Running head: UTILIZATION OF MASSIVE OPEN ONLINE COURSES 1

Utilization of Massive Open Online Courses

Victoria Acevedo

CCHE 690 - Dr. Ewing

Northern Arizona University

April 20, 2017

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Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are usually free courses that are open to

thousands of students and can be accessed by anyone with an internet connection (Adham &

Lundqvist, 2015). As MOOCs became popular in 2012, they garnered a reputation of having the

ability to supersede borders, race, gender, class, and income (Emmanuel, 2013). Ideally, with

MOOCs, anyone in the world can obtain a first-class education for free. As New York Times

reporter, Thomas Friedman, stated in reference to MOOCs, nothing has more potential to lift

more people out of poverty by providing them an affordable education to get a job or improve

on the job they have (2013).

In order to outreach the rapidly growing and diverse U.S. and international students, it

would behoove Northern Arizona University (NAU) to utilize MOOCs in the universitys online

degree programs. NAU must take several steps to incorporate the use of MOOCs in NAUs

online degree programs. NAU must 1) provide and implement innovative ideas to reach more

people with MOOCs, 2) partner with organizations such as Coursera, and 3) coordinate with

local as well as international colleges and universities for marketing and advertising.

By taking into consideration the shortcomings of current MOOC platforms, NAU can

outreach a more diverse population with a slightly different approach to MOOCs. Over the years,

a few inefficiencies have been revealed with the typical MOOC model. MOOCs are not yet

making education borderless, gender-blind, race-blind, and class-blind (Christensen,

Steinmetz, Alcorn, Bennett, Woods, & Emmanuel, 2013). MOOC users often are males who

come from developed countries and already possess a bachelors degree (Stratton & Grace,

2016). Therefore, a question NAU must consider is, how do we allow MOOCs to serve their

original purpose of providing education to under-educated populations in developing countries?

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Access to high-speed, broadband internet continues to be an issue in developing

countries, with 3.6 billion people still offline (Castillo, Lee, Zahra, & Wagner, 2015). MOOCs

have been successfully implemented in countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and

Iraq, which lack widespread internet connection (Maitland & Obeysekare, 2015). Coursera has

created learning hubs in developing countries, partnering with local schools, libraries, and

universities while MOOC camps have been hosted by the U.S. State Department and U.S.

embassies to supply access to MOOC courses (Godwin-Jones, 2014). Within these learning

hubs and MOOC camps students are able to download MOOC content, participate in

discussions, and become engaged in the curriculum with their local peers who are also enrolled

in the MOOC. Based on this model, NAU could offer MOOCs for people in developing

countries.

NAU will be involved in developing MOOCs that are downloadable and broken down

into modules which come with course materials i.e. discussion prompts and exercises. A student

with internet access (who would act as a facilitator) could download a few modules at a time

with extra materials to supplement the course. Only one user would have to download content,

which would require fewer people to have access to the internet. The student facilitator could

take the downloaded modules and materials and share it with local users in a face-to-face format.

Discussion, engagement, collaboration, and interaction could take place with this type of blended

approach. Once the group is done with the few modules they were able to download, then the

facilitator would go back to where (s)he could access the internet to download more modules and

materials to share with their fellow students until the course is complete. This model would

combine the massive characteristic of MOOCs with smaller, local, in-person discussions, which

could have a positive impact on students experiences (Maitland & Obeysekare, 2015) and the
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students ability to learn the course material (Urton, 2015). If students are engaged and

experience accountability through their small groups, perhaps it would increase MOOC

completion rates from the current menial 10% (Breslow, Pritchard, DeBoer, Stump, Ho, &

Seaton, 2013). Encouraging discussion among smaller groups of people in similar geographic

areas will also allow for cultural translation of MOOCs, giving students flexibility to adjust their

learning to their life and learning setting (Nkuyubwatsi, 2014). Students could utilize the

information they have gained from MOOCs to implement change in their local communities.

