future plausib!es. MOOC: the disruptor Inside: MOOCs: the disruptor Future Plausibles India: SurďŹ ng the learning waves India: Impact of MOOCs on teaching Technologies India: Open opportunities India: Voices from the Ground
A publication of Dig Design Studio Bangalore, India
Introduction to the magazine Future Plausibles looks at innovative and disruptive ideas, analyzes patterns and trends that are emerging in the digital world. Magazine's focus is on Indian market. It captures the voices of makers, creators and stake holders of these products. The magazine analyzes the impact of these ideas on people and their responses, behaviors and actions. Finally, we attempt to outline the future potentials and directions for these ideas.
In this issue
MOOCs: the disruptor
8
2 years and Gloomy skies 12
Future Plausibles
14
Students at Sixty
16
MOOC Ambassadors
18
Niche Gurus
22
Ugly Ducklings
20
India: SurďŹ ng the learning waves
India: How will MOOCs influence the teaching technologies? 28
Augmented Classrooms
Online Tutors 34
30
India: Open opportunities Relevance to mobile devices The great Indian madness
42
40
38
24
India: Voices from the ground
Dr. TV Prabhakar Prof Rahul De Professor, Dept. of Computer Science & Engineering, IIT Kanpur 46
Hewlett-Packard Chair Professor, Information & Communication Technology, IIM Bangalore 47
Gaurav Mittal
Udian Patel
Co Founder Director Quest Tutorials, Ex VP Marketing, Merit Nation 49
Strategic Manager, IndiaEduServices.com 50
Further Reading, Sources, Credits 52 About Dig Design Studio 53
44
Venkatesh Hariharan
Ex-Head, Public Policy & Government Affairs at Google India | Director of Knowledge Commons 48
Sarita Digumarti Co-Founder, Jigsaw Academy 51
MOOCs: The disruptor
55% vs 91%
Pass rate for a traditional course vs Pass rate for the same course with MOOC component
Data from The Wall Street Journal | http://online.wsj.com
MOOCs: the disruptor
MOOCs Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are a mode of educational delivery which are, to varying degrees massive, open, online, and an educational course. Most MOOCs are structured similar to traditional online higher education courses in which students watch lectures, read assigned material, participate in online discussions or forums, and complete quizzes & tests on the course material - all made available online. MOOCs are typically provided by higher education institutions, often in partnership with organizers such as Coursera, edX, and Udacity, though some MOOCs are being offered directly by a college or university. Some of these courses offer university credits, fee for certiďŹ cates and create a blend of online & offline classes. Quite a few universities have already signed up, some are rushing to create MOOCs of their own, and others are comparing
MOOCs: the disruptor
the privacy pitfalls vs. merits of courses offered by private players to plan their next action plan. MOOCs came into being due to the confluence of a number of trends: disruptive ideas about the sources and processes of education, widespread availability of technologies and changes to the financial model of higher education. Since 2012, MOOCs have been expected to revolutionize learning as these courses are available to anyone with a device and connection. The growing interest in openness — in open access and open resources — in higher education brings added interest in MOOCs. With more than 6 million students signed up, the platform is extremely scalable - the student to teacher ratio is 150,000:1. The largest provider, Coursera, has drawn five million, and nonprofit provider edX more than 1.3 million. http://www.cni.org/ http://online.wsj.com/
MOOCs: the disruptor
2 years and Gloomy skies Seventy-five percent of the students said the main reason they signed up for a MOOC was that it didn’t cost them anything. Inspite of being free, major cause of concern is that less
Too busy to finish 38% Learning experience 19% didnt meet expectation Lost interest in course 11% Not enough incentive 11% to finish
than 10% complete a course
I forgot about 6% the course Never intended to finish 3% the course
on MOOCs.
Other 13%
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Monitization of MOOcs is still unclear. MOOCs require a considerable investment of time and resourses; for creating content, for incentives to rope in reputed institutions, fees to run machines that can handle courses for thousands at one go. Smaller institutions, working with tighter budgets, will be unable to sustain MOOCs on their own.
