Moodle: Massive Open Online Design of Learning and Education

On my last full day in Perth I dropped in to visit Moodle HQ. Few realize that the globally used free open source e-learning software Moodle, was developed in Perth, Australia. Moodle creator, Martin Dougiamas, was kind enough to show me around, back in Perth between his many trips top e-leaning events. We discussed the future of e-leaning and of Moodle (which I use to teach at ANU and the Australian Computer Society). I am not sure we came to any conclusions, except that adapting Moodle Mobile using HTML was a better idea that trying to produce an "App" and that it would be better for universities to continue to incorporate e-learning generally than try to set up a new on-line university. One suggestion I made was to provide training in educational techniques alongside the training for Moodle software. This could be reasonably general with the same techniques being applied from school to postgraduate university.

Where is the University Headed?

Within ten years most university courses will be provided globally on-line. How can Australian universities compete in this market? I suggest Australian universities need to start now to reinvent themselves as e-learning hubs to support on-line education, as well as continue to offer on-campus education and conduct research.

From a Window over the Green

Greetings from Perth Western Australia, on the edge of the campus of the University of Western Australia. I am sitting at a window overlooking a townhouse courtyard on a rainy Saturday. Above the trees and tiled roofs the new wing of St Catherine’s College is reaching up to the sky. This week the university received a $15M donation to further expand accommodation for researchers. The university is expanding upwards and outwards, but in education terms where is UWA and Australia's other elite universities going?

UWA Broad Education Experience

The UWA provides a traditional university campus experience. Last Sunday, when walking through the campus, I was confronted by a woman in a bikini on horseback waving a banner. It turned out the students were making a LipDub music video. While the technology used is up to date, this tradition of university students dressing up and doing silly things is ancient.

On Friday while walking to give the Friday Computer Science Seminar, I could hear organ music coming from UWA Winthrop Hall (which looks like a set from Buffy the Vampire Slayer). Sneaking in the back of the hall I found a full student orchestra rehearsing an organ concerto. I sat in the back (with permission) alone with light streaming in through the stained glass windows as the hall's organ shook the building for the finale.

All this makes for an interesting student experience, but what about academic education? Paul Johnson, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Western Australia (UWA) issued a "UWA Futures: White Paper" in August 2012 (the ANU embarked on a consultation process in mid 2013). This suggested that Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) from new commercial and not-for-profit organizations will compete with universities for students. The paper argued that UWA should seize these opportunities which result. However that was the only mention of MOOCs in the white paper, so it was not clear what it is proposed to do. Over the following months there were responses from student and staff associations. In November 2012, the VC issued "UWA Futures: The Response". This would appear to be essentially about the role of e-learning, but the large scale Interactive Engagement being introduced at ANU could also be an option.

Like ANU, UWA and most Australian universities see their future as a physical campus, delivering education to students on site. Large investments are being make in new student accommodation and other facilities (mostly funded indirectly by the Australian government). What is not clear is how these facilities will be used in a world where most education is on-line.

University Education is Moving On-line

A reasonable rule of thumb I suggest, is that within ten years, 75% of a student's post-primary education will be on-line. Those students near a campus might be expected to spend, at most, one day a week there. But this is not to say that existing university buildings are redundant. Campuses will still be needed for administration, research, so education and as a based from which to provide e-learning. A physical campus also provides a powerful marketing tool for a university, even if most students will never visit it.

One use for university buildings is research. Universities traditionally use student fees to cross subsidize research. However, low cost unbundled on-line courses from non-traditional providers could result in traditional universities having to reduce their fees and remove the subsidies. This risks undercutting the research which supports education.

Only a small proportion of university research requires dedicated buildings. Most university research involves people sitting in ordinary offices, not purpose built laboratories. The research is done by post-graduate students, who pay to research, either directly or via a government subsidy. These students will be increasingly be conducting their research part-time off-campus, from their workplace or home. The university will then need less space for their researchers. However, there will be some space need for on-site research, as well as administration of the research.

