How to Milk a MOOC
Catheryn Cheal, Associate Professor,
San Jose State University

Writing
Plato, c. 370 BC, Phaedrus, speech of Socrates
“The fact is that (this invention) will produce forgetfulness in the souls of those who have learned it. They will not need to exercise their memories…”

Printed Books
Pope Alexander VI, 1500
”
“It will be necessary to maintain full control over them so that they may be prevented from bringing (these inventions) which are antagonistic to the
Catholic faith or which are likely to cause trouble to believers.”
– 1500

Blackboards
William Alcott, 1843, The Slate Blackboard and Exerci ses
In many of our common schools, however, (this invention) has been but barely introduced. The teacher knows almost as little how to use it as his pupils.”

Teaching Machines
B.F. Skinner
• "Can People Be Taught Like Pigeons?" (Boehm,1960)
• "Can Machines Replace Teachers?" (Luce, 1960)
• "Will Robots Teach Your Children?"(Bell, 1961)

“I’ll never do video!”

Worries that technology will:
1. Destroy our mental/social capability.
2. Overturn the current social/political hierarchy.
3. Be misused by faculty and students.
4. Turn us into robots.

MOOCs at SJSU

Electric Engineering 98 flipped course/MITx6.002x Circuits and Electronics.
Fall Pilot 2012:

Traditional course= 59% passed, 40% C or lower.
 edX SJSU flipped= 91% passed, 9% C or lower.

• Spring 2013--Statistics, Remedial Math, Algebra Summer 2013--Intro
Psychology, Java Programming
• Students--280 SJSU credit students & 30,000 Udacity no-credit students
• Cost--$150 for SJSU students and free for Udacity students

SJSU Plus (Udacity)

MOOC Development Process by
Faculty
• Stipend--$15,000 for 400 hours development work
• Orientation Workshop
1. Team construction
2. Online teaching principles
3. Amount and type of work

MOOC Development
• Meet about construction
• Write content
• Record video in studio
• Write problems and exams
• Review content

• Camera over a drawing on paper
• Wacom Cintiq tablet with Camtasia or
Autodesk SketchPad Pro and transparent hand captured by camera.
• Questions and audio feedback
• Headshot videos of professor—1-2 min.
• Interview videos of guest lectures
• Onsite videos

Positive Results of SJSU Plus Pilot
1. Very good pedagogical, self-paced content for four courses.
2. Excellent retention rates for 3 courses in summer.
3. High enrollments and low cost.

Pass are Cs or better after W are removed.
Elementary
Statistics
Spring Pilot 2013 Summer Pilot 2013 2013 SJSU On-
Campus
(based on past 6 semesters)
50.5%
100 student cap
83.0%
400 student cap
76.3%
64.7% College Algebra 25.4%
100 student cap
Entry Level Math 23.8%
100 student cap
General Psychology not offered
Intro to
Programming not offered
72.6%
200 student cap
29.8%
200 student cap
67.3%
400 student cap
70.4%
700 student cap
45.5%
83.0%
67.6%

• Contract development
• Intellectual property
• Faculty roles and course development
• Scale up enrollments
• Admission, registration, payment, pre-req and disabilities checking processes
• Webpages and systems technology integration

• Governance for online conversion
• Ownership of course content
• Exam Proctoring
• External Contracts
• Enrollment Numbers

How to Start a MOOC
Decide on your purpose:
• Publicity for the university or programs?
• Lower costs?
• Greater access for students?
• New content for better pedagogy?

Future of MOOCs

Future of MOOCs

Future of MOOCs