{"id":303,"date":"2018-04-11T18:34:59","date_gmt":"2018-04-11T18:34:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fs-s-wpmu-02.facsci.ualberta.ca\/scilift\/?p=303"},"modified":"2018-04-11T18:34:59","modified_gmt":"2018-04-11T18:34:59","slug":"coursera-partners-conference-listening-to-learners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaces.facsci.ualberta.ca\/scilift\/2018\/04\/11\/coursera-partners-conference-listening-to-learners\/","title":{"rendered":"Coursera Partners Conference:\u00a0Listening to Learners\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coursera Partners Conference:\u00a0<\/b><\/span>Listening to Learners\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"

SciLIFT\u2019s Gavin Bradley (right) and David Leaser of IBM (left) on the \u2018Experiments in Microcredentials\u2019 panel at Coursera Partners Conference 2018 (Coursera Blog)<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Trading Edmon<\/b>ton for Ari<\/b>zona<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Last month, SciLIFT team members Gavin Bradley and Christopher Djuric were lucky enough to swap the snowy streets of Edmonton for the sunny sidewalks of Tempe, Arizona, and represent the University of Alberta at the Coursera Partners Conference. The University of Alberta has 18 Massive Open Online Courses (<\/span>MOOCs<\/span><\/a>) on the Coursera platform, and was keen to send a delegation to soak up the new platform features, innovative pedagogical practices, and diverse educational philosophies driving online education around the world…not to mention some welcome sunshine! Over a stimulating three days of seminars, panels, lectures and networking sessions, some trends in online education began to emerge… <\/span><\/p>\n

Credit where credit\u2019s due<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

By far the most common theme at this year\u2019s conference was the exploration and implementation of accreditation for online courses. With its initial mission of delivering top tier education all around the globe seemingly in the bag- the Silicon Valley company has already shared its courses with over 30 million learners- sights seem to have shifted towards bridging the gap between MOOCs and university credit courses. Whereas the highlight of last year\u2019s keynote speeches was a series of genuinely touching videos from learners in the \u2018Coursera for Refugees\u2019 program, this year the gathered educators heard from a number of participants in the University of Illinois\u2019 online MBA program- the first of its kind on the platform. <\/span><\/p>\n

Inspired by this call to online arms, Arizona State University (MSc Computer Science), Imperial College London (MSc Public Health), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (MSc Computer Science), University of London (BSc Computer Science), and University of Michigan (MSc Public Health and MSc Applied Data Science) were among the established universities to announce that they are now offering full degrees entirely though Coursera. The increased class sizes, decreased tuition rates, and greater flexibility for the learners, who don\u2019t have to be physically present at the university, are all obvious benefits of these offerings, but it will be interesting to see how these institutions tackle the issues of assessment, accreditation, and maintaining student levels of emotional satisfaction through a fully online medium. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Interestingly enough, the duality of the \u2018public\u2019 and \u2018for-credit\u2019 MOOC model is something the University of Alberta has been balancing for a number of years. In fact, in the \u2018Experiments with Microcredentials\u2019 panel, SciLIFT team member Gavin Bradley presented on the practical and pedagogical challenges of offering the university\u2019s four palaeontology MOOCs for-credit; these courses have now been taken by over 4000 students here on campus (read more about this panel on Coursera\u2019s own <\/span>Conference Blog<\/span><\/a>). <\/span><\/p>\n

Networking sessions after the panel generated a keen interest in SciLIFT\u2019s \u2018audio course notes project\u2019, which is currently being tested in the for-credit palaeontology MOOCs, to try to accommodate students\u2019 increasingly busy lives and varied learning styles. You can read more about this project in our previous blog post<\/a>!<\/span><\/p>\n

Showcasing the accredited online courses wasn\u2019t the only way SciLIFT were waving the flag for the U of A though. Christopher Djuric presented a poster on the innovative \u2018continuous capstone project\u2019, found in the university\u2019s Software Design Architecture MOOC specialisations, in which learners incrementally complete pieces of their final project, incorporating newly acquired skills as they progress through the specialisation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Stats tell trends, learners tell truths <\/b><\/h3>\n

In terms of new platform announcements, the most exciting was the release of the genuinely impressive \u2018Course Progress Funnel\u2019; this addition to the administrator dashboard allows instructors to (amongst other things) identify problem areas of the course, learner completion patterns, and points at which learners typically drop a course. Understandably, considering the well publicised low-completion rates of MOOCs, this addition was met with enthusiasm by the crowd, who immediately began to question \u2018Courserians\u2019 on expansions and refinements to the feature. More data, it seems, begets cries for more data.<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, in the questions of the crowd, there seemed to be a fervent belief among the educators that with enough statistics provided by the increasingly clever Coursera dashboard, we might yet answer the perennial question that haunts all educators: what <\/span>exactly <\/span><\/i>doesn\u2019t work in my course? <\/span><\/p>\n

Ironically, considering that the theme for this year\u2019s conference was \u2018Learners First\u2019, it struck me as odd that many seemed to be overlooking the most useful resource available to any educator: the students. <\/span><\/p>\n

At last year\u2019s Coursera Partners Conference, SciLIFT presented research on improvements made to the assessment design of our general science MOOCs (resulting in a paper currently in review over at <\/span>\u2018Online Learning Journal\u2019<\/span><\/a>). The motivation for this study was driven <\/span>entirely<\/span><\/i> by narrative analysis of learner reviews and comments. In short, we listened to learners, made a change, and improved our courses. Numerical data and statistics were of course useful in demonstrating the effectiveness of our redesign, but without learner feedback, we simply wouldn\u2019t have been able to identify the problem in the first place. <\/span>Experiences such as these have affixed the simple phrase \u2018listen to learners\u2019 at the core of SciLIFT\u2019s educational philosophy. Student needs and learner feedback are at the heart of our educational design, technology in education innovations, and research efforts. <\/span><\/p>\n

And finally…a timely reminder, if one was needed, as the semester draws to a close and students complete their <\/span>Universal Student Ratings of Instructors<\/span><\/a>, to embrace their feedback, good and bad, and use the greatest resource you have as an instructor to improve your courses and innovate your education.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you are interested in exploring blended or online learning, the SciLIFT team is ready to help you re-imagine your course to maximize learner engagement. Contact Anna Rissanen at <\/span>scitl@ualberta.ca<\/span><\/a> to book an initial consultation.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Gavin<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Gavin Bradley<\/p>\n

Science MOOC Facilitator, SciLIFT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coursera Partners Conference:\u00a0Listening to Learners\u00a0 Trading Edmonton for Arizona Last month, SciLIFT team members Gavin Bradley and Christopher Djuric were lucky enough to swap the snowy streets of Edmonton for the sunny sidewalks of Tempe, Arizona, and represent the University of Alberta at the Coursera Partners Conference. The University of Alberta has 18 Massive Open<\/p>\n

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