Overview

Background

With the rapid development of internet-based media and technologies, the learning landscape in higher education has gone through evolutionary changes. Blended learning (BL) has been cited as the future ‘major instructional movement’ and a ‘foregone conclusion’ in higher education, as reported in the 2017 Horizon Report. However, despite the emphasis on the importance of effective BL designs and strategies, it has been reported that university policy makers, administrators, curriculum developers, as well as teams of or individual instructors are confronted with questions related to: 1) the set-up or redesign of quality BL programs and courses, and 2) the institution-wide implementation of BL and matters of its continuous quality improvement.

The main purpose of this course is to respond to the urgency of institutional transformation for blended education and address the challenges identified above, not only for the local practices at the University of Edinburgh but also to benefit the wider higher education community.  The development of this MOOC aligns with the University’s strategic vision in terms of ‘offering world-leading thinking’ and making global impact through deep international partnerships. It addresses the 2016 Strategic Plan aim of “developing flexible study pathways…including online and blended learning opportunities and other innovative approaches to teaching and assessment”. It also supports the current Learning and Teaching Strategy in “committing to the creative use of digital technologies in our teaching and assessment… whether online, blended, or oncampus”, and the Information Services Group (ISG) Strategy in taking initiative to “encourage the use of digital technology and digital literacy across the University”.

Moreover, this course will benefit existing academic programmes, such as the Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PgCAP) offered by IAD, and the recruitment to the MSc in Digital Education offered by the School of Education. The MOOC supports the L&T Strategy aim of “every educator is a digital educator”.

This course is based on the outputs of the EMBED project, which is supported by the School of Informatics which prides itself as one of the world leading centres in research and teaching, particularly in the area of data science and technological applications. Blended learning has been emphasised as strategically important to Informatics in Scotland, and the MOOC demonstrates our commitment to be a world-leading institution in both teaching and research. 

Scope

In scope

• Production of all academic course content
• Production of media content for 4x videos week 1 and 1 x video week 5
• Branding of all media produced by non-UoE partners
• Production of the learning design
• Alpha testing (internal quality assurance of content, media and design)
• Beta testing (external quality assurance by FutureLearn
• Marketing support for first run of MOOC
• Moderator training
• Moderation during first run of MOOC
• Technical revisions following first run of MOOC

Out of scope

• Recruitment of a Teaching Assistant/s to moderate the MOOC
• Moderation of the MOOC following the first run
• Marketing activity
• Production of media (except branding) in weeks 2, 3, 4 and 5 (excluding one video in week 5)

Objectives

The objectives of the project are to:

Design and produce a five week MOOC on the topic of blended learning.  The MOOC will deliver only the first run and include snagging/revisions required to be made prior to future runs.  Thereafter the MOOC will become business as usual (BAU) within ISG.

The Learning Objectives of the course are that, on completion of the course, the learner will be able to:

• Describe and critically discuss the conceptualisation of blended education
• Apply key principles of blended learning for programme/course design
• Analyse the benefits and challenges of blended education, and appraise the quality

Deliverables

• Marketing and communications plan (including first run of the MOOC)
• Well-structured, peer-reviewed MOOC outline
• Quality-assured academic content
• High quality media content
• MOOC available to global students on www.FutureLearn.com
• Trained Moderator

Benefits

• MOOC will be available to a worldwide cohort of students
• Delivery of the MOOC will showcase the global profile of the EMBED project partners as a hub of expertise for the study of blended learning

Success Criteria

Production of a quality-assured MOOC available to a worldwide audience delivered on time          and within budget.

Project Milestones