EMMA’s doors are open to new MOOC providers

Striking differences in Higher Education MOOC involvement between U.S. and Europe
 

by Darco Jansen, EADTU, the Netherlands

Three independent studies show that more than 40% of higher education institutions in Europe have a MOOC or are planning to develop one. The survey of the EUA conducted end 2013 already found that "interest in MOOCs has far from peaked in Europe”. Based on a the 2014 survey, conducted by the HOME project of EADTU, the report Institutional MOOC strategies in Europe also concluded that MOOC involvement in Europe is increasing. Preliminary results of another study (JRC-IPTS, 2015) conducted in five large European countries show differences between countries, ranging from 25% in Germany to about 60% in France.

This is a striking difference with the U.S. where the number of institutions that have a MOOC or are planning to develop one, dropped from 14.3% in 2013 to 13.6% in 2014. Other strong differences between Europe and the U.S. are:

• While U.S. institutions are mostly neutral or disagree, more than half of the EU institutions agree that MOOCs are a sustainable method for offering courses.
• While in the U.S. surveys, a large majority (66%) states that it is too early to tell if MOOCs are meeting the institution’s objective, the majority in the EU (58%) emphasises that MOOCs are already meeting some or most objectives.
• In contrast to the U.S., the European HEIs seem to disagree with the statement that “Credentials for MOOC completion will cause confusion about higher education degrees”.
• While in the U.S. survey, the opinion is mostly neutral or people disagree, in the EU version a large majority of the respondents agree that “MOOCs are important to learn about online pedagogy”.

A scientific paper about these 2014 results will be published mid December in a special issue of IRRODL. In the paper one of the possible reasons given for this difference relates to the social-inclusive dimension of the higher education system in continental Europe, in other words European institutions have more or less equal resources for their involvement in MOOCs.

In the EMMA webinar that took place last week Darco further elaborated on these results and its consequences for the pedagogical approach of MOOCs, you can watch the recording here.

In the next steps, Europe needs to take a stronger orchestrated collaboration on MOOCs. The EMMA project to this end collaborates with other projects like HOME. To enhance collaboration it is essential to keep monitoring the main reasons for institutions and governments to invest in MOOCs. Therefore the survey is repeated again this year and is available in English, French and Turkish.

In addition network meetings are needed on themes that strongly relate to institutional priorities. After two successful events (Porto, Barcelona), the HOME project organises the Conference “WOW! Europe embraces MOOCs in Rome on ‪30 November 2015. Due to overwhelming interest the host UNINETTUNO gratefully decided to move to a bigger venue. As such you are still invited to join.

#ILikeEMMA - Video competition    

Make a short video to explain what you like about EMMA:

• show us WHERE you follow an EMMA MOOC. At home? At your university? On the beach? On your roof terrace? In the plane? Surprise us!
• tell us WHY you like EMMA MOOCs, what did you learn and discover?
• WHAT would you tell your friends about EMMA?

The best video will win a 200 euro Amazon voucher. The winner will be announced in early 2016. use video, images, graphics, texts, music, animation… in the language of your choice your video should be no longer than 90 seconds make sure to include somewhere in your video the phrase: “I like EMMA, because…” send your video via the submission form before 18 December midnight (CET/Brussels time).