C-Level View | Feature
The Taming of the MOOC--With ePortfolio Evidence
The IT revolution that was supposed to transform higher
education has failed to materialize, at least in the way we had imagined it.
The revolution did occur, but not directly within higher education--instead, it
changed the overall nature of work in our culture. And now, higher education
seems to be behind the curve, struggling to catch up.
Enter the MOOC--a relatively new buzzword meaning Massive
Open Online Course. And it holds hope for many as a way for higher education to
"catch up." Indeed, MOOCs could be one way to get ahead of the curve again, or,
they could become a yet another material threat to higher education. Here's how
to turn this "threat" into something much more positive.
A shockingly sudden phenomenon, MOOCs are really only one
symptom of openness, the general effect of digital technologies making
information and knowledge ubiquitous, universal, and in many cases free.
Enrolling millions of students worldwide [see "How Free Online Courses Are Changing the Traditional Liberal Arts Education," a PBS Newshour report from January 8, 2013]
does make the MOOCs seem like a threat to the higher education establishment
(except for those institutions offering them). But to learners everywhere,
MOOCs seem to open the door to learning opportunities undreamed of just a few
years ago. Wherever there is broadband connectivity, people anywhere in the
world can sign up for courses offered by faculty from some of the most
prestigious universities in the world. We are seeing pent-up demand at a massive scale.
Still, there are valid questions: Are students really
learning from what could seem merely a very, very large lecture hall? If they
are learning by participating in MOOCs, how can we know that? And how can that
learning be better documented and visible? Students in MOOCs may take tests and
may have some contact with other students and with a mentor, but to say that
anyone knows these students as much as a professor does in a traditional
setting is a real stretch.
Yes, MOOCs offer great lecturers, there are social
dimensions to the MOOC experience, good graphics, shorter segments of learning
for better grasp, and so on, but we are left with huge questions. Would MOOCs
be massive if they were not free? What do we conclude from the very low
completion rate? And, how can MOOC enrollees receive recognition of their
learning from a formal degree-granting institution?
ePortfolios: The Quiet Revolution
We turn to a now-familiar technology that was itself once a
new buzzword: electronic portfolios. Quietly, especially over the past five
years, electronic portfolio use has been spreading in higher education both in
the U.S. and internationally. The ePortfolio industry is booming. In the U.S.,
thousands of colleges and universities are using ePortfolios to enhance
learning, to move from teaching to learning, to make learning more active, to
help redesign programs, to improve student employability, and to address accountability
demands. In other words, ePortfolios are now part of the enterprise for many or
most U.S. institutions.
A major benefit of ePortfolios is that they allow learners
to collect evidence of their learning in the classroom, of their work in team
projects, and of their work outside of the classroom. And, of course, they may
be used to collect evidence from any learning
experience. ePortfolios stay with the learner, so learners have a persistent
record of their achievements and competencies.
Learners enrolled in MOOCs would increase the value of their
experience by using an ePortfolio. ePortfolio accounts are available for
individuals anywhere; the ePortfolio providers host the functionality and data
on their own servers. Many ePortfolio providers also offer mobile apps, so a
smart phone is sufficient in many cases to capture evidence and to upload the
evidence to the ePortfolio.
What kind of evidence? Both the learner and others who might
see the ePortfolio want some kind of meaningful record of the learning
experience. If a MOOC involves active learning, then photos or video clips or
audio clips could record the activity. An audio clip can also be a spoken
reflection on the active learning. If the MOOC provides opportunities for
social interaction with other participants, then the learner and his/her team
can work within an ePortfolio system, in the group work module.
And who would look at and evaluate the evidence? Aside from
employers, who do increasingly value ePortfolios for hiring, others who might
look at the evidence are colleges and universities that have staff dedicated to
"assessment of prior learning." [See Learning Counts, for example, or CAEL
for more on assessment of prior learning.] Assessment of prior learning or
"recognition of prior learning" is an emerging global phenomenon.
Aside from helping to get credit for the learning
accomplished in a MOOC by the assessment of prior learning route, ePortfolios
can also expand the learning within the ePortfolio itself. Being able to look
back at your own work in your ePortfolio and then integrate that work, or
assess it, or see your own changes over time, is in itself a learning
experience. MOOC learning, or any kind of learning, can be extended by
reflection within an ePortfolio.
What Does "Taming" Mean?
Getting back to the title of this article, "The Taming of
the MOOC--With ePortfolio Evidence," you might ask, what does "taming" mean? It
could seem that MOOCs are wild, unpredictable, and dangerous to educational
institutions. However, to the extent that ePortfolio evidence can close the
loop by bringing the MOOC learner back into the educational establishment
through assessment of the ePortfolio evidence, the "wild" energy of MOOCs can
be turned to the benefit of educational institutions.
Electronic portfolios are native to openness: They stay with
the learner, they are in the cloud, and the technology has become wondrously
capable and intuitive. MOOCs are one manifestation of our era of openness in
which learning opportunities are almost infinite. MOOCs need ePortfolios to
improve their value.
It might have seemed a short while ago that a learner could
only get an ePortfolio account when enrolled at an institution. Today, however,
some ePortfolio providers, perhaps a majority of them, offer individual
accounts. Or, of course, the MOOC organizations could, themselves, arrange for
ePortfolio accounts for their enrollees, with the enrollees paying for their
ePortfolio accounts. It will seem odd if they don't do this.
There's no doubt MOOCs have arrived massively. The challenge has become how to "see" the learning
in a MOOC, how to assess it, and how to credential it. If MOOC organizations
add ePortfolio opportunities, MOOC learning can be more valuable, more
permanent, and more useful. Educators and learners everywhere will benefit from
the continued spread of ePortfolios and the concurrent spread of ePortfolio
wisdom about best uses of ePortfolios. ePortfolio technologies remain as a
transformative, anticipatory technology. And now, they can help "tame" the
flood of openness and educational opportunity as MOOCs and other new
modalities arise. [To discover more about ePortfolio technologies, see AAEEBL's Web page on corporate affiliates
and click on any of the icons.]
[Editor's note: Campus Technology and AAEEBL, the ePortfolio
professional association, team up each year to host co-located conferences,
Campus Technology's summer conference and AAEEBL's annual conference in Boston.
These co-located conferences will be at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston
July 29-Aug 1, 2013.]
