MOOC 'Dropout' ?

'Dropout' is a term used very loosely in the context of MOOCs. We see/hear media reports saying there is a dropout of X% but what does this 'dropout' really mean?

Photo by: Richard Thomas http://www.flickr.com/photos/richardnthomas/2566590540/

Recently a discussion about 'dropouts' was initiated by one of the participants of our #FLMobiGame MOOC and this prompted me to write this post.

A recent paper about dropouts in EDUCAUSE titled 'Retention and Intention in Massive Open Online Courses'  gives a good picture of what the scale of dropout in MOOCs. This paper shows that in general a typical Coursera MOOC (in 2012) attracted 40,000 to 60,000 enrolments but only 50-60% of these students actually returned for the first lecture. Out of these huge enrolment numbers only about 5% of students earned an official statement of accomplishment. In contrast, out of the students who registered for ‘Signature Track’ scheme, paying US$30-60, with the intention of obtaining an identity verified and university branded certification, the completion rates are much higher. It shows that intention to participate in a MOOC has a great bearing on the outcome (completion, dropout or anything in between).

There are various reasons why people participate in MOOCs: to audit, out of curiosity, interest of subject, etc. MOOCs can be seen as an opportunity for risk free exploration of a subject of interest. For example, I am registered in a FutureLearn MOOC on 'Introduction to Forensic Science' that will be starting in early January 2014. I don't think I would have paid to take up a course in this subject, which is far from relevant to the work I do at the moment, though I have an interest in it. So for me, this MOOC will give a chance to learn something I like but without the burden of paying for classes and committing to it. By that I mean, if I have change of circumstance (kids being poorly or too much stuff at work) there is always the option to not do the MOOC. What I wanted to show is that (at least for me) the engagement contract in a MOOC and a traditional (or even eLearning) course is different. So can the traditional definition of 'dropout' applied in a MOOC environment?

These are some of the questions we are exploring in an ongoing research on MOOC Participants' perspectives. One of our papers on 'Dropout', which presents work in progress is now accepted for the EMOOCs 2014, the Second MOOC European Stakeholders Summit, to be held on February 10-12, 2014 in Lausanne (Switzerland). If you are attending the EMOOCs conference I will see you there, if not you can read more about our work in my blog.

#FLMobiGame Unzipping Files on Windows

We found that some of our participants had difficulties with unzipping compressed (zipped) files. So again here I am doing a blog hoping that it will be of help. The guide here shows it for Windows operating system.

Step 1: 
Check whether you have a software installed to unzip files. You can do this by right clicking on the zipped (compressed) file and seeing the options available. In the right click menu if you do not get a software that you can use to unzip the file- probably you do not have a software installed for unzipping. If you do have a software then you can proceed to Step 3.

Some participants of the course complained that when they try to unzip passwords for unzipping was asked. For those of you we recommended using 7 Zip because it managed to do the trick. I use 7 Zip so I will show you how you can do it with 7 Zip.

Step 2: 
Download a software that is capable of unzipping files and install it in your computer.

Step 2.1: I am using 7 Zip (it is a free software) so here are the steps for that. Download 7 Zip from here http://www.7-zip.org/ Make sure you select the correct bit version either 32 bit or 64 bit.

Step 2.2: Now double click on the downloaded file to install it

Step 2.3: You may be prompted with a security alert asking whether you want to execute the program. Select 'Allow'

Step 2.4: You will see a screen similar to this. Select where you want to install the program (using browse button) - I use the default path. Then click 'Install'. Follow any screens necessary to install the software.

7-Zip Installation Screen

Step 3: Now you have a software capable of unzipping files installed in your system. Again right click on the compressed (zipped) file you want to unzip. You will be presented with a menu similar to this

Right click Menu

Step 4: Selecting 7-Zip will give you another menu to select from. I select 'Extract To' option where it will create a folder and extract (unzip) the contents of the zipped file into it.

Using Extract To option

Step 5: Now your compressed file should be unzipped.

#FLMobiGame Team Meeting Internet Pioneer - Dr. Vint Cerf

Dr. Vint Cerf (Google Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist) paid a short visit to the School of Systems Engineering, University Reading today (12th Nov 2013). Despite Dr. Cerf's busy schedule, #FLMobiGame team and some of the research students got the rare opportunity to meet him after he met the staff at the School. The whole #FLMobiGame team was delighted to meet him and even more excited when he said that he would enroll on our MOOC on FutureLearn for the next run! Karsten started off the discussion by explaining what the MOOC was about. Here are some photos of the event (Photo courtesy: Helen Fisher)

Karsten Describing #FLMobiGame

Karsten answering questions

#FLMobiGame Mentor Maitreyee asking a question

#FLMobiGame: How to Leave Feedback for FutureLearn Beta

This post is in reply to some of our participants who wanted to know how to leave feedback for FutureLearn.

