Massive Open Opportunity: Supporting MOOCs in Public and Academic Libraries

abernard102@gmail.com 2013-05-13

Summary:

"If you’re an academic librarian, you’re probably already awash, at least peripherally, in news about MOOCs—massive open online courses have been touted as the next big thing in higher ed since they burst on the scene about a year ago. If you’re a public librarian, on the other hand, you may not even have heard of them. Yet MOOCs are bringing unprecedented challenges and opportunities to both kinds of libraries already, and they’re only going to grow. What is a MOOC? 'I’m sorry to be dumb, but what’s a MOOC?' one of the librarians interviewed for this story asked. There’s nothing dumb about that question. Beyond the acronym above, ‘What is a MOOC’ is still very much a matter of debate. The first MOOCs, which established the archetype, were free online classes, for no credit, offered by a few eminent experts in their own fields (mostly science, technology, engineering, math [STEM]) and taken—or at least started—by hundreds of thousands of students at a time, though the dropout rates are similarly massive. (Most MOOCs have completion rates of less than ten percent, according to Katy Jordan, a Ph.D. student in the Institute of Educational Technology at the Open University who is studying MOOCs. But that ten percent still represents more students than most professors would teach in person in a lifetime.) The major MOOC providers, so far, are Coursera, EdX, and Udacity. Courses are taught by faculty from established colleges and universities—usually fairly high-ranking and select ones. Coursera, a for-profit entity, is by far the most prolific, with 341 classes. Udacity offers 22, mostly in STEM disciplines, while EdX, a not-for-profit, is currently accepting sign-ups for 32. In addition, individual colleges offer MOOCs of their own.  As the concept matures, expands, and is tinkered with, the issue of where “traditional” online education ends and the MOOC begins becomes murkier. Michael Stephens, an assistant professor in the School of Library and Information Science at San José State University (SJSU), CA, for example, is offering a MOOC pilot that is limited to 500 students—about the size of a large lecture hall. Does that count as massive?  Is a class truly 'open' if it’s not free? The idea that  education from formerly elite institutions would now be open to all—or at least all who speak English, the language in which most classes are offered, and have access to a computer and broadband—is part of what helped MOOCs capture the popular imagination. Yet the for-profit providers must find a way to monetize the concept, and even not-for-profit EdX and the participating colleges and universities must justify the resources they consume. Udacity is experimenting with charging $150 for courses that come with college credit from SJSU, while Coursera’s 'Signature Track,' whose prices vary by course, does not provide credit but uses a combination of ID, webcam, and biometrics to provide a verified certificate of completion. (The American Council on Education, which advises college presidents on policy, recently endorsed five MOOCs from Coursera for credit.)  Why would they need the library?  There are multiple potential roles for libraries in the MOOC development, support, assessment, and preservation process, some of which have been more fully explored than others in the few months since Coursera and EdX began rolling out offerings.

CLEARING COPYRIGHTED CONTENT One major, and comparatively mature, role for libraries is in helping faculty ensure the materials they use to create their MOOC presentations and to assign as readings are not going to get them or their institutions into trouble. Faculty members are increasingly used to turning to the library for help with copyright, so in early discussions around making MOOCs work, the library should be front and center.  While professors are used to relying quite heavily on the fair use exemption for in-person teaching, that does not apply to MOOCs, according to a panel of copyright experts including Brandon Butler, director of public policy for the Association of Research Libraries; Kevin Smith, scholarly communications officer at Duke University, NC; Kenneth Crews, director of the Copyright Advisory Office at New York’s Columbia University; and Kyle K. Courtney, manager of faculty research and scholarship at Harvard Law School, MA, at an OCLC symposium ... As a result, the panelists said, instructors should first strive to find open access materials that will serve the pedagogical purpose as well or better than the copyrighted options that were being considered ... Supporting production Faculty members need audio­visual equipment to record their MOOCs. They need software and computers to edit the raw footage. They need training on how to do both, as well as how to adapt to a new format their teaching style, which must be strong, clear, and succinct enough to stand largely on its own without benefit of office hours, librarians, a question-and-answer period, or the abili

Link:

http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2013/05/library-services/massive-open-opportunity-supporting-moocs/

From feeds:

Open Access Tracking Project (OATP) » abernard102@gmail.com

Tags:

oa.new oa.business_models oa.licensing oa.comment oa.universities oa.copyright oa.libraries oa.oer oa.preservation oa.costs oa.students oa.librarians oa.prices oa.hathi oa.education oa.british_library oa.dpla oa.colleges oa.loc oa.coursera oa.udacity oa.edx oa.moocs oa.futurelearn oa.hei oa.libre oa.courseware

Date tagged:

05/13/2013, 12:49

Date published:

05/13/2013, 08:48