Many learners and education professionals tend to look on MOOCs with the same lens. Headlines declare that ‘MOOCs Are Dead,’ with the implication that an entire species is on the verge of extinction. The MOOC-sphere in reality is a diverse ecosystem. In their landmark study, MOOCs: Expectations and Reality, Professors Fiona Hollands and Devayani Tirthali describe how, “colleges and universities have adopted several different stances towards engaging with MOOCs and are using them as vehicles to pursue multiple goals.” With that in mind, eLearning Inside got in touch with Dr. Satesh Bidaisee, a professor of public health at St. George’s University (SGU) to discuss how they have implemented their MOOC and why they push for such high completion rates.

The One Health/One Medicine MOOC was created by Dr. Bidaisee and SGU in 2013 and initially hosted on Canvas, Instructure’s academic LMS. And from the get go, it was intended to do numerous things.

SGU’s First MOOC

“Back in 2013, SGU began a concentrated plan to develop online education,” Bidaisee said. “One of the ways the university saw to encourage the use of the online platform was to develop open access as a way of marketing the university and the online program, but also a way of testing it out.”

And so the MOOC was born. Initially capped at 1,000 students, Bidaisee found that by the end of the course, over 100 students remained. That was pretty good at the time, but the team at SGU wanted to do better.

“In the post mortem after that first MOOC experience, we recognized a couple of things. One is that we needed a platform for ourselves which we could design, that we can use to deliver our own material based on academic expectations and not necessarily confine ourselves to preexisting domains,” said Bidaisee.

They also knew that if the MOOC was going to be an effective marketing tool, they’d need to boost engagement. And to do that, Bidaisee and his team decided to emphasize engagement and learner interaction. Using the Open edX’s architecture, they created a new course with the freedom to tailor it to their needs.

“With that platform, we were able to have a lot of built-in mechanisms for interaction, whether it’s live seminars, live office hours, or discussion blogs linked to twitter. There were a lot of developments,” Bidaisee said. In addition, they switched from primarily pre-recorded content to live lectures.

Following the next run in 2014, there was no cap, and 1500 learners enrolled. In the end, over 800 of those students completed the course. And those completion rates have remained consistent with each subsequent MOOC.

The Virtues of High Completion Rates

Many institutions cite lofty and admirable reasons for spending the tens+ of thousands of dollars needed to get a MOOC off the ground. They tend to leave out the fact that it’s just as much an exercise in selling their university.

As Hollands and Tirthali write, “For institutions of higher education, building and protecting brand serves to attract and retain students, faculty members, and partnership opportunities with other institutions, funders, and alumni networks. Interviewees from 41% of the institutions in our study sample that were offering or using MOOCs stated that branding, positioning, or attracting students was a strategic goal for the initiative.”

With the new completion rates, Bidaisee knew they had a solid marketing tool on their hands.

“As a marketing effort, we never intended this to be a very large MOOC with tens thousands of students. That was never in our interest. We wanted to offer something for learners who have a particular interest in the course, also with medicine of public health, which is what we offer at SGU. Our marketing focused more on a niche population who already worked or studied in medicine of public health or those who aspired towards it.”

“So in that sense, we did not capture the thousands of students that other MOOCs have. But I still believe that we have been successful. Because when you have a captive audience that is interested in a particular theme or topic being discussed, then you have students more amenable to thinking about beginning or to maintaining the academic course.”

After the initial MOOC boom in 2012-2013, many began to deride the courses because of their dismal completion rates. Recently, educators have begun to rethink those metrics, arguing that it’s no problem if learners don’t finish an entire MOOC. Maybe they’re only interested in a single module, and that’s totally fine. Bidaisee, however, has a different perspective:

“So I’m an academic. And as an academic, I would want my students to complete my courses. If I design a course, I want them to be actively engaged. I see education as being more edutainment than education alone because, to capture audiences, to retain attention, you need to have a lot of different points of engagement.”

To make his course more engaging and, ultimately, better educate his learners, Bidaisee has learned a few things.

“The idea of online isn’t a question of yes or no. I don’t think we have a choice. The rest of the population is already in an online environment. We have to meet them where they are.”

“Do not take one of your interesting courses and just apply it as a MOOC. Creating a MOOC is not creating a course. You have to design the course particularly for the MOOC setting. The key is to understand the medium and to work with instructional designers. They understand what tools are available. I find it’s a very dynamic process. I would encourage anyone interested in creating a MOOC to fully explore the full range of technological options that are available.”

Cover Image: SGU Campus. Josh Yetman.

The post How to Turn a MOOC Into an Engaging Marketing Vehicle appeared first on eLearningInside News.

