Research paper on an emerging trend or issue Assignment 3 Research paper on an emerging trend or issue

by Melisa J. Hippolyte A Paper Presented in Fulfillment Of the Requirements of EDID6506 Issues, Trends, Innovations and Research in Instructional Design, Instructional Technology and Distance Education

Trimester III - (2013 - 2014)

Date of Submission: November 13th 2013

Email: melisa.hippolyte@open.uwi.edu University: University of the West Indies Open Campus eTutor: Sandhya Gunness Course Coordinator: Ms. Camille Dickson-Deane

Research paper on an emerging trend or issue Table of Contents Introduction to emerging trend/issue .. Body of paper - Supporting discussions In depth look at FutureLearn Design and Creation of FutureLearn Courses offered by FutureLearn Initiator of trend or issue Relevance to the field The Future of FutureLearn Potential use of this trend.. 4 6 7 8 9 11 12 3

Critiques and Proponents of FutureLearn .. 13 Reflection....... Conclusion. References. 14 17 19

Apendix A. 20

Research paper on an emerging trend or issue Introduction In 2012 a wave of disruption hit higher education. By the end of the year, 18 of the top 20 universities in North America were offering MOOCs - Massive Open Online Courses. It was marketed as the best way for all lifelong learners to improve their knowledge in a variety of fields related to their profession or education at no cost. In response to this trend the United Kingdom has launched FutureLearn. FutureLearn Ltd (trading as FutureLearn) is a private company owned by the Open University. The Open University has teamed up with more than twenty of the UKs top universities, the British Council, British Library, the British Museum and two international universities namely Trinity College Dublin and Australias Monash University to create the next generation of MOOCs.

Research paper on an emerging trend or issue In Depth look at FutureLearn Furturelearn is being marketed as a radical departure from the current way that courses are presented with online platforms. FutureLearn is guided by ten principles* namely; Open, Listen to learners, Tell stories, Provoke conversation, Embrace massive, Create connections, Keep it simple, Learn from others, Celebrate progress, and Embrace FutureLearners. FutureLearn offers a powerful new way to learn online. It is a new massive-scale social learning platform, drawing on expertise from The Open University, BBC, social media designers, and all the other FutureLearn partners. Every course has been designed according to principles of effective learning, through storytelling, discussion, visible learning, and using community support to celebrate progress. Each partner university has selected some of its best courses, and designed a complete learning experience presented by leading academics in their field. This is done via high quality videos and articles. Every course tells a story, step by step, with challenges quizzes and tests and

helpful tips along the way, to test and build students understanding. Learners discuss what they have learnt, but keeping in mind that not everyone likes being social, learners can start by simply adding comments in the margin, and if they particularly like a comment, they can choose to follow its author like on twitter . FutureLearn also aims to enhance learning by making the process visible. The To Do list gives you an overview of the course, showing the activities for each week and a record of the steps completed, while the profile page provides a summary of each students activity. Success comes not just from passing an assignment and completing a course, but also from contributing to the FutureLearn community. Everyone has an opportunity to be a teacher as well as a learner.

Research paper on an emerging trend or issue Simon Nelson, FutureLearn CEO, states that, FutureLearn will be drawing on 40 years Open University expertise in teaching and learning at a distance, and will therefore have an opportunity to offer something very different from MOOCs. He also stated that unlike MOOCs which cater for practicing academics who are familiar with the culture and semantics and are often very conventional, based on lectures broadcast at students, rather than engaging with them; that FutureLearn will be designed 100% for students.

Research paper on an emerging trend or issue Design and Creation of FutureLearn FutureLearn was designed and created because its founders decided to embrace the fact that the disruption in higher education by the internet and MOOCs are here to stay. They state that FutureLearn is not a mere replica of existing MOOCs, but rather an improvement that will provide an educational experience better than anything else in the MOOC market . They also stated that FutureLearn will create the spark to ignite other educational organizations and partners to innovate and that they will inspire people to continue to learn throughout their lives by; building on the Open Universitys expertise in delivering distance and open learning to hundreds of thousands of people, partnering with over 20 of the top Universities and combining this with online and mobile technology and the best of the social web to reinvent the learning experience. FutureLearn further distances itself from other MOOCs stating that students will be at the heart of the organization. Its aim is to connect learners from all over the globe with high quality educators, and with each other. FutureLearn believes that learning should be an enjoyable, social experience, with plenty

of opportunities to discuss what youve studied, in order to make fresh discoveries and form new ideas. Therefore to facilitate this; courses are delivered one step at a time, students can decide which of their classmates they want to follow and courses are accessible on mobile, tablet and desktop, so that learning can fit around your life, rather than your life around learning.