University Campuses as Innovation,  Research and e-Learning Hubs

Universities can reinvent themselves as innovation centers, as ANU is doing with the Entry 29 Co-working Space and the Innovation ACT Competition (which originated with the work of Dr Lachlan Blackhall, when a PHD student at ANU engineering). Following the model of Cambridge, universities can provide low cost space for staff and students to turn ideas and inventions into products and businesses (and take a cut of the profits). The SpaceCubed Co-working space in Perth provides a vision of this future.

Professor Brian Schmidt is reported to have has proposed the Australian National University reduce student numbers, tighten entry requirements and limit tutorial sizes to 15 students. This would seem to be. at first glance, at odds with his preparing to teach a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Astrophysics in 2014. A MOOC can have hundreds of thousands of students, many more than the entire ANU's current student enrollment. MOOCs are also open to anyone with no entry requirement. However, the university can offer different forms of education to suit different students capabilities, needs and budgets.

Professor Schmidt's initiative with massive open on-line education, when combined with his proposals for small group teaching provides a blended model which  may be the key to the future of Australian universities.

For the last four years I have been teaching "ICT Sustainability" in an advanced masters level course at ANU. Small groups of students, usually no more than 25, explore the topic in weekly tutorials. Students then have to write assignments to first scope the problem and propose solutions. This may seem unremarkable, but the students can study via the Internet from anywhere in the world. In practice many of the students are on campus and come to see me in person for advice and assistance, but if they need to be somewhere else, that is fine and we can communicate on-line.

 

 A Blended Model for Australian Universities: On-Campus and On-Line

Australian universities can retain their campuses for a relatively small number of students, researchers and has hubs for innovation. At the same time the universities can have hundreds of thousands, or potentially millions, of students on-line around the world. The on-line students will benefit from the research and interaction with staff and other students. The students can explore real world problems in courses and in research projects. Students can also set up a business to further their ideas, with the help of their university.

End of an Era for All Women University College

This week I had the pleasure of dining at St Catherine’s College in Perth. This is a small college just across the road from University of Western Australia (UWA). The college is expanding its facilities with several new wings and invited the local community to see the work and as a "thank you" for putting up with the building works. We looked at a mock-up of the new rooms, had drinks in the courtyard and then dinner in the hall.

This was an informal event without academic gowns (which is good as I did not bring mine), a minimum of speeches and without the use of "high table". Being one of a handful of males (the college has some male "visitors") surrounded by hundred of young women was a little intimidating, but pleasent.

Next year the college will be opening up to more male students in the new accommodation. The change is being made in stages, I suspect so that the new male students can be socialized to the college life.

New Accommodation

The new accommodation consists of one person studio apartments, each with a bathroom and cooking facilities. The rooms have been cleverly designed to fit everything in a small space. Designs and sizes will vary.

The display room has the cooking facilities in the passageway to the left as you enter, with the bathroom on the right. Having the kitchen next to the bathroom has drawbacks, but makes the plumbing easier to install and also keeps dirty pots and pans out of sight of the main living area. Smaller rooms will have double beds and larger ones queen size. The St Catchs rooms seem to be slightly wider than those of other accommodation I have seen, making them seem spacious in comparison.

There are large fridges in each room. When I asked about using a small fridge I was told that residents from the country like to have plenty of the food they are used to on hand. It seem that St Cath's primarily caters to rural WA students. There was also some mention of minimum accommodation standards required by some government scheme.

There are also common rooms in the new buildings to get the students out of their rooms and socializing. However, unlike the new UniLodge at University of Canberra, there are no multi-person apartments (UoC has five bedroom apartments with shared kitchen and bathroom). Also unlike shipping container apartments at ANU Ursula Hall there are no apartments for couples.

It should be kept in mind that a university college provides more than accommodation and St Caths has tutorials and other activities for and by students.

Small Cheaper Student Accommodation Needed

The new St Caths and other new facilities at Australian universities provide an impressive level of accommodation but  at a cost. Not all students can afford their own fully equipped apartment.  I suggest that smaller, lower cost facilities need to also be provided, at about half the floor area (and cost).

The UniLodge multi-bedroom apartments provide a good model. Some of these could be produced with smaller (therefore cheaper) rooms using half the sapce. Essentially a student needs their own bed to sleep in, some storage space and a desk to study at. They do not need more than a single bed,  a desk big enough for a computer and a textbook. The student can use the common areas for socializing, cooking, eating and washing.