35
40
MOOCs players such as Coursera, edX are already exploring the possibility of selling courses, dashboards or analytics tools to corporates looking to track employee progress as a way to monitise investments in MOOCs Credit earning, peer evaluation, awards and recognition are still grey areas, without agreed policies by the academic institutions. https://net.educause.edu 'All Hail MOOCs! Just Don’t Ask if They Actually Work' at Nation.Time.com 'An Early Report Card on Massive Open Online Courses' at Online.WJS.com Coursera eyes corporate education market
"In large part, the (MOOC) experience is very good, but we see that there are problems, and there are a number of things that can be done that have promise. We are not even close to the kinds of conclusions we want." Anant Agarwal, President of edX.
future plausibles
Scenarios and predictive observations based on the contextual understanding of MOOCs and Online learning landscape.
Future Plausibles
'Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.' Henry Ford Elders with Ipad Š Reuters via Today | http://www.todayonline.com Henry Ford : Photographer Hartsook | http://www.loc.gov/pictures
Future Plausibles
Students at Sixty The age of learning is constantly being stretched. Going forward, more mature students will look out for courses that give them deeper perspectives in their respective ďŹ elds as well as an exposure to disciplines tangential to their core interests. Apart from these T-shaped professionals, past prime students pursue courses as a novel and recreational pursuit. Both these types of returning students bring in lateral experiences, dedicated curiosity and wider perspective. Their active participation will be instrumental in impacting the average knowledge curve of the participant community. MOOCs have the ability to mix the Young and the Old, creating novel challenges (ex: bridging generation gaps) and opportunities (ex: networking for better employability and entrepreneurship).
Influencers: Educational Institutions, Groups and Associations
Future Plausibles
‘Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.’ Nelson Mandela
Fish © boyelroy86 | http://www.flickr.com/photos/boyelroy/ Nelson Mandela © Festival Karsh | http://www.flickr.com/photos/festivalkarsh/
Future Plausibles
MOOC Ambassadors MOOCs will evolve into learning, self-sustaining eco systems. Select academically gifted students with leadership abilities will be provided incentives / scholarship by MOOCs. They will give back to MOOCs by performing the active role of 'Teaching Assistants' in subsequent runs of these courses. Within their own context, they will share MOOCs offline with others in their communities and become off-line brand ambassadors of MOOCs. A great boost to the MOOCs, these ambassadors will cover hard to reach geopolitical areas and a variety of people, helping grow the credibility of MOOCs in these new regions.
Influencers: Educational Institutions, Government, NGOs and Grassroot organizations, Telecom
Future Plausibles
‘Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up’ Thomas Alva Edison Walk out © Jwoodleywonderworks | https://www.flickr.com/photos/joshuhl Thomas Alva Edison : Photographer Louis Bachrach | http://www.loc.gov/pictures
Future Plausibles
Ugly Ducklings Isolated misďŹ ts, alienated and disengaged students are some of the victims of the traditional methods of teaching-learning. MOOCs offers a venue for such disillusioned, to design and commit to their own staggered schedules, make active choices and plans for their education. Interactive strategies will be created based on personality traits and the students' extra-curricular interests. When compared with traditional universities, MOOCs adopt agile technological advances without any infrastructure barriers or delays. They will incorporate new features based on ArtiďŹ cial Intelligence and self learning systems. GamiďŹ cation with rewards for attendance/ performance/ participation will be offered as redeemable points to be used in the real world. Think discounts on movie tickets, local gym / stadium usage, etc.
Influencers: Educational Institutions, Parents, Sociologists, Private Institutions
Future Plausibles
‘Most great learning happens in groups. Collaboration is the stuff of growth.’ Sir Ken Robinson Ph.D.
Walk out © JeromesPOV | http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeromespov Sir Ken Robinson © TheBusinessMakers | http://www.loc.gov/pictures
Future Plausibles
Niche Gurus As the platform grows, the content will steadily broaden to include gaps and niche topics. Specializations over and above the standardized academic content will become popular. In such a scenario MOOCs will provide the forum for anyone with capability and interest to become a knowledge provider. Localized subject matter specialists will start getting their due. Tie-ups with MOOCs provide such niche subject experts the endorsement of a reputed university, which is otherwise lacking in personal posts and videos. MOOCs can also beneďŹ t by providing the venue for interested students to access subject experts spread all over the globe, bypassing human resources and administrative issues such as travel time, documentation etc.