Research paper on an emerging trend or issue

Courses offered by FutureLearn FutureLearn which has partnered with the British Library, the British Council, the British Museum, 21 top UK universities, and 2 International Partners, will be offering courses on a range of topics, including Literature; History; Social Sciences; Computing & IT; to name a few. Some of the initial courses offered include,

BEGIN PROGRAMMING: BUILD YOUR FIRST MOBILE GAME; being offered by the University of Reading. of Java programming can run on your This course allows students to learn the basics by developing a simple mobile game that you computer, Android phone, or tablet.

CAUSES OF WAR, being offered by Kings College London. This course allows students to learn what causes current thinking on world affairs. armed conflict in the world today? Examine this question: for anyone with an interest in

INNOVATION AND ENTERPRISE, being offered by Loughborough University. This course allows students to learn is neither a scientific examines a model for an about managing the innovation process process nor a black art. This course innovation process.

Research paper on an emerging trend or issue Initiator of Trend FutureLearn which is the UKs response to the MOOC wave that disrupted higher education in the US in 2012, is an independent company but majority-owned by the Open University. It was founded by The OU, a world leader in modern distance learning, the pioneer of teaching and

learning methods which enable people to achieve their career and life goals studying at times and in places to suit them and created by a team of experts in learning design and educational technology, with a great track record of developing and delivering best consumer experiences like BBC iPlayer, Skype, Massive multiple online games and Social platforms.

Persons involved in FutureLearn Martin Bean, Vice Chancellor and founder/creator of the Open University. Stated that experience has shown, time and again, that when the internet comes along and disrupts an industry, it doesnt go away. From music to books to newspapers, the internet changes how we work, how we think, how we see the world. This realization is what led to the creation of FutureLearn.

Simon Nelson, FutureLearn CEO, states that FutureLearn, plans to access and use the vast amounts of data gathered through the OUs own OpenLearn platform, iTunesU, and from FutureLearn itself as it progresses, to engineer-in features that will deal with issues like assessment, plagiarism and high dropout rates encountered by MOOCs and to refine and improve the experience.

Research paper on an emerging trend or issue Relevance to the field The founders and creators of FutureLearn have used Instructional Design, and tools from the Instructional Technology toolbox to create a Massive Open Distance Education Program. The creators of Furturelearn have analyzed MOOCs, the OU and its free-to-access courses on

iTunes U and have designed free instruction using instructional technology to teach at a distance, in such a way that Students are the heart of FutureLearn, a radical departure from the current way that courses are presented with other online platforms. Unlike traditional courses, FutureLearn requires additional skills, provided by videographers, instructional designers, IT specialists and platform specialists. It is very clear that instructional designers have had a part to play in designing FutureLearn based on the way it has been set up. It also provides a great opportunity for other instructional designer[s], with FutureLearn being in beta with all courses running this year being pilot courses, to come in an analysis what has happened in the OU in the past and at present, what was and is happening in other MOOCs worldwide and what is presently happening in FutureLearn to design better instruction that enables FutureLearn to truly stand out from the other MOOCs out there, or maybe even create new MOOCs. FutureLearn has implications for this field of study , because whether it succeeds or not, just by its implementation it has had an impact on the field. Every time there is a new trend in education, it leads to an increase in exploration which sometimes leads to actual innovation in learning. The establishment of FutureLearn may lead to a revamping of distance education to incoporate some of the best features of FutureLearn. Online courses both paid and unpaid may have to increase their offerings and quality of offerings to handle the influx of students who may use FutureLearn as a stepping stone. Established MOOCs may also decide to improve on their

Research paper on an emerging trend or issue offering to be able to compete with FutureLearn. All of these changes will need the input of

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instructional designers, because they will all involve the designing of instruction, in one way or the other and even if no changes were made their input would be needed to ensure the maintenance of the current programs. With the advent of FutureLearn new educational technology will be put in use, some may be reinvented/invented to deal with the issues it may face. To sum up FutureLearn is very relevant to this field of study, because it embodies all three main components of the field, namely Instructional Design, Instructional Technology and Distance Education