Summer has officially arrived, and many normally busy and productive schedules have begun to loosen up. And with more free time, many head off to the beach, to the lake, to the patio, or anywhere else where the sun’s rays fall. But for those who like to put their extra hours to use, summer can be an excellent season for learning. It just so happens that many many massive open online courses (MOOCs) are beginning in July. Summer MOOCs are a great alternative to reading or solving yet another sudoku puzzle while getting your tan on.

Folks often enroll in MOOCs to up-skill for their career, leverage a promotion, or just get better at their job. But there are numerous MOOCs available for the generally curious human. The following summer MOOCs fall into the latter category.

To optimize summer MOOCs for the season, you’ll want to look for a few qualities. First, you can’t put a price on education. And for the following MOOCs, the providers haven’t—they’re all offered for free. Second, one of the greatest aspects of popular summer MOOCs is that they bring together learners from around the world. And because of that, you’ll want these courses to be synchronous. That means that they progress much like an in-person class would, all the while fostering a tighter sense of community and bonding experiences. Three truly interesting MOOCs that fall into these categories begin this month.

Vital Signs: Understanding What the Body Is Telling Us

Ever wonder why your palms get sweaty when you’re coming down with a fever? Taught by Dr. Connie Scanga of the University of Pennsylvania via the Coursera platform, this MOOC gives learners the quick and dirty on how the human body works and how to recognize when something has gone awry.

“The vital signs – heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, respiration rate, and pain – communicate important information about the physiological status of the human body,” the course description reads. “In this six-part course we explore the anatomy and physiology underlying the vital signs so that you will develop a systematic, integrated understanding of how the body functions.”

Just under two thirds of the 40 learners who have reviewed this course have given it five stars. And one thing many agree upon is that Dr. Scanga is one of those rockstar professors who knows how to put a lecture together.

“This is probably one of the BEST of courses on Coursera,” writes one reviewer. “Dr. Scanga is an amazing teacher. She is so engrossed in what is teaching that her lectures come out like stories … it is as if she is narrating a story. She is one rare teacher, who delivers higher education as vividly and dramatically as nursery education!”

Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden potential

Taught by Drs. Barbara Oakley and Terrence Sejnowski, the creators of the world’s most popular MOOC “Learning How to Learn,” this companion course goes in a slightly different direction. 

“Mindshift is designed to help boost your career and life in today’s fast-paced learning environment. Whatever your age or stage, Mindshift teaches you essentials such as how to get the most out of online learning and MOOCs, how to seek out and work with mentors, the secrets to avoiding career ruts (and catastrophes) and general ruts in life, and insights such as the value of selective ignorance over general competence.” 

This course is one of the top 50 MOOCs of all time. Just 11% of reviewers have given it less than 5 stars on Class Central.

Understanding Dementia

Another All-Time Top 50 MOOC on Class Central, “Understanding Dementia” is taught by Professor Fran McInerney of the University of Tasmania, but a full 18 other experts in the field lend their perspective throughout the seven-week course.

“The 7-week curriculum is divided into three units: ‘the brain’, ‘the diseases’ and ‘the person’. It covers a range of topics including basic brain anatomy, pathology, dementia research, risk factors, the difference between normal ageing and dementia, diagnosis, medical management, living with dementia, progression and staging, palliation, behavioural and psychological symptoms, therapeutic approaches, dementia friendly communities and more.”

There’s no question that the summer season poses an excellent opportunity to learn. Whether you’re retraining, figuring out how to live a healthier life, or just sating your curiosity, these MOOCs will not disappoint.

Cover Image: Vicko Moraza, Unsplash.

The post These Unique Summer MOOCs Start This Month appeared first on eLearningInside News.

By definition, MOOCs are massive. It’s not atypical for a given course to bring in tens of thousands+ of students looking to re-skill, study, learn a language, or feed their curiosity. With any population that size, there will be a great deal of diversity. So—how does an instructor tango with that dance partner? How do MOOC facilitators ensure that each of their students, regardless of their background, receive a quality learning experience? A new study published in this month’s edition of the Online Learning Journal, which is put out by the Online Learning Consortium, asked just that.

“Instructional Strategies That Respond To Global Learners’ Needs in Massive Open Online Courses,” was authored by Trang Phan, an assistant professor at California State University Fresno.

Phan took a novel approach to this question. Many research initiatives into online learning from a pedagogy perspective like to base their findings on data, measuring observable points such as test scores, reported engagement, and learning objectives. But instead, Phan gathered information from two non-empiric sources. The first was MOOC syllabi, which she evaluated for their strategies to include diverse learners. The second was extended interviews with the instructors of the MOOCs themselves, who told Phan about the challenges they faced, the strategies they employed, and their perceived effect.