Influencers: Educational Institutions, Groups and Associations, Grassroots organizations
India: SurďŹ ng the learning waves
Education, a privilege that has been reliant on finances, location, and in some cases, even race and religion, will now rely on two things only; an Internet connection and the willingness to learn. SALMAN KHAN THE ONE WORLD SCHOOLHOUSE : EDUCATION REIMAGINED © World Affairs Council | http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldaffairscouncil/
India: Surfing the learning waves Back in the days of a single national television channel, Doordarshan, IGNOU was the pioneer indirect educational course providers. Students would watch the on-screen class room scenarios very similar to an actual classroom, listen to the lectures, learn course contents and work on assignments in their free time. This was designed as a tutorial supplement to their graduation / post-graduation degree courses. Enter MOOCs giving a new dimension to distance education. In its current form, MOOCs are creating ripples among universities and have reached Indian shores. The number of Indian students joining western MOOCs are increasing steadily; in Oct 2013 Coursera, a for-profit educational technology company, partnering with universities such as Yale, University of Michigan and Stanford showed that signups from non - US students account for 61.5% of Coursera’s enrolment are from
developing countries with Brazil, India and China leading the way.
158,000 (12%) of 1.3 million students on edX are from India
Already 10% of Coursera and 12% of edX (a MOOC platform founded by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University in May 2012) are Indian Students.
http://online.wsj.com http://www.forbes.com http://weeklywonk.newamerica.net http://www.academia.edu http://www.livemint.com
India: Impact of MOOCs on teaching Technologies
© Photographer: David Boté Estrada | http://www.flickr.com/photos/logatfer/
Impact of MOOCs on Augmented Classrooms Today's notion of the spaces of learning are transforming quickly.
Impact of MOOCs on Augmented Classrooms
Š IDC | http://shenoy-innovation-studio.blogspot.in
Impact of MOOCs on Augmented Classrooms
Augmented Classrooms Number of urban institutions are augmenting traditional classroom teaching/ learning methods with digital interactive content tool-kits such as ILFS K-Class, Educomp, SmartClass, Tata Class Edge along with their hardware devices, projectors or smartboards. Additionally devices such as recorders, mobile tablet, smartphones and laptops are being used in classrooms. Government initiated Akash tablet, developed by the Indian research centers, as a low cost indigenous educational device linked to online content repositories such as NTPEL, is aimed to reach technologically unaware and non-catered sections of rural India. While the tool-kits and repositories may make for homogenous delivery by reducing the teacher quality variable, most quality teachers complain that these tools cramp their style, take away control of their classes - and instead make teachers ‘mere computer operators’!
Impact of MOOCs on Augmented Classrooms
Impact of MOOCs on Augmented Classrooms Educational institutions in India will be greatly influenced by the availability of MOOCs, especially those with limited resources, to subscribe to the free courseware instead of expensive content offered by private players. Juxtaposing MOOCs and augmented systems will lead to tailoring of different online resources to meet the custom requirements of the respective class, learning levels, pace, ďŹ nancial conditions and educational needs. Discussion forums within MOOCs will branch out to accommodate physical classrooms with teachers and students contributing content to the common online repository. These repositories will also be open to students to grade each other, work as a team or browse the content just as an internet resource - but all within the context of their classroom.
Impact of MOOCs on Online Tutors Virtual One-on-One personal knowledge delivery systems as a suppliment to overworked teachers.
Impact of MOOCs on Augmented Classrooms
Š Business World | http://www.businessworld.in
Impact of MOOCs on Augmented Classrooms
Online Tutors
Currently in India service providers, like Merit Nation, Topperlearning, Learnnext, Jigsaw Academy, offer students access to customized online content. They provide adaptive learning features by mapping students' speciďŹ c requirement, progress and level of understanding based on assessment. Some of the schools & colleges are supplementing classroom training with online assessments, allowing peer-to-peer comparison and benchmark student's performance with their online peers. Online tutors such as etuitions.org, myprivatetutor.com and bharattutors.com provide options of online tutoring in selected subjects. Though the concept of online tutors has appealed to a good number of students, conventional physical tuition centers still remain the preferred choice as real teachers inspire commitment.