Research paper on an emerging trend or issue The Future of FutureLearn FutureLearn was created in the hopes of adding to the value of UK higher education and to protect its export value today and keep it in the lead in future, to ensure that this happens,

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FutureLearn promises that it will engage, entertain and delight the people who come to study by bringing the UKs best university teaching and learning to students worldwide using the smartest and most engaging online learning experiences available. They have also promised to offer a best-in-class educational experience that will delight students, and instead of measuring drop outs, well be rewarding success. FutureLearn will celebrate everyones achievements, no matter where or how far their learning journey takes them. This they hope will reduce the number of drop outs a problem faced by first-generation MOOCs. FutureLearn is looking to include paid-for certification and proctored exams and most importantly to increase the quality of the learning experience. They are also seeking to debunk the belief held by many in higher education, that there is only value in courses that lead to formal qualifications and that informal learning is a waste of time.

Research paper on an emerging trend or issue Potential use of Future Learn

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Increase in the designing and delivering of effective education using the digital world for both for profit and for free. It will inspire students to enjoy journeys of learning by allowing them to discover great resources for free. Increase students access to quality higher education from a variety of top universities, for free on mobile phones, tablets or PCs. Create a culture of life-long learning Allow students to improve their knowledge in a variety of fields related to their profession or education for free.. Allow the UK to be at the forefront of developments in education technology and to widen access to, and meet the global demand for, higher education. Put the UK at the forefront of the MOOC wave. Increase the number of students who have access to higher education across the world. Bring together more free, open, online courses from leading universities around the world. Increase full time students at the OU or the partnering universities of Future learn. Increase high quality, entertaining and enjoyable courses to people across the world. Increase accessibility to education, no matter what stage of life they are at. Increase in exploration and actual innovation in learning. Cause a revamp of distance education Improve universities delivery of education Increase the role that instructional designers play in the field

Research paper on an emerging trend or issue Proponents of Future Learn As with any new trend FutureLearn has both its proponents and its detractors. Among its proponents are the, founders of future learn and the UK government.

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FutureLearn has been warmly welcomed by UK government. The Minister for Universities and Science responsible for higher education in England, David Willetts, said: FutureLearn has the potential to put the UK at the heart of the technology for learning agenda by revolutionising conventional models of formal education. New online delivery tools will also create incredible opportunities for UK entrepreneurs to reach world markets by harnessing technology and innovation in the field of education. Martin Bean, the Vice-Chancellor of The Open University, said: MOOCs represent an enormous development in higher education, one that has the potential to bring about long-lasting change to the HE sector. The OU has decades of experience in worldclass distance learning each year we teach around 250,000 registered students, with literally millions of others accessing our free, informal, online offerings. FutureLearn will take this proud heritage and work with some of Britains best-known universities to write the next chapter in the story of British higher education. Its critics ask questions of FutureLearn like, is it to late to join the MOOC wave? and Is FutureLearn really a MOOC or Just another online course that happens to be free?. And make statements, like it will never survive, it will have to come up with ways to earn money to sustain itself. I personally am a proponent of FuturelLearn, I think it has the potential to be great and that I and many others can and will benefit, we can never learn to much

Research paper on an emerging trend or issue Reflection Choosing FutureLearn as my trend for this assignment was actually the easiest part of this

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assignment. I came across it accidentally, never having heard of it before, I decided to verify if it was actually new. Seeing that it was, I sought and received permission to use it as my trend. Gathering information on the topic was overwhelming, for a new trend there was a lot written about it. The hardest part of this assignment was selecting what I wanted to present and organizing it in such a way that it made sense. The most confusing part of this assignment to me was whether or not FutureLearn is a MOOC. FutureLearn in some of its releases states that it is better than a MOOC, then in others it classes itself as a MOOC. After doing this assignment I think that by definition it is, maybe not a traditional MOOC because of some of its activities e.g. it is more student centered and more structured but a MOOC non-the-less because it is a Massive Open Online Course. At first glance I couldnt believe that such a thing exists, I originally thought that they offered certification in the courses, but upon further reading and investigation I realized that they do not. Some critics state that MOOCs act as windows into the universitys they are attached to, which I am somewhat inclined to agree with. FutureLearn states that it will be looking into offering certification in its courses, but this is still some ways off, so I guess if you want/need certification you have to actually enroll in the university as a paying student. The concept of FutureLearn seemed so intriguing that I decided to start a course, only problem was that I wasnt really interested in any of the courses that were offered at the start, but I decided to sign up anyway if for no other reason but to have first hand experience to add to this paper.