In all, 14 experienced MOOC instructors from American universities responded to Phan’s survey. The author identified three areas in which learners from diverse regions tend to struggle: language, content, and engagement.

The Language of MOOCs

Learners entering MOOCs without a mastery of English marks the most immediate barrier to education. Though learners might be conversational in the primary language of MOOCs, they still can struggle to understand the more advanced language imparted in courses such as “Advanced Data Structures in Java,” or “Galaxies and Cosmology.”

To get around language barriers, MOOC instructors adopted an array of strategies. The most simple is to employ former learners to translate the course. These benefited from their popularity, having bilingual former students who were willing to put the work in. But it also presented an issue when it came to assessment, and the instructor struggled to effectively grade them. Other instructors got around this by relying on peer-assessment. They allowed learners to submit work in any language they wish, provided they could identify three other students who spoke that language and were willing to grade the assignment.

Many learners also take MOOCs in the first place to practice English. One professor remembered a student who took his class four times before applying to med school. With each run, the learner’s English improved. After his fourth go, he got into med school.

Content

Related to language, learners from diverse backgrounds have different experience learning from different media. They also will likely access the MOOC from regions with different data infrastructures and may not be able to, say, stream hour-long lectures.

To get around this, instructors provided the course content in many different ways. Besides recorded lectures, they made their Power Point slides available, along with their notes. They provided study guides. They translated their lectures into textbook-style documents.

Many also reported tailoring their content in terms of complexity.

“In the series of programming courses offered by the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) that were intended for undergraduates around the world and working professionals with programming backgrounds, the content materials were designed for the intermediate level, and yet the audience was more diverse in terms of their programming background and skill levels,” Phan writes. “To accommodate that, the instructors provided customized video lectures that targeted different groups of learners with different programming skills. They incorporated test quizzes for learners with adequate programming backgrounds and support videos with additional scaffolding knowledge for people with less background in programming. The videos were structured to allow people to review the core concepts being taught and came with programming assignments to be submitted at the end of each module. These videos addressed common conceptions and mistakes and provided a few hints about the programming assignments.”

Engagement

Engagement stands as probably the most nuanced of the three areas in which professors adopted inclusive strategies. Earlier this year, a separate study revealed that instructors tend to bring IRL bias into MOOC discussion forums, favoring white male respondents over other demographics.

Still, engagement is possibly the most important. A separate study conducted by Phan and others found that students who “demonstrated active engagement in a MOOC tended to outperform the ones who did not prioritize a similar trait.”

And according to Phan’s respondents, learners from different backgrounds exhibited different engagement levels.

“A strategy that the instructor in the “Inspiring Leadership through Emotional Intelligence” MOOC tackled to encourage engagement,” Phan writes, “especially in students from the Middle East and women from Japan, Korea, and China, who were normally less vocal than their Western counterparts, was to bring up their voices and insights in the discussion. The instructor believed this was an effective way to make them speak in the class and that it was culturally helpful for students who came from the cultures where they were supposed to be silent.”

In other situations, engagement was a thornier issue. For example, the course “Understanding Terrorism and the Terrorist Threat,” brought together learners from groups who were actively opposed to one another.

“We actually had people who affiliated or consider themselves affiliated to radical groups in the same conversations with Nigerian police officers and American agents and Poland refugee workers, etc.,” the professor recalls. “So it was really interesting, really active and productive.”

To get around this, the professor initially split learners into different groups and then encouraged them to interact as the class proceeded.

All of these measures require additional effort and/or resources from the professor. As such, it’s likely that the group responding to Phan were primarily dedicated instructors, committed to expanding access to education, and not, perhaps, the typical MOOC instructor. Still their practices are instructive, and as MOOCs continue to establish their relevance, one has good reason to hope these methods will catch on and become the norm.

Cover Image: rawpixel, Unsplash.

The post How Do You Make MOOCs More Inclusive? appeared first on eLearningInside News.

Summer is a time to get outdoors and explore new places with your four-legged friends. With your pet insured, leashed, and ready to play, there is no better time of year for some outdoor fun with your furry friend! But when stuck inside on a rainy day, you might want to consider enrolling in one or two MOOCs that can make your relationship with your dog even more fulfilling. Starting this week on Coursera, “Dog Emotion and Cognition” will take learners on a deep dive into dog psychology.

Taught by Professor Brian Hare of Duke University, the course lasts eight weeks long and is offered for free. (As with many Coursera MOOCs, paid certificates are available on completion.)

