by Emma Bider
Online PSYC1001R Student Sarah Ferguson & son in Nairobi, Kenya.
Erika Veillette never went to university. After graduating from high school she spent some time cleaning houses before getting a job as a secretary in the psychiatry ward at the Ottawa General Hospital.
“I’ve always wanted to do more,” said Veillette. “I want to help people and listen to their problems.”
Veillette wanted to take some psychology courses, but balancing work and responsibilities at home while going to classes was going to be a serious challenge. In searching for something that would meet her needs, Veillette came across Carleton’s first massive open online course.
Now, at 31 years old, Veillette has completed her first ever university course with the intention of one day changing careers. And she did it entirely online.
Massive open online courses, or MOOCs, are changing the way students can access university education.
Offered exclusively online, they give students a chance to learn at their convenience. Lectures are filmed and available for streaming, exams and tests are all taken online and students interact with teaching assistants or professors through various online tools.
MOOCs also offer students the chance to try out the course for free, before opting to earn a credit and pay tuition.
Dr. Bruce Tsuji is the man behind the MOOC. Formerly a specialist in human-computer interaction, Tsuji saw MOOCs as a great opportunity to provide different kinds of learners with the chance to take university courses.
When a provincial grant of $75,000 was announced to fund the development of online courses, Tsuji and a few colleagues submitted a proposal for two first-year psychology courses and won.
“Our idea going in was that we’re dealing with a very very diverse student population,” said Tsuji. “People whose first language is not English, people who have different kinds of reading or learning disabilities, people who just, by virtue of whatever is going on with them, might employ different kinds of learning mechanisms.”
Another target group? People who live too far away to take in-class courses.
Sarah McGregor was working as a journalist in Nairobi, Kenya when she first came across Carleton’s online psychology course.
“You know, the one worry I had in my mind was am I going to be able to…figure out all the moving parts of how to take the exam and access the lectures and combine the course work with the readings and the lectures…[but the] recordings that you watched were just perfect they perfectly explained…everything,” said McGregor.
“Professor Tsuji was so responsive via twitter and email and various other social media methods that I didn’t feel like if I don’t figure out then I’m going to be stranded here in Africa all by myself.”
Simple convenience is another factor attracting students.
Hala Ayoub needed to take a psychology course to help reach her goal of taking the MCAT and going to medical school. She found Carleton’s MOOC and loved the flexibility it offered.
“At the beginning this got me a little nervous because I’m a person who likes to go to class, if I don’t know something I like to ask immediately…but then I thought, it seems convenient, so let me give it a try. And I liked it.”
She’s now recommended it to her sister, who has enrolled in the social work program at Carleton.
MOOCs are not without their critics. A New York Times article revealed that a huge number of students taking MOOCs failed to complete the courses. A study done by researchers at MIT and Harvard showed that only 24 per cent of 1.7 million participants earned certificates at the end of their courses. To some, these numbers show that MOOCs are ineffective, merely fads of our digital age that will soon fall by the wayside.
But Tsuji has facilitated three semesters of the online courses so far and his data show something much different.
“Because this is a bit of an experiment…we spent a lot of time making sure, checking on the kinds of stats that would tell us that we’re on the right track or we’re on the wrong track or we have to change something,” said Tsuji.
Universities use three key statistics to measure the effectiveness of their courses. Student evaluations, the number of Ds, Failures and Withdrawals from the course and the overall marks students are getting.
“So thing one, what’s great is that student’s evaluations of this online course were identical or just a tiny little bit above my face-to-face versions of the same course,” said Tsuji.
“The DFW rate is comparable to other intro psych face-to-face courses at Carleton…and I see the same pattern…no significant difference…when I compare the number of As, Bs, Cs and Ds students are getting in this online course.”
It is also gratifying said Tsuji, when the data reveals that Carleton’s MOOCs are more accessible than Harvard’s. With closed-captioning; the ability to adjust exams for those who require more time; screen magnifiers; adjustable playback speed; and volunteer note takers these courses are far superior to Harvard’s in terms of the variety of different learning styles and student abilities they support.
“This is doing good. This is not a second best, this is comparable to what we do in the classroom.”
For Erika Veillette, Carleton’s MOOC gave her the confidence to try taking more university level courses.
“I was really proud of myself,” said Veillette. “I’m proud that working full time I was still able to do one class…I really did enjoy it.”
If you are interested in Tsuji’s MOOC, go to www.ecarleton.ca