The expense of producing MOOCs could potentially be a barrier to participation for a

small university such as NAU (Ebben & Murphy, 2016). In order for NAUs investment in

MOOCs to be worthwhile, with students all over the world enrolled and engaged in the courses,

NAU must partner with an existing MOOC platform such as Coursera (Trucano, 2013).

Partnering with Coursera would ensure the successful distribution of NAUs MOOCs. Arizona

State University and the University of Arizona have already formed partnerships with Coursera

(Coursera Inc., 2017). As the only major university in Arizona that has not yet established an

affiliation with Coursera, it is incumbent on the administration at NAU to start the process. The

administration at Northern Arizona University, the registrars office, as well as the office for

international admissions must be involved in creating the partnerships with MOOC platforms

and coming to an agreement that would benefit students, professors, the university, and

Coursera.

Partnering with MOOC platforms such as Coursera will also provide the added benefit of

translation of courses to various languages. Users cannot participate in MOOC courses if they do

not understand the language in which they were produced. Since users tend to respond well to

courses in the original language with bilingual subtitles (in the original language and the users
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language), NAU will ensure that course subtitles are bilingual (Che, Luo, Wang, & Meinel,

2016). NAUs language departments will work with translators at Coursera to ensure courses are

translated properly and have appropriate subtitles. Translation and internationalization of

curriculum will be the responsibility of both NAU and Coursera (Davidson, 2014).

NAU faculty would also play a key role in the development of MOOCs. Professors who

are interested in developing MOOCs for NAU would be required to have experience in online

course development. For instance, having knowledge or skills in universal instructional design

for online courses and implementing teaching methods that consider diverse learning styles,

abilities, previous experience, and background knowledge while creating multiple ways for

students to demonstrate their understanding of material is key for a MOOC (Rao, 2013). Also,

professors understanding of the need to proceed methodically through course content, avoiding

content overload, and create opportunities for active learning can ensure MOOCs are beneficial

for students (Norman, 2015). Professors could even enroll in a MOOC themselves to observe

first-hand the advantages as well as the challenges of MOOCs. Thirty-two percent of MOOC

participants in an MIT survey say they currently are or have been a teacher (MIT News, 2017).

Perhaps this is an effective way to find out how to create an effective MOOC.

The marketing and advertising for NAUs MOOC would necessitate coordinating with

local and international community colleges and universities. Only 20% of Americans are aware

of MOOCs (Young, 2016). The challenge NAU will face is to increase local and international

awareness of the MOOCs that will be provided. To do this, NAU will utilize pre-existing

connections with local and international institutions. Sending informational packets with

brochures and pamphlets describing NAUs MOOC model, the classes offered, and the value of

taking a MOOC will be disbursed locally and globally; both to the institutions where NAU has
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contacts as well as to institutions and organizations where NAU has not yet made affiliations.

One benefit NAU could gain from providing MOOCs could be increasing international student

enrollment. NAU could provide students, who are enrolled in their MOOCs, incentives for

enrolling at the university. The cost of higher education for international students is substantial

and they are often ineligible for financial aid (Tyson, 2014). Taking into consideration the

cultural diversity international students can bring to campuses, perhaps the university could

allow tuition breaks for international students who have taken MOOCs through NAU. In

essence, MOOCs could become another recruiting tool for international students at Northern

Arizona University (Kolowich, 2014).

The NAU model of MOOCs would begin to address the problem of un-educated people

in developing countries not having access to current MOOC models. Not requiring internet

access from each student, but only from one student facilitator, will allow more people to

participate in the course. Assistance from university administration and faculty is necessary for

both the development of MOOCs and to form a partnership with Coursera. In order for NAUs

MOOCs to reach as many people as possible, coordination with local and international colleges

and universities will also be key. Producing MOOCs that are available to people in developing

countries, in the language they understand, while implementing the small group, face-to-face

format, will make NAUs MOOC model different from the conventional MOOC model and

perhaps have more outreach and successful completion among students.

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