“Dognition”

The course is heavily based in science, but it’s also designed to be accessible to anyone. It begins with the shared evolutionary history of humans and dogs and progresses to a look into cognitive evolution studies in biology more generally, describing the role an organism’s environment plays in how it thinks. From there, Professor Hare moves into more recent evolutionary research regarding dogs, including the work he has done with foxes, New Guinea Singing Dogs, and wolves. Things will conclude with a module on the limitations of canine cognition along with the lecture “Finding Your Dog’s Genius.” In this class wrap-up, Hare discusses some myths and misconceptions about dog breeds, and how many are erroneously viewed as naturally aggressive. He’ll also go into detail about some of the best ways to train your dog.

The course should be informative and entertaining for anyone wishing to get a look into their own dog’s brain, not to mention some insights into training and correcting undesirable behavior. Modules will be accompanied by optional readings from Hare’s book, The Genius of Dogs. Hare has also created the platform called Dognition. The site helps dog owners asses the psychology of their pets, leads them through games and puzzles related to the science of dog behavior, and serves as a training tool. Learners will have access to some of this material as well. Dognition is, however, a subscription-based site, and learners interested in getting the full experience will have to pay to play.

“The class was interesting and it helped me to understand dogs better,” writes former learner Kelli S. on Class Central. Dr. Hare did a good job of explaining everything he taught every week. I felt like I understood everything I was learning in his class. I would recommend this class to anyone who wants to understand dogs better.”

Or “The Truth About Cats and Dogs”

Many other dog-related MOOCs will be available this summer. “The Truth About Cats and Dogs,” offered by the University of Edinburgh via Coursera will begin on June 11. The course touches on many similar topics as “Dog Emotion and Cognition,” but, of course, applies to cats as well. In description of the course, the MOOC educators write, “We ask whether we impose unrealistic expectations on our cats and dogs and how this affects their ability to live alongside us. We ask, what can we do to be more responsible pet owners and to ensure the welfare of all cats and dogs in society? This MOOC explores different scientifically validated methods that can help you to better understand your pet, to enrich their lives and help you to be a more educated and confident pet owner.”

Cover Image: Avi Richards, Unsplash.

The post Train Your Dog This Summer And Learn How He/She Thinks With These MOOCs appeared first on eLearningInside News.

Delivering a keynote address at this week’s Open edX 2018 conference, MOOC expert Fiona Hollands made two predictions about the future of her research subject. But before we get there, the senior researcher and Associate Director at the Center for Benefit-Cost Studies of Education, Teachers College of Columbia University had some things to say about MOOCs in general.

To begin, she’s begun to take issue with the name. Most things that we term “Massive Open Online Courses,” fall somewhere outside of that descriptive realm. They might be small, they might not be open, and they might be wholly different from the MOOCs first offered by Stanford professors in 2011, not to mention the earlier iterations in 2008. Instead, Hollands prefers “Nonformal Digital Learning Experience.” It remains to be seen wether NDLEs will ever have the buzzword power of MOOC, but in quotations further down, she uses her own preferred acronym.

Hollands certainly has the authority to attempt to rebrand MOOCs. In 2014, she published the landmark study, “MOOCs: Expectations and Reality” along with Devayani Tirthali. The study looked at the ample promises and predictions made about MOOCs during their boom and compared that with, well, their reality in 2014. As one might guess, there were a few inconsistencies between the two. Many of those inconsistencies remain today.

If MOOCs Save on Cost, that Savings Should Go to Into Experiential Learning

Hollands’ first prediction was more of a directive and a call to action. She began by describing the students for whom MOOCs work quite well and compared them with others who don’t thrive on the format. She then applied that to the cost-saving some universities have begun to see with replacing entry-level courses with MOOCs.

“If you can save money by offering education at scale to highly motivated students by replacing some introductory materials with some NDLEs,” Hollands said, “then take those savings and invest in experiential learning for the students who don’t fare well in online learning experiences. So far, MOOCs have made more of a dent in how business provide employee training than in how higher education operates.”

This seems like common sense. For MOOCs to truly be massive, they should be able to apply to learners of a wide range of abilities. Considering the fact that the course format was created by higher education, it is certainly puzzling why they haven’t had the impact that was promised in academia.

Faculty Should Be Looking Over Their Shoulders

The second prediction is far more chilling. “But here’s a scenario that should be keeping university administrators and faculty up at night,” Hollands began. “Over the next seven years, NDLEs will be recognized by employers and gain credibility generally. It is now possible to cobble together degrees or the equivalent of one based on NDLEs from multiple universities.”

“Not many students have the wherewithal to do it themselves let alone complete them. But—what’s to stop a new organization that’s not a university doing just that? Packaging courses for students, offering them on-demand support from non-tenured instructors, peer groups and other services for a fee?”