The practical minimum size for a dwelling in Australia is about 15 square meters (the area of a shipping container). But this is for a standalone, fully self contained home, whereas a student can use shared facilities for washing and cooking.

The reasonable smallest space for a student might be 5 square meters. This would provide enough space for a single bed, a desk and storage. Another 5 square meters would be needed per student for shared space. This might need some changes to government regulations.

Seminar About Online Green Computing Course

I will be speaking on "A Green Computing Professional Education Course Online" at the Computer Science & Software Engineering Seminar, in Room 1.24, CSSE Building, 11:00am, 18 October 2013, University of Western Australia, Perth. All welcome.

PRESENTER: Tom Worthington, Adjunct Lecturer, Research School of Computer Science, ANU
TITLE: A Green Computing Professional Education Course Online
DATE: Friday 18 October 2013 TIME: 11:00am - 12:00pm
VENUE: Computer Science & Software Engineering Seminar Room 1.24

ABSTRACT: Sustainable ICT Courses are being introduced at the vocational training level and more rarely at undergraduate and graduate levels. This paper reports on a graduate level Sustainable ICT Course run for the first time in 2009, as part of a global professional training program. The same course has been run at an Australian university and later adapted for North America by a Canadian university. The course had enrollments from industry based participants from both private and public sector organizations, as well as full time university students, with corporate Green ICT strategies being produced as course assignments. This presentation discusses the student population and presents the course structure and assessment. Notes and conference paper available.

Using Moodle for University Learning

Professor Shannon Johnston and the team from University of Western Australia's Centre for the Advancement of Teaching (CATL, pronounced "Cattle") presented an interactive seminar on  "Utilising the LMS for learning" today. UWA use the popular Moodle Learning Management System, but rather than the usual training session on how to use features of the LMS, this was on what forms of teaching it supports.

The seminar presented several case studies drawn from successful UWA courses, many of which blend e-learning with the classroom.

This was a useful seminar, but perhaps could gone a little further and shown how the teaching technique is implemented with Moodle. Also it would be good to have some templates for different types of courses.

Like ANU (where I teach), UWA is facing the issue of how e-learning is to be used. This is most difficult for elect research universities where staff have considerable autonomy. Professors can't be simply told to use a particular technology and pedagogy, as they have considerable autonomy. Instead they must be gently educated and persuaded. However, I suggest a more direct approach can be used with junior staff and adjuncts. In particular, induction courses for new early career academics and adjuncts from industry can teach the pedagogy and how to support it with the LMS.

Utilising the LMS for learning : An interactive seminar which will examine the role and purpose of an LMS in an institutional context.

Other events...

Assistant Professor Shannon Johnston will be leading this interactive seminar with the assistance of the team of LMS Trainer / Educational Developers at CATL. She will examine the role and purpose of an LMS in an institutional context, and with the team will explore uses of the LMS for learning, with case studies highlighting the usage of the LMS to enhance the student experience in University teaching contexts. The session will involve audience discussion and exploration of potential for learning focused activity in the LMS. This session is suitable for all staff involved in the delivery and support of teaching.

Speaker(s)	Assistant Professor Shannon Johnston and guests
Location	Oceans Institute Seminar Room G.05
Contact	FASE Administrator <fase-ecm@uwa.edu.au> : 6859
URL	http://www.ecm.uwa.edu.au/staff/learning/fase-objectives/fase_events
Start	Tue, 08 Oct 2013 12:30
End	Tue, 08 Oct 2013 14:00
RSVP	RSVP is required.
Submitted by	FASE Administrator <fase-ecm@uwa.edu.au>
Last Updated	Fri, 20 Sep 2013 14:40

Included in the following Calendars:

Academic Events Staff Development Teaching and Learning UWA only notices The Centre for Exploration Targeting

Four Facts About MOOCs

James G. Mazoue lists "Five Myths about MOOCs" which challenge the idea that MOOCs are a form of low cost production line education for the masses (EduCause, October 7, 2013). But I think there is some truth in these. My four facts on MOOCS are: cost, choice, quality, and continuity.