Impact of MOOCs on Augmented Classrooms
Impact of MOOCs on Online Tutors MOOCs have affected the concept of online tutoring in India, forcing them to be more cohesive and adapt to the discussion forums and class involvement. Online tutorials are unable to provide the same level of awards and certiďŹ cation as MOOCs which are partnered by some of the premier universities in the world. Some of the online tuition providers will adapt to the MOOC invasion by providing creative solutions like option of open purchase of speciďŹ c courses or repackage courses to topic bundles instead of their current bundles around syllabus/ standard/ subject. Online tutors will go the route of bespoke classes on niche subjects and offer closer student to teacher interaction and access. The smaller number in classes also mean that the students will bond easier with their peers & tutors.
India: Open opportunities
India, Indians, the culture and usage, the adoption of these new disruptions allow for vast and unique opportunities unlike those for the developed world.
India: Open opportunities
Š Reuters via http://tech.ďŹ rstpost.com
India: Open opportunities
Relevance to mobiles and tablets The future of communication is getting more compact and mobile. Mobile devices are almost ubiquitous. Internet and Wi-Fi connectivity on devices will increase many fold and the reach will become universal. MOOCs will need to adapt to this by opening access and content to mobile devices as a primary way to participate actively in classroom discussions and debates. Experience Design Opportunities: How would a mobile / tablet application allow users to discover courses relevant for them? What does access to material mean when faced with intermittent connectivity issues? How would the assessments, assignments and discussion take place within mobile context? How can content be delivered in mobile friendly chunks?
India: Open opportunities
Š Pallavi Damera | http://www.flickr.com/photos/pallavi_damera/2536005489/
India: Open opportunities
The great Indian frenzy India provides perhaps the greatest challenge in this endeavour of MOOCs, due to social, political, lingual, economical and infrastructural diversities. Learning experiences are affected by local contexts like culture, language, geopolitics, technology access and other social issues. Experience Design Opportunities: How to offer speciďŹ c regions or niche sectors a relevant variant of the global content? How to tackle sub-cultures? How to deal with challenges like inability to speak English, discontinuous and limited access to the internet? How to introduce multi- lingual content in the courses so that both comprehension and communication is aided by MOOCs? How can job oriented courses, artisan training that help in enhancing skilled labor be available as MOOCs?
India: Voices from the ground
'MOOCs present a huge opportunity in India. We are traditionally a society that is highly invested in learning, also we now have a large number of young people wanting to learn. Coupled with the huge short supply of good faculty, online courses are extremely useful'
DR. TV PRABHAKAR PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF COMPUTER SCIENCE & ENGINEERING, IIT KANPUR
Voices from the ground
Dr. TV Prabhakar
Professor, Dept. of Computer Science & Engineering, IIT Kanpur In India, among students a university degree is very critical. Few are interested in courses without certification. We created and ran 2 courses on MOOCs, the results have been encouraging; the first paid course where the participants were short listed by us, had about 80% completion and certification rate. In free and open to all course 50% of the registered were active participants. Of this 30% received certification. Recording lectures are helpful in the long term. The burden of giving lectures on standard material is reduced leaving more contact hours for interaction and extra information to the student. The instructor is not bored! Effort in content creation and event management needed for MOOCs is intense for an instructor. But worthwhile due to reusability of courseware and the wide reach of MOOCs.
Voices from the ground
Prof Rahul De
Hewlett-Packard Chair Professor, Information & Communication Technology, IIM Bangalore (IIM B)
Ramya Srinivasan
Manager, Digital Learning Initiative, IIM B Although MOOCs are not a yet big force in India, interest levels are high. Two main concerns remain: monetization & access bandwidth. Encouragement drives like MHRD pushing IITs to put their content online are much needed. IIM Bangalore with MOOCs seeks to cater to a wide audience of aspiring students, other MBA schools and corporate programmes. Digital Learning Initiative at IIM B, is exploring MOOCs preparation for certification, hybrid models of blended classrooms and open, free online knowledge repository. A pilot ‘Lecture Capture’ of 200 sessions by 15-20 faculty members has been recorded and made available for course participants.