“Let’s call it the alternative university, or AU for short. Coincidentally, AU is gold on the periodic table. That may be where edX is headed now, but I expect you’ll get pushback from consortium members who will be uncomfortable with it. It might be easier for Coursera to do it, being a for-profit. But I can assure that if one of the two of you doesn’t do it soon, someone else more nimble will. We’re not there yet, but by 2025, university faculty who aren’t looking over their shoulder should be.”

In other words, the more popular promises of MOOCs is by and large, yet to be realized or unrealistic. They have not democratized education, they have not put learning in the hands of learners. But that doesn’t mean they’re ineffective.

What Hollands is saying is that, when MOOCs come to be regarded and recognized by employers—a trend that is already beginning—it will begin to completely change the way that higher education is delivered. Tenure-ships will become less and less valuable. 

The post MOOC Expert Fiona Hollands Makes A Suggestion and a Prediction appeared first on eLearningInside News.

On Wednesday, edX CEO Anant Agarwal took the stage at the University of Montreal to kick off the Open edX 2018 conference. Following the model of the United Nations, he laid out what he called Reimagine Education Goals, which he hopes to accomplish by 2022.

100 Million Learners in 5 Years

For the most ambitious, Agarwal hopes to attract 100 million learners to edX in five years’ time. The non-profit MOOC provider has, one might argue, remained truest to the original promise of MOOCs (keeping them open and massive) when they exploded in 2011 and 2012. The platform has trained 16 million learners with courses from over 130 different institutions. Using the Open edX platform, a further 18 million + have taken at least one university course, bringing the total number to roughly 35 million.

That’s a long way to go in five years. But, according to edX COO Adam Medros, the number is more representative of impact. “I don’t think 100 million learners is an accomplishment in and of itself. I think it’s a means to provoke thinking big about how do you extend reach and accessibility. To get to 100 million, you could run a massive ad campaign and buy your way there, but I don’t think it would honor the spirit of our organization.”

According to Agarwal, acquisition of new learners at edX and use of the Open edX platform has reached an exponential growth. But the global appetite for MOOCs indicates that growth might be leveling off. In 2017, 23 million learners signed up for their first MOOC, according to Class Central. That number was the same in 2016. Total MOOC users currently sits at around 81 million. Sure, five years is a long ways away, but it’s going to be a stretch for edX to reach Agarwal’s mark.

“Let’s truly leverage digital technology for use in education.”

That statement summed up Agarwal’s second goal. He wants his company to incorporate AI-powered adaptive learning into the mix. That would entail an algorithm that tracks student progress and matches them with the educational material that can help them succeed in a given class, MicroMasters, or specialization. 

For another use of digital technology, Argawal wants to incorporate AR and VR into edX courses. VR has already gained broad popularity in fields such as medicine where students can explore virtual human bodies before they encounter real world scenarios and in addition to cadaver work. Lab components in numerous science subjects could benefit from this.

Modular Learning on the edX Platform

In addition to a few other goals, Argawal wants to foster a culture in which university credits are more transferable and widely accepted. “Why is it so hard to do?” he asked. He hopes to generate a community in which 25% of edX courses will count anywhere.

“Let’s say I want to launch an online masters degree in computer science and I want to teach AI as part of it,” Argawal said. “And U de M and Polytechnique, they have one of the top deep learning programs in the world. Imagine if you could collaborate where they create a MicroMasters in AI, I create a MicroMasters in architecture or systems, and someone else does one in software engineering. Imagine if you could combine that and, when a student completes a MicroMasters from A, from B, and C, they could combine that to form an online degree.

There’s possibly no better example of siloing in education than the walls that learners run into when they try to incorporate elements into their education from different educators and institutions. Of course, there are issues with this in regard to differing standards and accreditation guidelines throughout the world. Students often run into problems when seeking to transfer credit from an internationally or nationally accredited institution to a regionally accredited analog.

Still, collaborations between edX and universities has already begun. Last spring, the Information Technology University—located in Punjab, Pakistan—launched a new data science masters program. But they also didn’t have the staff or expertise to teach a full program. “So what they did,” Argawal said, “is they had students take six courses form professors in Pakistan. And for the remaining four courses, they had students go online and take the University of San Diego MicroMasters in data science in edX and then they give those students a degree in data science.”

“Our code is open source, we’re committed to open standards,” said CPO Mark Haseltine. “We would like to see interchangeable credentials in general. There’s no standard for credentialing.” And that’s where edX sees room for growth.

The post edX CEO Anant Agarwal Announces Ambitious Goals for 2022 appeared first on eLearningInside News.

