
of courses offered, accreditation and the
technology used) is shown in Table I.

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Instructional Strategies of MOOC that We Can Use

TABLE I
A COMPARISON OF MOOC PLATFORMS [30]

advantages
platforms.

Programs in platforms such as edX (shown

above) use open source software which allows
the source code to be made available to others
for modification and enhancement. 2 Open
source software or open platform refers to the
operating system used in the computer system.
It is usually free of charge and has unlimited
licensing under different usage licensing [22].
The source code is freely available to the
public and users can modify the codes
depending on certain conditions. This gives
software developers the option to look deeper
into the code and alter things as they wish. By
having an open source software program, you
allow developers to alter large amounts of the
code to their own preference.

and

disadvantages

in

either

There are three main kinds of MOOCs,

with each predisposed towards a specific kind
of pedagogical approach: cMOOC, xMOOCs
and quasi-MOOCs [29]. The connectivist
cMOOC is driven by social constructivist
approach to learning. It harnesses the power of
social media and interaction with peers for
social learning. It focuses on knowledge
generation and creation. In contrast, xMOOCs
are primarily driven by a behaviorist principle
of acquiring knowledge through repetition and
testing [24]. It is content focused, and is
geared towards duplication of knowledge.
Quasi-MOOCs offer web-based tutorials such
as those by Khan Academy and MITs
OpenCourseware (OCW). They consist of
open education resources supporting learning
specific tasks that do not offer the social
interaction of cMOOCs or the automated
grading and tutorial-driven format of
xMOOCs [29].
IV. TEACHING APPROACHES
IN MOOC

Undoubtedly, the success of any MOOC

depends very much on the teaching approaches
adopted. MOOCs course design, in general,
should be guided by sound pedagogical
approaches such as interactive learning, selfdirected learning, peer assessment and
constructive feedback. Only then can there be
On the other hand, closed source software improved student learning outcomes [4] and
or closed platform is proprietary, e.g. owned [1].
by some entities like Microsoft or Apple. The
In her blog post entitled A Tale of Two
software is not available for free. The source
MOOCs @ Coursera: Divided by Pedagogy,
codes are not alterable but need to be licensed.
Morrison [19] analyzed and shared the
This means legitimate users need to register
thoughts on the success and failure of the two
the software with the original developing
online courses she attended: Fundamentals of
company. A closed system or platform does
Online Education (FOE) course and the
not allow the developers to change anything
e-Learning and Digital Cultures course. She
that deals with the operating system software.
pointed out learning was disadvantaged in
However, the application developers are given
FOE course as it adopted the instructor-led
some privileges with a set of tools that let
model with the instructor directing the student
them develop the software to support the
learning with little interactive learning. In
delivery of the online courses. There are
cont rast , t he ot her more successful

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20

Lim Kin Chew

e-Learning and Digital Cultures course

Morrison observed adopted the learner-centric
and self- directed learning approach. Students
were more engaged as they were given
choices on participation using social media
and access to open resources on the Web for
content [19].
Morrison was not alone in her observation.
Several professors from various universities
such as MIT and the Australian Catholic
University [1, 18] have also pointed out that
MOOCs should not be conducted in the
traditional didactic manner with the instructor
moving everyone at the same pace regardless
of
their
understanding.
The
online
environment requires more of the active
engagement of learners minds than the
passive absorption of knowledge. One should
not underestimate the power of learner
engagement and peer learning in MOOCs.
In reflecting on his delivery of his MIT
MOOC course on circuits and electronics,
Agarwal [1] shared that he was concerned on
his inability to monitor the forum discussions
and answer the questions from the 150,000
odd students with his one technical assistant.
Fortunately, he found out that whenever
questions were raised by some students, other
students started to provide answers. This was
despite the fact that his students came from
different countries. This illustrated the power
of peer learning in MOOCs.
Online, instructors can utilize automatically
graded assessments in MOOC offer the
opportunity for students to receive instant
feedback which allows them to stay engaged
in their task. Students need to receive clear
goals, receive immediate feedback in real time
about their progress, and affirmation in the
form of rewards linked to mastery of
appropriate skills. With thousands of students
enrolled in some MOOCs, it becomes
impossible for the instructors to review the
answers, essays or other open- ended work as
they do in smaller face-to- face classrooms.
Relying on quizzes and other single right
answer type of assessments inhibits the
potential for MOOC providers if they want to