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The first thing I had to do was pick a course, and fill out a profile page Registration complete. I then received an email when the course started last week. There was a questionnaire to fill out, that asked questions like why are you taking the course, and then it was on to the course. There was a link on the My Courses dashboard which directed me to the course To Do list, which showed me what to do next. From there the similarities to this course began to appear, just like this course FutureLearn courses are divided into weeks. These contain various activities that you should aim to complete within the week, each one built from a sequence of straightforward steps, to help you learn. Each week is given a descriptive name, so you always know whats expected, and you can even navigate between them, to see whats coming up, or catch up from the beginning if youre late starting. This is as far as I got personally, but according to the FutureLearn website Learning takes place by watching videos, listening to audio and reading articles, and discussions, all of which will allow you to comment and ask questions in the margin page FutureLearn also stated that they will be adding lots of new ways to communicate ideas over the coming months. Many of these steps are followed by short quizzes [not scored] and tests [which are scored]. The educator will provide a commentary, reflecting on discussions, addressing common problems and relating the weeks topics to whats happening in the world right now. You can find their updates in the notices section. A Progress Page will give you some useful facts and figures including things like how much youve done, how much of the course is left to complete, what your overall score is and how social youre being. Now to me the Following things are what makes FutureLearn stand out, it allows students to follow other students like on twitter. If you Spot somebody that is making interesting points and asking great questions? Press the Follow button on their profile page and you can filter the discussions to include just those people you are most interested in. If someone follows you and

Research paper on an emerging trend or issue you follow back, you can learn together. At the end of the course, you can share a public version of your progress page as evidence of what youve learnt. FutureLearn will also be piloting features that let you take exams or buy statements of accomplishment as further evidence of your new skills.

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This assignment has opened me to a whole new world of education which I cant wait to explore, and with FutureLearn expanding its offering I am sure I will find many that I am interested in, e.g. Teaching computing: part 1 which is scheduled to start in February 2014.

Research paper on an emerging trend or issue Conclusion

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FutureLearn the newest trend in distance education, which has as its tag line Learning For Life, allows persons from all over the world to access free online courses from leading UK and international universities. FutureLearn Ltd is a private company owned by the Open University in the United Kingdom, and partnered with the British Library, the British Council, the British Museum, 21 top UK universities, and 2 International Partners. It was created in response to the latest trend in online distance education to hit the United States MOOCs. It makes use of the Instructional Technology tool box to design instruction to educate persons around the world for free, building on MOOCs and drawing on 40 years Open University expertise in teaching and learning at a distance, The FutureLearn program was put together and is being managed by a consortium of professionals which include instructional designers, who were, and are charged with this great feat of seamlessly designing this Massive Open Online Courses. FutureLearn claims that it will be better than existing MOOCs, that it will be student centered and offer a better quality of education. FutureLearn is presently in the pilot phase and will use information from this phase along with statistics from the OU and its other partners, and existing MOOCs to further enhance its offering. FutureLearn will in the future also be piloting features that will allow the participant to take exams or to buy statements of accomplishment as further evidence of their new skills. FutureLearn has implications for this field of study , because whether it succeeds or not, just by its implementation it has had an impact on the field. Every time there is a new trend in education, it leads to an increase in exploration which sometimes leads to actual innovation in learning.

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In response to the critics I say; I do not think that FutureLearn, is too late to join the MOOC wave, I believe that there is still room for improvement in the existing MOOCs and that FutureLearn seems well on its way to addressing many of those issues, I believe that this trend is here to stay.