Since its role in the recession beginning in late 2007, Goldman Sachs has committed itself to operate in a more ethical manner. On Monday, the company launched their 10,000 Women initiative in MOOC-form, an effort to support female entrepreneurs with education and an expanded network. It will comprise primarily of an online course hosted by Coursera.

Goldman Sach’s Coursera MOOC

The MOOC is intended to help eager entrepreneurs or those with existing businesses assess their market readiness, expand their base, and grow into the future. The introductory lesson will also include some points on the psychology and behavior of successful business owners.

The following modules will present strategies to determine financial security and optimize for growth. As a final project, learners will develop a ‘Business Growth Plan.’

As with any business program, the value won’t simply lie in the knowledge imparted but also in the people involved in the process. Peers will be joined by alumni who will provide mentoring services. Goldman Sachs hopes to foster a community that will grow outside of the course.

“This is a question of opportunity, not capability, and this partnership with Coursera allows us to expand 10,000 Women to reach those entrepreneurs we haven’t been able to before,” said John F.W. Rogers, Chairman of the Goldman Sachs Foundation, in a statement. “Helping businesses grow is at the core of what we do as a company, and increasing access to business education to support smart, driven, and talented women is good for their businesses, their communities, and the world.”

“Supporting women entrepreneurs is so crucial to creating an economic future that is fair and inclusive, and we’re so honored to partner with the Goldman Sachs Foundation in this endeavor,” said Leah Belsky, VP of Enterprise Development at Coursera, in a statement. “Exponentially scaling this program with our platform will allow many more women to develop the skills, credibility, and networks needed to execute on their ideas.”

Learners Will Join an Existing Network

In 2008, Goldman Sachs greatly expanded the scope of the Goldman Sachs Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the company. They launched the 10,000 Women initiative that year and began with in-person instruction. Ten years on, the bank has exceeded its goal of training 10,000 women and in 2018, Goldman Sachs acquired personal finance startup Clarity Money for $100 million. According to their own reporting, 70% of graduates of the program have gone on to bring in higher revenues and 60% have created new jobs. Those taking the online course, in other words, will join an existing network of successful entrepreneurs.

The recent announcement of the Coursera course comes as Goldman Sachs has reached a significant milestone with their partners. Along with the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank Group and the Women Entrepreneurs Opportunity Facility, they have raised over $1 billion in capital to invest.

The course is open to anyone. But for women business owners to receive a certificate of completion, they must operate a company with a minimum of three employees and take in at least $50,000 in annual revenue at the end of the course.

The post Goldman Sachs Launches Their 10,000 Women Entrepreneurial Course as a Coursera MOOC appeared first on eLearningInside News.

MOOCs, online courses, and other eLeraning initiatives have increased access to education for learners around the world. But there’s a kind of unspoken belief generally held in regard to online education: it works well with some subjects, but less so with others. STEM subjects, which typically require mastery of specific, discrete subject matter, are very popular online. But when it comes to more subjective matters, like social and emotional intelligence, the arts, or the fine arts, many find the online setting to pale in comparison to its in-person equivalent.

But one company is changing that narrative. To fine art purists, Kadenze does the unthinkable. Not only does it offer art courses that span “Designing Synthesizer Sounds” to “Custom Handlettering”; it grades student work with artificial intelligence (AI). The company has designed over 100 bots that implement various AI techniques, such as deep learning and machine learning, to assess everything from a hand-drawn image to edited sound to film.

“Our graders can also analyse code, writing, and more traditional coursework. Our real special sauce is in assessing multimedia though,” said Jordan Hochenbaum, one of the chief architects of Kadenze’s AI grading bots.

I asked him a few questions about the Kadenze process.

Let’s focus specifically on hand-drawn images – what are the bots looking for/testing?

Hochenbaum: It really depends on the tasks/learning outcomes. In our Comics course for example, we’ve done some novel work in automatically detecting comic panels and the type of content within a panel (image, text). From there the machine can begin to understand the use of different panel layouts, transitions, and how they are used for narrative, etc. This would have very different goals than an AI grader that was aimed at detecting a specific kind of drawing technique, brush stroke, use of color, etc.

Isn’t there a good deal of bias that goes into creating an algorithm that can judge art?

In general these types of algorithms are trying to generalize about the things that they’ve seen as much as possible, so that when they see something new, they can provide an appropriate response. However, bias can be present for a number of reasons, like not having a large or diverse enough set of training data. But like humans, these algorithms can get better over time, as they see more examples and gain experience.

One thing to note however is that we typically use these types of machine grading for assessing more technical aspects of the work, and leave judging of subjective ideas or aesthetics to student participation in the coursework galleries.

Do the Kadenze bots also provide feedback?