Mazoue's Five Myths of MOOCs:

1. It's All about Money
2. MOOCs Create a Two-Tier Educational System
3. MOOCs Are Inherently Inferior
4. MOOCs Are Mechanistic
5. We've Seen How This Plays Out

But in my view, MOOCs are, in part, marketing spin added onto e-learning techniques which have been around for at least ten years. Claims like those for MOOCs have been made for many technologies for large scale, low cost, open distance education have been made over the last 100 years.

At the moment I am in Perth, Western Australia, where Martin Dougiamas, developed the Moodle Learning Management System in 2002 (I am visiting Moodle HQ next week). Perth is also the home of the video lecture recording technology now sold as Echo 360.

The idea of low cost mass distributed distance education is at least one hundred of years old, with England having 45,000 university extension students by 1891:

The implications of broadcast technology for low cost, open entry university goes back to the founding of the UK Open University in the 1970s. The reasons for the founding of the university read very much like the arguments for MOOCs today.

This is not to say MOOCs are not a good idea, they are just not a new idea. Those who think that putting in MOOCs will solve their personal, institution, government, or society problems, need to look at the history of the claims made for previous such waves of education technology over the last 100 years.

Worthington's Four Truths About MOOCs:

1. It is About Spending Money Wisely on Education: Both educators and budgeters want to get the maximum education for the available budget. But educators need to be careful they are not playing a zero sum game. If they increase the efficiency of education through using MOOCs, those providing the funding may see this as a way to cut budgets.
2. MOOCs Continue a Diverse Education System: We already have at least a two tier education system: those with the money can pay for a better education. The question is if MOOCs provide an adequate education. In my view e-learning can do this, if it is done well. There is little point in having a high quality education system which is not affordable.
3. MOOCs Are About Quality Mass Education: There is no getting away from the fact that MOOCs are about teaching the same thing to a large number of people (the "M" in MOOC is for "Massive"). This is not necessarily a bad thing. Modern mass production in industry results in very high quality low cost goods. Mass education can similar high quality.
   
   It used to be that hand crafting in manufacture was synonymous with quality, but mass produced consumer goods are now higher quality than hand crafted ones.
   
   Continuing the point about mass education, MOOCs, like e-learning of the last few decades and distance education of the last 100 years, work with carefully designed educational materials. Because a large number of students are using the materials, they have to be very carefully designed and tested. This does result in a more rigid approach to the subject. However, it also results in very well designed materials. As with manufacturing, you get a less custom product, but one which will be reliable and do what it is designed to do.
4. MOOCs are built on 100 years of distance education experience: MOOCs are an adaption of e-learning techniques of the last 10 years, which were an adaption of distance education from 100 years. As in the past, proponents are over promising what the new technological adaption to learning can do, just as happened with fads for educational TV and radio. But when the fuss dies down there will be a place for MOOCs, alongside other form of education.

Profile of Australian Universities

LH Martin Institute and the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) released the report "Profiling diversity of Australian universities", 3 June 2013. This places universities into one of six groups, based on five dimensions. One interesting finding is that RMIT is different to all other Australian universities and thus has a group to itself. The next smallest group are three  smaller research intensive universities in smaller state capitals, which groups UWA, with the University of Adelaide
and ANU. One point this raises is to what extent Australia needs all these separate universities, if most are doing essentially the same thing. Also it would be interesting to extend the analysis internationally.

The Five Dimensions:

1. Teaching and Learning;
2. Student Profile;
3. Research Involvement;
4. Knowledge Exchange; and
5. International Orientation.