Research paper on an emerging trend or issue References About FutureLearn. Startup Adventures. Retrieved September 16th from, http://about.FutureLearn.com/about/

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EdTechReview. Spreading Awareness on Education Technology. Free Online Courses From World's Best Universities. Retrieved September 16th from, http://edtechreview.in/news/news/products-apps-tools/508-FutureLearn-free-onlinecourses

FutureLearn. Retrieved September 16th from, https://www.FutureLearn.com/

Open to People, Places, Methods and Ideas. Retrieved November 8th from, http://www.open.ac.uk/about/main/the-ou-explained

The Ed Techie. Retrieved November 8th from, http://nogoodreason.typepad.co.uk/no_good_reason/2013/09/FutureLearn-the-role-ofmoocs.html

The Guardian. Retrieved November 8th from, http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/oct/22/study-mooc-top-universities

The open University. Retrieved September 16th from, http://www.open.ac.uk/platform/news- and-features/FutureLearnannouncement

Research paper on an emerging trend or issue Appendix Our principles Ten principles that guide how we design and build FutureLearn. Open
Wherever possible, we encourage our partners to make course content open and discoverable, to link out Research paper on an emerging trend or issue

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to the best of the web and take part in the online discussion. We strive to make course content accessible on as many devices as possible and to all visitors. We share our development process and the reasoning behind our business decisions via channels such as our blog. Listen to our learners Feedback from our learners is at the heart of our development process: both in terms of course content and features of the platform. We constantly iterate and improve based on feedback and observing how people are learning. We release features as quickly as possible and learn from how real people use them. And then we make them better. Tell stories Narrative is important. We want to inspire our learners to go on a journey and know where they are and where to go next. The narrative includes times to watch, listen and read, space for conversation, moments of quiet reflection and climaxes of assessment. We use storytelling to communicate ideas in fun and engaging ways. And we always let learners catch up. Provoke conversation Conversation happens in context and is integral to the learning experience. Social interactions are open by default to encourage vicarious learning and allow all to benefit from the discussion. We encourage everyone to be sociable because one of the best ways to learn is through talking with others.

Research paper on an emerging trend or issue Embrace massive

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We seize the opportunities that a large number of people learning together affords: the specialist knowledge that exists in the group; the number of people online together at one time; the way ideas flow around a network; and how crowds can help surface the best content. And we learn from watching how a large group of learners behave. Create connections We encourage learners to make connections to provide mutual support, challenge their ideas and remove the loneliness of distance learning. We create spaces for small groups to come together and reach shared understandings. Keep it simple We try to avoid complexity wherever possible. We use down to earth language and make the experience as friendly and welcoming as we can, and encourage our partners to the same. We design for the common use cases. If a feature is useful but only to a few, we will resist the temptation to include it, in order to keep the platform easy to use by all. Learn from others We borrow from the best of broadcasting, games and social media to create an engaging and enjoyable learning experience. We draw on the vast knowledge and experience that exists in The Open University and among our consortium of partners, who will also share their wealth of experience as educators with each other, to create the best possible final product. Celebrate progress We motivate our learners by breaking the journey into small steps. Each step is bite-sized to make the learning visible, help learners see progress quickly and regularly reflect on what they

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have learnt. We celebrate every step of progress, both small and large. There is no such thing as dropout: we encourage learners to take from the experience as little or as much as they desire. Embrace FutureLearners We want to create a community of lifelong learners, and provide the stepping stones from one journey to the next. Our visitors are FutureLearners, not students of a particular university.

Research paper on an emerging trend or issue THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES Graduate Coursework Accountability Statement (To be completed by student) ACADEMIC YEAR: 2013- 2014 SEMESTER: three TITLE: COURSE CODE: EDID 6506

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Issues, Trends, Innovations and Research in Instructional Design, Instructional Technology and Distance Education

NAME: Melisa Hippolyte

ID: 312500178

I hereby certify that I am the author of the attached item of coursework and that all materials from reference sources have been properly acknowledged. I understand what plagiarism is and what penalties may be imposed on students found guilty of plagiarism. I certify that this paper contains no plagiarised material. I certify that this is my own work and that I did not receive any unfair assistance from others (including unauthorized collaboration) in its preparation. I certify that this paper has not previously been submitted either in its entirety or in part within the UWI system or to any other educational institution. In the case of group work: I certify that the individual work of each member of the group has been clearly indicated; That where no such indication has been given, I take the responsibility for the work as if it were the section of the paper for which I am solely responsible; and That I have not collaborated with any members of the group to breach the Universitys regulations. Signature: M. Hippolyte Date: 13th November 2013