Totally! Sometimes it’s written feedback related to a specific grading criteria or score. Other times we provide visual feedback which may not factor into the overall score or grading criteria, but is useful as a tool for the student to visualize some aspect of how they did or otherwise explore the work in a new way.

Is a human involved in any way in the grading process?

100%. Pretty much all of our “graders” and feedback tools are developed in an iterative process with the instructor and our R&D team. The grades might be benchmarked for consistency against how one or more instructors might grade that same assignment, or the feedback might come from a set of responses and language they actually use.

How do Kadenze learners respond to AI assessment?

In general as long as they are working people are happy. It’s also important though to really think about what kinds of tasks AI assessment is appropriate for. For example, in our course Sound Production in Ableton Live for Musicians and Artists, where students are learning to mix and produce music, the machine can actually provide a level of detail that is difficult for a human to replicate.

The computer can compare the student’s version of a mix (“Mix A”) against a reference mix (“Mix B”) of song, and say “Mix A is exactly 3.3dB (decibels) louder than Mix B, and Mix B has 6dB of more energy between 12kHz and 19kHz, and so it sound brighter.” For a human grader, we could probably just say “Mix A sounds a little louder than Mix B, and Mix B is brighter.”

For the more open-ended “creative” parts of the assignment though, things like aesthetics and compositional choices, it’s more appropriate to have the learners comment on each others work in the course gallery. This is aimed to give the same kind of experience students might have during “critique” in art school, or talking about their work over food with friends. By combining both approaches appropriately, we get the best of both worlds, and our learners generally respond well. Who knows though, maybe one day you’ll be engaging in a live discussion with a chat bot? 😉

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Earlier this month, YouTuber Chris Hawkes posted a video proving that the MOOC(ish) provider Udemy had used one of his instructional videos without his permission. Hawkes makes videos relating broadly to the tech industry. A Udemy ‘professor’ had incorporated one of his videos on Python into his or her class.

In his video, Hawkes voices his anger, and issues a rallying cry for YouTubers to double check on the use of their content. As Hawkes points out, Udemy has done this before.

In 2015, a cybersecurity expert Troy Hunt discovered that a course that he developed for Pluralsight on ethical hacking was being sold on Udemy without permission or credit. Many others soon discovered their educational content on Udemy, and the calls of outrage pushed the company to respond.

In a blog post, which has since been removed, former Udemy CEO Dennis Yang said his company was protected under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998. The law protects internet and online service providers (ISPs/OSPs) from the copyright violations committed without their knowledge by their users.

“On average, over 15,000 courses are uploaded to Udemy per year,” Yang wrote at the time. “So far in 2015, we have received 125 DMCA notifications as well as 45 ‘Hey, this looks weird maybe you should look into this,’ notifications. Our copyright team has looked into every one of these complaints.”

The way Udemy works is that teachers develop their own content and then upload it to the site. They receive a cut of what each student pays for the course (unless they make it available for free). In other words, Udemy’s teachers are claimed as ‘users’ by the company. Udemy is only obligated to take action when others alert them to copyright infringement. They’re also supposed to take action to prevent it from happening again …

The Safety Behind the DMCA

It’s not just YouTubers who are discontent with the current DMCA safe harbor for ISPs/OSPs. Artists, musicians, photographers, animators, writers … pretty much anyone who creates copyrighted content has a good reason to dislike the policy. The burden falls on them to police their own work throughout the entire internet. Many creators simply don’t have the time or resources to ensure their material doesn’t make its way onto any number of platforms without their consent.

The DMCA was written in the dial-up era, long before sites like Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, or Pinterest existed. Even Napster and Myspace weren’t on the scene when it was passed into law. Legislators simply did not take into account the sheer volume of content that would be uploaded on a daily basis.

After the lawsuit that ultimately shut Napster down concluded, scholar and activist Laurence Lessig wrote the following: “When Napster told the district court that it had developed a technology to block the transfer of 99.4 percent of identified infringing material, the district court told counsel for Napster 99.4 percent was not good enough. Napster had to push the infringements ‘down to zero.’”

Udemy has by no means been held to the same standards, even though their case could be seen to be even more egregious: they can profit directly off the sale of copyrighted material.

What’s Going on in the U.S. Copyright Office?

Many believe that it’s high time for some DMCA reform. And some of those people work in the U.S. Copyright Office. After pressure from a gaggle of celebrity musicians in 2015, the USCO agreed to enter into a period of review for the safe harbor aspects of the DMCA. The review has gone through multiple series of public comment periods and roundtable discussions. The last action taken on the review was yet another extension of the comment period in January of 2017.

