#MOOCTaLife: What future EdTech leaders think and do with MOOCs

This article has been originally published by Yoni Dayan on Storify last September

For a whole week, the students of one of the first Master’s degrees dedicated to education technology (edtech) analyzed the current state of online learning and especially MOOCs, their challenges, and researched what could be the future of this format. Here’s the tweetstory of this exciting and insightful journey that i had the chance to host with the Center for Research and Interdisciplinarity.

DAY 1

We’ve started with an original approach to the discovery of MOOCs, through the presentation of my own story and my link to this medium, and of students’ first experiences in online courses. Our spirit: not being bound by the established principles, market and players, and use our critical thinking, our creativity, and research skills, to think of the next steps in this sector.

We’ve chained with a reflexion on what pushes students to chose an online course, what are the criteria at play. Is it the prestige of the institution? A catchy title? A good abstract? The design of the provider? Insightful study that could pave the way to solutions to the “entry barrier” problem, e.g., how the majority of people who could take an online course, aren’t even aware of them and don’t know where to start. Stay tuned for an article from the students about it.

In terms of organization, we have experimented with several innovations such as project management platforms and cloud-based file storage, Slack, flipped classrooms principles (theoretical content available virtually while the on-site time was dedicated to workshops, research and visits). We’ve quite enjoyed the flow, allowing flexibility (teams could keep in touch and be notified of class-wide events, while they were working on their project in the room they wanted), reactiveness, and fun (a mix of French bad puns and 90s Eurodance videos)

One of the particularities of this Master’s degree is that the first three weeks are packed with visits of the Parisian innovation ecosystem. It was the opportunity to make the acquaintance of relevant stakeholders, being aware of useful programs and frameworks (accelerators, etc.), understand the industry where the students will evolve and… take selfies :p

We started with Paris & Co

DAY 2

The second day was filled with visits from #edtech players for students to get inspirations, possible collaborations, and think about this domain. They also kept on working on a possible visualization of the MOOC selection criteria.

Many of those individuals are nurturing the idea of creating their own #edtechstartups, and adopt an entrepreneurial mindset in their undertakings. Hence why we’ve decided to participate in an event organized by the French Ministry of Economy on the theme “they created their business while being students”.

DAY 3

The first two days were dedicated to the (re)discovery of online learning and MOOCs through an experimental and research prism. Starting with Day 3, the class had to create teams with which they developed projects presenting one possible future pathway for digital learning.

We’ve concluded with one of the highlights of the week, the visit of my friends at IonisX (digital learning department of the biggest private schools group in France), true “do-ers” in their sector and one of the most active contributors of the Open edX community.

DAY 4

Last preparations for the teams before the presentation of their projects they worked on for a bit more than 24h.

Time to pitch!

Team 1: redefining how online learning can be inserted in our societies. Libraries would be their pilot environment. Admire their talent in “slides embodiment” :D

Team 2: improving visualization of the online learning offer, lowering the entry barrier into this realm, and building bridges between courses regardless of the providers they are hosted in.

Team 3: a blended learning course for newcomers to get quickly familiar with Paris. It’s one vision of what could be the next generation of MOOCs with innovative features like assignments in the form of real-life interactions.

The satisfaction of the students and staff was very palpable in front of the surprising depth of those deliveries (considering the short time they had to do them), proposing one refreshing view of what could be the future of this domain.

The day ended with two additional visits

Final day !

In this fifth day, we wrapped up the MOOC Bootcamp by assessing what we’ve accomplished, planning the writing of an article condensing the insights found during the week, and digesting all this around a group-wide pizzas om nom noming.

In the afternoon, we’ve delved into practical matters of instructional design, how to build a MOOC using learning management systems, and what kind of courses they could create that would stand out and enrich the existing offer.

The MOOC Bootcamp has concluded in hugs, gifts (thanks for the flowers!) and promises to keep collaborating. This week was the beginning of what i hope will become a great and lasting dynamic. All the aforementioned projects have the potential to materialize and to make the domain progressing in a very interesting direction. We will keep you posted on the growth of the seeds that have been planted here :)

If you want to learn more about the Master Edtech, the students, and possibly collaborate with them (on projects, internship propositions, etc.), don’t hesitate to reach out to me, as well as SophiePène (THE big boss :) ) or Léa Douhard (the coordinator)

Credits to Lamprini Chartofylaka for the soon-to-be-internet-meme-#MOOCTaLife