Voices from the ground
Venkatesh Hariharan
Ex-Head, Public Policy & Government Affairs at Google India | Director of Knowledge Commons Future of online learning is very promising. With Youtube videos mapped to CBSE syllabus, teachers have noticed greater interest, enthusiasn and retention levels among children at lower income category schools (with myriad challenges). Dr. S Ramadorai, head of National Skills Development Agency, has initiated to source and curate a one-stop open shop for skill development content. Lower dropout rates are seen in pioneering initiatives such as training at a local skills based business after ascertaining the users’ interest towards videos loaded on to their smartphones. Proprietary content with limits on experimentation is passÊ. Impending advances in access & devices, the wealth of free content created by practitioners, newer revenue models such as Youtube subscriptions, extensive reach upon better language inclusion - all signal a future of revolutionary opportunities.
Voices from the ground
Gaurav Mittal
Co Founder Director Quest Tutorials Ex VP Marketing, Merit Nation Meritnation was the pioneer in the market for online learning in India. Post 2011 online learning in its current form has started running out of steam. Online education in India, going forward, needs to offer planned schedules, offer video instructions and demand discipline from the user such as committed time, scheduled assignments and project completions. Mobile experience remains a large gap. With 10-27% mobile usage, the sites need to work hard to make the content, videos and animations available on devices. Lots of educational institutions have already invested in the smart classrooms bundled with hardware but their real usage is very low.
Voices from the ground
Udian Patel
Strategic Manager, IndiaEduServices.com
The purpose of IndiaEduServices.com experiment was to explore the online education space to understand challenges and patterns in adoption of technology - of tablets, laptops, not just mobile. We are now trying to engage with central and state govts across the India. MOOCs cannot be a replacement to classrooms, it can help enhance classroom experience, and training to increase face to face time. Indian students are flocking global MOOCs such as Coursera, edX,.. But Indian MOOCs are a few years away as a clear revenue model for MOOCs is lacking. Start-ups cannot hope to get Venture Capitalists (VC) funding without a predictable revenue model and public & Govt initiatives will take a long time materialise.
Voices from the ground
Sarita Digumarti
Co-Founder, Jigsaw Academy
Within the subject area of analytics, Jigsaw is building high quality content. Our special analytics programs have been used in business schools to augment academic courses. Recently we launched a one year programme jointly with the Great Lakes College. We offer courses to corporates to up-skill their employees. Where Jigsaw is bettering MOOCs is in developing courses with the support of real-world practitioners and not academicians. Course are built with knowledge from actual business situations. We provide extensive one to one support to students through e-mails, phone, skype, live chat with instructors. Our remote working options offers flexibility and attracts best instructors from across the world. Jigsaw has around 800 users at any given time with 150 active monthly. We have had more than 3500 students till date.
Further Reading, Sources, Credits Site: A comprehensive guide to MOOC by Stephen Downes Video: Perspective on the MOOC revolution by Speakers Daphne Koller, Co-CEO Coursera and Brian D. Voss, Vice President of Information Technology, University of Maryland, Nov 8, 2012 Blog: The Learning Revolution Has Begun... Are We Ready? by Steve Hargadon, director of the Learning Revolution Projectand Web 2.0 Labs, Sep26, 2012 Video: MOOC as drivers of change by Anya Kamenetz, May 20, 2013 PDF Publication: What campus leaders need to know about MOOCs by EDUCAUSE Publications, Dec, 2012 Blog post: The Pedagogy Of MOOCs by Paul Stacey, Dec 29, 2013 Website: MOOC Research Initiative funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Report: Copyright issues related to MOOC by Joan Cheverie, July 29, 2013 Curated Resources: EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative MOOC Resource list by Veronica Diaz
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About Dig Design Studio Dig Design Studio engages in looking into the horizon of trends, opinions, patterns and demands with a fresh perspective. Recognition of future scenarios, transformative opportunities, innovative ideas, product spaces and cloud based offerings to companies are some of the pursuits DIG has been undertaking. DIG also offers systematic user experience design solutions with a focus on eliciting the behavioral and emotional response. DIG provides these solutions to digital technologies: web, cloud and mobile devices. working with companies in successfully creating The Next Big User Experience for their star products. Set up by alumni of IDC (Industrial Design Center), IIT Bombay, DIG DESIGN STUDIO has been providing comprehensive design solutions in the domain of interaction design since 2003.
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