It’s unclear why the comment period continues to be extended. Maybe the DMCA safe harbor is just a divisive issue and policymakers want to keep kicking it down the line.

It might also have something to do with the current administration. Right now, the head of the USCO is Karyn Temple, who serves as the Acting Register of Copyrights and Director of the USCO. (Remember how the current president isn’t good at filling vacant positions?) It’s doubtful that an acting director would make any major plays, especially one that would have such a widespread effect.

The issue of copyrighted educational materials (especially with professors offering their courses over more reputable platforms like edX and Coursera) is thorny enough.

When Napster was slapped with a harsh judgment, and they developed a method to catch 99.4% of their internal copyright violations, the justices still weren’t having it. Udemy hasn’t taken any kind of real action to address the copyright infringements. It relies only on their users reporting copyright infringements.

Under their terms and policies, the company states, “Our marketplace model means we do not review or edit the courses for legal issues, and we are not in a position to determine the legality of course content. However, it is important to us that instructors posting courses on Udemy respect the intellectual property of others. When instructors post courses on our marketplace, they make the promise that they have the necessary authorization or rights to use all the content contained in their courses.”

“Infringing activity is not tolerated on or through our platform.”

Educators and learners couldn’t be faulted for placing more than a little doubt in that last sentence.

Wait, What About YouTube and Others?

The thing is, many more blatant perpetrators exist. Any popular platform to which users can upload content inevitably displays large quantities of copyrighted work.

In 2007, Viacom Inc. sued YouTube, and its parent company Google, for hosting roughly 160,000 video clips of their copyrighted material. They sought $1 billion in damages. U.S. District Court Judge Louis Stanton granted a summary ruling in favor of YouTube, saying they were protected in the safe harbor. The 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals later vacated that ruling saying that the case at least deserved a trial. The case was sent back to Judge Stanton, who again issued a summary ruling in favor of YouTube.

DMCA safe harbors are nothing short of murky legal territory, and it seems clear that they are ripe for reform. That reform, however, won’t come easily, and if it does, it will seriously change the way some of the biggest companies in the world do business.

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Have you ever been curious about mountains and how they form? Maybe you’re an avid hiker, climber, skier or sledder. Maybe mountains stir something inside you. Or maybe you’ve always been suspicious of that time when your elementary school teacher instructed you to push two layered stacks of rubber together to explain continental drift. There’s an upcoming MOOC that might just clear a few things up.

“Mountains 101,” offered in collaboration between the University of Alberta and Coursera, will begin its next 12-week run on March 5^th. There will be one lesson per week. If the title alone doesn’t create enough draw, and you’re worried that going over mountains for months on end will get boring, you should reconsider. Mountains 101 is currently the top-ranked science MOOC on Class Central and one of the top 10 most popular in 2017.

Higher Learning

The thing about learning about mountains is that you won’t just learn about mountains. The course, led by University of Albert Professors David Hik and Zac Robinson, goes over the processes that create mountains, the diverse ecosystems that form on their slopes, their water cycles, their cultural significance, the communities that form around mountains, how they are conserved, and what a changing climate will mean for them. It is billed as a science course, but it’s truly intersectional. There will be an additional selection of dozens of guest speakers along with two mountain guides to provide ‘Tech Tips’ for safely enjoying mountains at the end of each lesson.

Professor Hik works in the Department of Biological Sciences. In his research, he focuses on the ecology and ecosystems of mountains and cold environments, so he’s more or less qualified to run the course. Professor Robinson, on the other hand, is an historian and teaches in the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation. He has conducted extensive work on the social and cultural significance of the Canadian Rockies.

The Perks of Mountains 101

While the course is ‘set’ (if you will) in a famously mountainous region of the world, it expands its scope of study far beyond the Canadian Rockies and looks at mountains around the world.

This MOOC is truly open—anyone can audit it for free. Folks wishing to get recognition for completing their studies (along with completing the assignments and exam) can obtain a certificate from Coursera for a small fee. It is also open, of course, for students at the University of Alberta (both in-person and remote).

On Class Central, the course has no reviews below four stars. 91% of reviewers gave it full marks. According to many reviewers, this has, in part, to do with the course’s production value.

Learner Thomas Doria writes, “The main reason I rate the course so highly is that the production values are by far the best I have seen for a course of this kind. I don’t know what budget they had but they certainly made the most of it. The course has some stunning visuals and includes a high standard of professional location shoots. It also gives interviews with a host of professional scientists and other experts in various fields around the world. By the time the course is done a relative beginner to the subject will not only know a lot more about mountains, but will really want to continue learning and above all, get out and enjoy them.”

The post The Top-Rated Science MOOC Is All About Mountains appeared first on eLearningInside News.