The Six Groups of Universities:

1. Regional Universities
2. Mixed Group 1
3. Mixed Group 2
4. Large Research Intensive Universities in Larger Capital Cities
5. Small Research Intensive Universities in Smaller Capital Cities
6. RMIT University

Group 1 universities 

Charles Sturt University
Southern Cross University
University of Ballarat
Central Queensland University
University of Southern Queensland
Charles Darwin University

Group 2 Universities

University of Western Sydney
James Cook University
Griffith University
Flinders University
La Trobe University
The University of Newcastle
Murdoch University
University of Technology Sydney
University of Wollongong
Macquarie University
The University of New England
University of Tasmania
Curtin University of Technology
Queensland University
of Technology
Deakin University
University of
South Australia

Group 3 universities

Swinburne University of Technology University of Canberra
Victoria University Australian Catholic University
Edith Cowan University University of the Sunshine Coast

Group 4 universities

The University of Sydney
The University of New South Wales
Monash University
The University of Melbourne
The University of Queensland

Group 5 universities

The University of Western Australia
The University of Adelaide
The Australian National University

Group 6 university

RMIT University

Selecting a Postgraduate Program of Study

On Thursday I attended the Perth MBA & Postgrad Studies Expo. This had many of the same exhibitors as the Canberra Expo, I attended two weeks ago. However, there was a greater presence from overseas and on-line educational institutions. This may reflect the lack of local choice in higher education providers in Perth and also the more international orientation of West Australians (where Singapore is closer than Sydney).

My aim was to look for a Masters coursework program to further my interest in the design and delivery of distance on-line education in higher education. The program would preferably be delivered on-line, but it would be good to have a campus near Canberra, which I could perhaps visit.

None of the West Australian, or international  institutions had anything suitable for me. However, curiously University of Southern Queensland (USQ) may. As I had already completed two courses from their program I looked at the USQ Master of Education. However, I was told I had to complete a Bachelor of Education first, as the program seems to be aimed at school, not university teachers.

I dropped into the USQ booth at the expo anyway and was told the useful bit of information that USQ has a second Masters program in the education field: the Master of Learning and Development (MLD)This does not require a first degree in education for entry. I am not sure how I missed this, but may be that one option includes an Early childhood specialization option, which is the opposite end of the education scale from higher education.

The MLD is by coursework, but has the option of a "Research Pathway", with two or three courses replaced with a small research project. For this I have a ready made research topic comparing the delivery of my "ICT Sustainability" course to students at ANU, ACS and Athabasca University and the differences between this on-line course and the classroom courses the same students undertake at ANU (a quick calculation showed an 80% correlation between the students on-line and classroom course marks, suggesting the delivery mode does not make much of a difference). Another area to explore is Software for Synchronised Asynchronous Constructivist e-Learning. For this I would work with ANU IT students who would write extensions to Moodle to make it suitable for real-time learning delivery and I would see how that works with my students.

University Satellite Campuses Like Co-Working Offices

While in Perth I dropped into to see Ben Killigrew at the UWA Pilbara Project, which is looking at setting up an office in north Western Australia, with research and teaching facilities. The project office is next door to Spacecube Co-working space, and I suggested UWA look at the design of such shared offices, as well as university learning commons for their Pilbara facility.

Universities face a difficult choice when setting up satellite campuses. Buildings are expensive fixed assets and require staff to run them. The staff and students, research and teaching needs will change over time. Very small facilities, typically one building in a country town, have their own challenges in terms of keeping them staffed and used.

It happens I visited UWA Albany Campus in south Western Australia some years ago, when a consultant for government. This was in a restored historic building, with a good layout of small tutorial rooms and offices.

The University of Canberra Inspire Centre is a good example of a new purpose built stand alone facility worth a look. It has the white-board paint, hard-wearing floors, folding furniture on wheels.

For the redesign of the ANU CIST Building I proposed removing walls to create one large multi-purpose spaces, retain some glass walled tutorial rooms and have a cyber-cafe/reception area, as is now usual for learning commons.

Another option is to incorporate the university facility in a larger community complex. Gungahlin College and Library in North Canberra provides an excellent example of a combined facility. The one building has a TAFE, school and community library. The TAFE and library have their own areas of the building which can be closed off when required, but can share facilities.

Use of Video Capture at Universities Beyond Lecture Recording

The Australian National University, where I teach, has selected Echo360 for recording lectures in lecture theaters. This will replace a bespoke system called "Digital Lecture Delivery Service" (DLD), which has been in use since 2004. So I dropped in for a demonstration of the new system from Jo Williams at Echo360's Perth office (the product was originally developed at UWA in Perth and then commercialized).
It happens I had seen an early version of this system in use at the UWA's Albany campus, when a consultant for government.