Step 1: 
Log in to FutureLearn and go to your course.

Step 2:
Now you will see a screen similar to shown below. On the left hand side of your screen you will see the Feedback button. This is to leave feedback about the platform.

FutureLearn Feedback button

Step 3:
Clicking the Feedback button will take you to a screen similar to this.

FutureLearn Feedback form

Step 4: 
Now your feedback to the FutureLearn platform can be provided using this form. Fill in the form and click on 'Post idea' button

#FLMobiGame: Sharing Screenshots or images on FutureLearn Beta

At the moment FutureLearn Beta does not support uploading images in comments. However, because of the nature of our MOOC our participants may want to share their screenshots with us especially when we start programming concepts next week and the IDE starts complaining of errors. So we are going to propose a work around for the time being.

We are going to use a website called Postimage.org to store the images and use a link in comments to link to them. This website unlike many other photo sharing sites (such as Flicker) does not require an account. However, they do keep track of IP addresses and can track someone if the uploaded content is inappropriate (or copyright violated). In this blog I am going to describe how to use this site to upload your images and how to link to them in FutureLearn course comments.

Step 1:
Visit http://postimage.org/ website. You should see a screen similar to this:

Postimage.org website

Step 2:
Now Select the image to upload using the 'Browse' button.

Select the file to upload

Step 3:
For the purpose of demonstration I am uploading an image file name 'Untitled.JPG'. Once the file is selected you need to declare the image content. Select 'FAMILY safe'. Now click the 'Upload It!' button.

Select image content to upload

Step 4: 
Now you will be taken to a screen similar to this. At this point you are offered the option to create an account. But you do NOT need to create an account.

Copy Direct Link to Clipboard

Step 5: 
Click on the 'Copy to clipboard' button next to the 'Direct Link'. Now the link to your image is copied to the clipboard. When it gets copied for a split second a message is displayed as below.

Copied! Message shown for split second

Step 6:
In the FutureLearn forum where you want to include the image paste this link (CTRL+V) and post the comment.

Making the link available in FutureLearn comment

 Now using this link anyone can access the picture you have uploaded.

#FLMobiGame: Installation Guide and Corrections

We received lot of comments from our participants asking for a document guide on installation. In response to them we have created this guide (working document) in a hurry and sent the link via email to you on Friday (1st Nov 2013) afternoon. However, there was an error in the URL for downloading Game Framework and two of the screenshots have not been properly converted to PDF from the Word document. We are grateful for the participants for pointing them out to us and we have corrected this working document. However, currently we are unable to upload the document retaining the original URL to the platform so this blog will be used to direct our participants to the correct version of the install/setting up guide.

You can get the latest version of install/setting up guide from here.

#FLMobiGame: Using GitHub to share your source code

In a previous blog I described how to use Pastebin to share your source code. In this blog I am going to describe how to use GitHub Gists to share your source code. We need this work around because at the moment FutureLearn platform is in Beta release and does not support source code sharing in comments.

Step 1: 
Visit https://gist.github.com/
You will see a web page similar to this

GitHub Gists Website

Step 2: 
Select the source code that shows errors in your program and copy it (CTRL+C). Now paste it in the text box (CTRL+V). It would look something like this:

Paste your source code here

Step 3: 
You will notice that even though we see Java syntax highlighted in eclipse IDE here it is not. It is much easier to read the source code if syntax is highlighted. So let us make it so. Click on the down arrow near to 'Language' (shown in next figure). This will give you a drop down list. Select 'Java' from the drop down list because we are coding in Java.

Select Source code language

Step 4: 
Notice the syntax highlighting.

Syntax highlighted source code

Step 5: 
Now click on the 'Create Public Gist'.

Click Create Public Gist

Step 6: 
Now click on the 'Create Public Gist'. It will take you to the following screen

Copy Gist Link

Step 6: 
Now click on the select the whole text in 'Link to this gist' text box. (You can do this by clicking on text box and doing a CTRL+A). Now copy this link (CTRL+C).

Step 7: 
In your FutureLearn post (or comment) paste the link to your code.

Comment with GitHub Gist link

I hope this guide was useful, feel free to leave your comments.