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How to Construct a MOOC

2.1. From a conventional course to a MOOC

In a conventional course, the teacher stands alone in front of their students. The preparation and writing of the course, therefore, are essentially solitary tasks. The same is true even for large-scale teaching units, where there are parallel classes for directed work: the teaching team gives exercises and their corrections to everyone. A certain part of the preparative work may be done collectively, but ultimately, the teacher alone is in control of what they deliver to the students.

In its initial conception, a MOOC is not greatly different from a traditional course. The main difference lies in the supporting personnel who are needed to implement a MOOC:

All MOOC designers also emphasize the technical quality of the documentation they use - be it in video or written format. This is similar to the requirements when writing a book. A set of notes is essentially judged on the basis of its content, and far less on its form and the quality of the diagrams and illustrations. For a MOOC, quite differently, it is necessary to completely review the formatting, and most of the time, this can only be done by specialists. Few teachers have the knowledge and talent that are so crucial to do this. Fewer still are actually prepared to invest the time needed.

With regard to the illustrations, the problem of copyright must not be forgotten: although it is permissible to reproduce figures and illustrations found in the literature, for a set of notes or a private document, citing the source, it is forbidden for a MOOC which, by definition, is open to the entire world. Short textual quotes may be used, with a clear indication of authorship, but for any graphs, images or other illustrations, it is imperative to obtain permission from the rights holders. Finding those rights holders and obtaining authorization from them is a full-time job in itself, and in practically impossible; it is therefore quicker and more effective to simply redraw the illustrations, but it is not possible to do that for photos. This issue is most problematic for an academic course, and can even become an obstacle to the development of certain photograph-based MOOCs - e.g. in geography or geology.

One final point: most MOOCs, or at least xMOOCs, are organized with a set rhythm, week by week. This is a very important point for the pedagogical approach; an experiment attempted in San José1 reveals that the lack of an agenda is catastrophic, with most students obtaining a poor score, and the main reason for this seems to be the degree of freedom allowed to the students in terms of the pace of their studies. This is very new to most teachers, because in certain countries, it is rare to provide a course plan, at the start of the semester, with a strict agenda of progression. The teachers evaluate the progress, approximately (at least the first time) and empirically adapt the agenda over the course of the semester, depending on the students' responses. In a MOOC, this tempo must be set in advance, and the workload required each week needs to be correctly evaluated; otherwise there is a risk of discouraging the most motivated participants and increasing a dropout rate which is already extremely high. The course needs to be "storyboarded", meaning that, as happens with the production of a movie or a cartoon, each sequence is more or less "self-contained", but the progression from one to the next is carefully calculated to sustain the desire to move on to the next sequence. This is very important: the density of the sequences in a MOOC is very different to that of a face-to-face course; in a MOOC the sequences must be short (see below).

Thus, a MOOC is a project which requires the bringing together of very diverse skill sets. Like any team project, it needs to be coordinated and supervised; put briefly, it requires a project manager to run it. As one may imagine, most teachers are unlikely to be willing to add this to the existing workload from their primary position. They do not all possess the necessary skill.

2.2. Human resources for the building of a MOOC

2.2.1. Teaching staff

Teachers are the project commissioners: they define the objectives of the course and how it is to progress. They also work together with the project manager, drafting textual content and appearing in videos.

Quite unlike with a conventional course, where there is no obligation for teachers to provide written notes, they have to write all of the textual elements, supplemented with links to documents available on the Web. More important is the need to appear in videos. Not everybody is equally gifted in public speaking. Some may be at ease in a classroom in front of a small audience, but not in front of a camera. Mediocre, shy or hesitant orators, whom we all know and who are accepted because they have other qualities, would prove absolutely catastrophic in the videos made for MOOCs. Let us state it plainly: it is almost necessary to hold auditions, as happens with cinema, to find the right actors for each role.

This point is interesting, because one of the arguments advanced by the earliest designers of MOOCs and the main consortiums is the possibility they afford to ordinary people to study with the very best teachers - i.e. to their minds, with the most renowned researchers in their fields. However, the best researchers may not necessarily be the best orators - particularly in front of a camera. Some may even refuse to appear on camera.

The teachers being filmed also need to be chosen on the basis of their "screen presence", which is not a common attribute in the university community.

2.2.2. Instructional designer

An instructional designer is a hybrid role, lying in the intermediary zone between teaching and digital engineering. This person needs to be conversant with the capabilities of the device which is to be used, and therefore have a good knowledge of the LMS (Learning Management System), whilst at the same time having teaching skills, so as to be able to make suggestions and guide the teacher, who is solely responsible for the content. The designer helps the teacher to storyboard the course, construct the detailed week-to-week plan, and link together the sequences of activities: videos, documents to read, homework (which may or may not need to be handed in) and questionnaires to fill in. At once, he or she assists in the project management and participates in the project oversight. It is desirable that their education enable them to grasp the content of the course in order to better appreciate the issues at hand, and adequately evaluate the tempos and rhythms which need to be put in place. In science, for example, it would be beneficial for the designer to have taken a science-based qualification, supplemented by aspects specific to the professions of digital engineering and teaching.

An alternative is to employ monitors - e.g. doctoral candidates - to deal with the science-related aspects, and have them work in close collaboration with a designer specializing in digital teaching and in the platform used, even if their own background is different.

2.2.3. Video

The quality of the course videos, in sequences of 10 to 15 minutes maximum, is an essential point in the evaluation of a MOOC. This may seem like rather a short time. In fact, though, it has been shown that the degree of attention paid when watching a video decreases fairly rapidly. Philip Guo2 has shown that human attention span decreases very greatly beyond 9-12 minutes. Thus, the course sequences need to be divided up so as to conform to the format of the videos which the students are used to watching on YouTube!

The task of production of the video is divided into two stages: the recording of the professor's discourse and the editing. The teacher needs to have the patience necessary to perform multiple (sometimes many) "takes", because any hesitations or stammers which would barely even be noticed in a lecture theater are disastrous for the quality of a recording. In situation, it is best for the teacher to work in front of an interactive whiteboard or with a graphic tablet, which they use to illustrate what is being said, by writing additional material and supplementing the images projected on screen. Being filmed whilst simply sitting still and reading a text will do nothing at all to help the students maintain attention.

This requires the use of an equipped studio - preferably with several cameras, as it is best to be able to switch between different angles of view. Secondly, the video technician edits the film, choosing the best sequences if several takes have been recorded, and editing out any silences or...