Athabasca University is known for its leadership and innovation in distance education. The emergence of MOOCs was of both interest and concern; interest in reference to the opportunities MOOCs could offer as accessible, affordable education and concern at the speed with which MOOCs were being designed and delivered without reference to distance education research/instructional design.

An AU-MOOC Advisory Group was created to consider the opportunity to do just that: evaluate the opportunity to use what is known about successful distance online education in a massive open online course. Learning to Learn Online was the chosen topic for this exploratory MOOC design research. Learning to Learn Online (LTLO) is designed to provide novice online learners with effective skills, practices, and attitudes for online learning.

LTLO is delivered with notions of micro learning communities in mind. Beyond xMOOCs, where traditional transmission models of content delivery is the norm, AU MOOCs are designed to be experiential and collaborative. Beyond cMOOCs, where students are expected to engage in connectivist constructionism and manage their own learning, AU MOOCs are facilitated. The creation of LTLO rested on sound instructional design strategies (Cleveland-Innes, Briton, Gismondi, & Ives, 2015) and the premises found in the online community of inquiry (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2001).

This inquiry-based MOOC, or iMOOC, includes three types of Teaching Presence to support learning. The first type is labeled ‘instruction.’ Here there is no opportunity for student response but rather content is delivered in an adjusted lecture format. This instruction is offered in two ways. One is through short videos of someone presenting information supported by a visual of the person and slides/other visuals.  The second way of offering instruction is in text-based presentation of material.

The second type of Teaching Presence is offered in an iMOOC and is labeled ‘inspiration.’ This learning support is offered by a person who plays the role of Inspirer, who, through text-based communication and short-videos, opens and closes each week of the course. This communication provides encouragement, direction, and inspiration at the start of each week and validation and closure at the end of each week.

The third type of Teaching Presence is offered through roving facilitators who provide ‘information’ as needed. A facilitator for every 250 participants is available online to answer questions about technology and learning processes, and encourage students to respond to each other’s questions, comments, and discussion forum posts.

The research about the iMOOC design will be presented at a COHERE conference session in Toronto, October, 2017. We will present findings in an animated, well-illustrated format that illuminates participant responses to this unique instructional design for MOOCs. Discussion will be supported as time allows and direction to further information will be provided, including answers to frequently asked questions.

See ltlo.ca for more information.

Cleveland-Innes, M., Briton, D., Gismondi, M., & Ives, C. (June, 2015). MOOC instructional design principles: ensuring quality across scale and diversity. Poster presentation at the International Conference on MOOCs in Scandinavia in Stockholm, Sweden.

Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2000). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 2(2-3), 87−105.