At its most basic Echo360 works like DLD in the lecture theater. The audio is recorded from the same microphone used for the lecture theater. Whatever is on the projection screen is recorded as video. This is usually slides, but can be a document camera recording material, including hand drawn diagrams. Optionally a video of the presenter is also recorded. The presenter just as to remember to start the recording and stop it at the end, whereupon the system makes the recording available via the Learning Management System (LMS), in the case of the ANU, this is Moodle. The student just need a web browser to play the video (PC, Apple Macs and Linux).

Students appreciate having recordings of lectures, for ones they miss or want to go thorough again (students where English is a second language find this particularly useful). Also this is a quick, easy and cheap way to create content for a distance education course. Research shows that a recording of a live lecture with poor quality video and all the unedited gaffs is just as educationally useful as a professionally produced video.

Echo 360 offers some intriguing extra features, some already in the product and others in development. The lecturer can record their lecture at their desk, using software on their PC or Apple Mac (unfortunately Linux is not supported). They can also annotate a recording they have made live in the lecture theater with extra notes for the students. Also notes from students can be shared.

Students can pause the recording of a lecture, rewind and fast forward. An intriguing future possibility would be to pause a live lecture. I discussed the possibility of this in the conference talk and paper "Synchronizing Asynchronous Learning: Combining Synchronous and Asynchronous Techniques", and wrote a project proposal for a student to write "Software for Synchronised Asynchronous Constructivist e-Learning". The idea would be to break down the division between what is real time and what is pre-recorded.

Another intriguing possibility is to combine large group interactive sessions with students live in a room and on-line. The use of this form of "interactive engagement" is still controversial at ANU when used just in a classroom, without adding the complication of on-line students as well. However, combining the on-line and classroom students could enrich the experience for both and make it much more lively.

MOOCs in Future of UWA

Paul Johnson, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Western Australia (UWA) issued "UWA Futures: White Paper" in August 2012. There were responses from UWA academics over the next few months, UWA Academic Staff Association (March 2013). In November 2012, the UWA Vice-Chancellor issued "UWA Futures: The Response". This appeared a useful, if somewhat limited exercise in consulting the university community on a difficult issue, of what a university is. The ANU embarked on a consultation process in mid 2013, but this concentrated on possible budget cuts, rather than the nature of a university.

The original white paper suggested that Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) from new commercial and not-for-profit organizations will compete with universities for students. The paper argued that UWA should seize these opportunities which result. However that was the only mention of MOOCs in the white paper, so it was not clear what it is proposed to do. The responses discussed MOOCs and the issues with e-learning and provision of technology to students in more details.

The paper argued there will be negligible growth in student numbers for the remainder the decade, which seems to me be at odds with the rapid growth in the middle class in developing nations, who can now afford university education. However, UWA proposes to increase its student fees, which could price it out of this growing market.

Under "Proposal 1" UWA would "... conduct a full review of pedagogic purpose and practice in 2013, with the aim of introducing new pedagogies from the beginning of 2015". This would appear to be essentially about the role of e-learning, but the large scale Interactive Engagement being introduced at ANU could also be an option. Some of the responses discussed this, with approaches such as the flipped classroom. The UWA Academic Staff Association went further, proposing that MOOCs could be used for teaching, complementing a Humboldtian model of the university, where students are not locked into a rigid program.

Proposal 3 envisaged "... personalised mentoring and academic support  for all... students...". However, there was no mention of the new skills which staff will need to provide this support, not how they will acquire it. Some responses asked about training for faculty in mentoring.

ps: I will be in Perth, WA, 23 September to 18 October 2013.

Video of MOOCs with Books: Technology Plus Traditional Teaching for an On-line Education Revolution

The recording of my webinar "MOOCs with Books: Technology Plus Traditional Teaching for an On-line Education Revolution" is now available, courtesy of the SA e-Leaning Unit of the National VET E-learning Strategy. Also available are the notes and slides. See the National Calendar for other National VET events. My next presentation on ICT trends in Education is scheduled for 4:45pm, 12 November 2013, in Canberra, hosted by the Australian Computer Society. I will be in Perth 23 September to 18 October and available to speak there in person.