Accessibility Problems with Massive Open Online Courses

Park, Kim and So (2016) found problems with the accessibility of Coursera, edX, and Khan Academy for users with a disability. Particular problems found were with drop-down menus (toggled on mouse is roll-over), dynamic webpage structures (quiz  feedback without page reloading), repetitive elements (course description at the top of each page),  illogical focus movement (such as back to top of screen not to next item). Many of the problems appear to be with quizzes. Also the mobile versions of the interface were less accessible than the PC based versions. Also user comments appeared to favor down-loadable content (as in more conventional distance education courses).

What the authors did not address is if Learning Management Systems, such as Moodle, which are not designed for MOOCs, have more accessible interfaces.

Reference

Park, K., Kim, H. J., & So, H. J. (2016, January). Are Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) Really Open to Everyone?: A Study of Accessibility Evaluation from the Perspective of Universal Design for Learning. In Proceedings of HCI Korea (pp. 29-36). Hanbit Media, Inc. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.17210/hcik.2016.01.29

Where does a UNSW Verified Certificate fit in the AQF?

Coursera says I can "... earn an official Verified Certificate from UNSW Australia". But where is the "Verified Certificate" in the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF)? TAFEs and RTOs usually issue Certificates I to IV and universities issue Postgraduate Certificates.

If a "Verified Certificate" is not a recognised Australian qualification, should UNSW be issuing these? Even if Australians understand that these are not real qualifications, overseas students may not. This could damage Australia’s reputation for well managed education, if students think they can get an Australian university qualification for $49.

MOOC Designers Relearning Decades of Distance Education Lessons

MOOC provider Coursera is reported to be creating "learning hubs" for students to meet in person. This is not surprising as studying online can induce a sense of isolation (I experience this being an international distance education student myself). But this is nothing new: forty years ago the UK Open University found the students were spontaneously creating their own local study groups. This was then formalised.

Online university routinely organise local groups in their own satellite campuses and those of affiliated institutions. This happens all over the world (in Sri Lanka last year I saw campuses of the Open University of Sri Lanka in several cities).

It is a little disingenuous for MOOC creators to pretend they invented the idea, as this is something any student of distance education learns (hopefully some of the MOOC designers have formally studied the discipline of distance education). It is a shame that MOOC designers do not acknowledge this heritage and build on it.

Global Learning Hubs by Coursera and U.S. State Department

The Massive Open Onlune Course (MOOC) provider Coursera has announced they will be setting up classrooms called "Learning Hubs" around the world in conjunction with the U.S. State Department and local educational institutions. The local institutions will provide a physical space for learning, reliable Internet access and local course facilitators. It seems that Coursera are going down the same path which the UK Open University did several decades ago, when they established local offices to support students. It is unfortunate that Coursera did not learn from OU's experience (which is well documented in the education literature, and plan for the learning hubs.