offer a wider range of courses. In order to

remove this limitation, MOOC providers are
now looking to peer-based assessments, in
which students learn to review the work of
their cohorts [11]. This is an approach which
educators should consider.
Finally, learning through MOOCs can
become even more effective if there is an
authentic face-to-face interaction between
students and teachers; this is possible with a
Flipped Classroom model, where students go
through MOOCs online and teachers clear
their doubts during class hours [8, 11]. In
delivering MOOCs, one needs to take great
care in managing the online learning platform
tools and learners. Concluding his study on
MOOCs, Grainger ([13], p5 and 35) suggested
some practical pointers on MOOC delivery
educators might need to take note of. They
include:
Well-designed
announcement s
(beginning and end of each week) articulating
the topic coverage, learning activities and
assessment methods to maintain student
interest and motivation.
Effective strategy for managing the
forums to control negative behavior of
minority while maintaining the openness of
discussion areas. This is done so as not to let
the majority of students get affected by
negative online behavior of the minority.
Regular communication, but not too
regularly such as once or twice a week as
students appear to respond readily to emails
when compared to static announcements on
the MOOC session site.
Responsiveness to student feedback. If a
single learner raises an issue in the forums, it
is worth noting. If 20 or 30 students raise the
same issue in the forums, it is wise to act
quickly by confirming that the issue has been
noted and action taken where possible.
As discussed, there are indeed a variety of
different approaches and ways which we can

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21

Instructional Strategies of MOOC that We Can Use

enhance the effectiveness of MOOCs. We will

now examine a couple of teaching innovations
in MOOCs, more specifically for Science and
Engineering courses.

students in the UK with free access to two

high-powered robotic telescopes, one in
Hawaii and the other in Australia. The students
are able to use these telescopes remotely to
carry out their own scientific investigations
V. VIRTUAL iLABS IN MOOCS
[3]. These are some examples of MOOCs
providing access to equipment which
The challenge in MOOCs for science otherwise would not have been made available
courses includes the difficulties of replicating to students due to forbidding costs.
science experiment environment online, and
the costs of having to do so. Notwithstanding,
VI. CHALLENGES IN MOOCs
Universities elsewhere have sought to
overcome this hurdle through different means.
MOOCs have now become so widespread
that many universities are even giving credits
With the aid of his graduate students in to their applicants who have successively
Stanford University, Professor Lambertus completed their MOOCs. One example is
Hesselink was able to set up a virtual lab NTUs initiative to allow their existing
which allowed MOOC students to carry out a students to transfer the credits earned by the
Physics diffraction experiment. This was done students to the courses they are studying [20].
through squeezing two lasers, a diffraction This bodes well for the future of MOOCs.
grating, multiple lenses and other equipment However, there are still challenges confronting
into a picnic basket sized box. Snapshots of the even widespread use and adoption of
every possible experimental setup were taken MOOCs.
and stored in a database. Students can log into
the database and interact with the same
One big challenge is the accreditation and
controls and video view as would be used certification issue for any MOOC. Currently,
during a real experiment. When students there is no central body or standards on which
change the laser color from blue to red, they accreditation and certification can be
observe the prerecorded state within this benchmarked. It is interesting to note that
virtual lab [14]. Not only has Professor some Universities have started accreditating
Hesselink succeeded in creating a virtual lab courses. One of the accreditating bodies is
online, he has also made the virtual lab American Council of Education, a non-profit
affordable
and
accessible,
with
the association representing the leaders of US
experiments can be made low risk and low accredited degree-granting two- and four-year
cost. These experiments can also be accessed colleges and universities [32]. Another
by hundreds of students. An added advantage example is the USs Distance Education and
is that the virtual lab also requires significantly Training
Council
(DETC,
less maintenance when compared to a real lab http://www.detc.org/) which has accredited
[5].
courses by University of the People
(http://uopeople.edu) since February 2014.
Some MOOCs allow students to access However, such examples of accrediting bodies
expensive resources such as the telescope. are far and few in between.
For example, Skynet University offers online
courses that allow their students to access their
The next challenge for MOOCs is to
global university network of fully automated, expand access to more people in other
or robotic, telescopes. Their students are also countries. Currently, people in many countries
able to access the 7 million images that were do not have the technology and the tools to
taken with their telescopes which span four access MOOCs. The Internet infrastructure in
continents [26]. Another example is the their countries is also poor. Some MOOCs are
Faulkes Telescope Project which provides also blocked in certain countries for political

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Lim Kin Chew

reasons. Yet, another challenge is to have their

MOOCs made mobile friendly. The world is
going mobile but only some MOOCs (e.g.
MobiMOOC and UnX) have their learning
materials in the mobile format [9].

Together with the relevant instructional

strategies, the author believes that MOOCs can
help supplement the usual online and face-toface classroom sessions. Ultimately, as pointed
out by [19], courses that do not engage the
students well enough will simply disappear.
Those MOOCs that engage their students using
the appropriate instructional strategies will
become very sustainable. Yet again, it is
possible that more people will be able to access
sophisticated lab equipment when they are
learning science and technology courses.

The other challenge is to raise student

motivation. Currently, most MOOCs suffer
from low student completion rates. This can be
attributed to low student motivation and
engagement. This low learner motivation
needs to be addressed if schools, companies,
or other organizations interested in using
MOOCs as part of a full curriculum. The
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