Electrify - University of Liverpool - Futurelearn MOOC

Dr Leah Ridgway Faculty of Engineering The University of Nottingham [email protected]

• What we did

• Did it work?

• What we learnt/would do differently

Key info:

• 1 of 2 of the first moocs made at the University of Liverpool

• Both started in September 2014

• 6 topics spread over the 6 weeks, approximately 3h per week

The course brief was to give a taster of what electrical and electronic engineering involves (no hard hats and spanners!) aimed at anyone aged 16+

Each week had an introduction video which gave an idea of how the content linked to the real world

Course content was primarily short ( <3 minute) videos which were animated power points with voice overs

(similar style to Khan academy)

Quizzes were interspersed through the content

If we’d had more time, I’d like to have done some more vlog style videos.

Electrify started life in Oct 2013 with the following aims:

• Give students a taster of what the main areas of Electrical and Electronic Engineering are.

• Maths within the content would be kept as light as possible.

• Address the eternal question of “so, what do Electrical and Electronic Engineers do?”

• Include an introduction to the topic that could be used by schools as a gateway for potential students.

Slightly different demographic to target compared to other FutureLearn courses.

Did we reach the target market?

Reaching the target market:

• STEMNET

• Social media

• Teacher networks

• Trailer

Did we reach the target market?

Somewhat.

• More under 18s then standard for FL

• More 18 – 25s

• More 26 – 35s

• (also slightly more 66+)

Did we reach the target market?

Did we reach the target market?

Somewhat.

Several of the free comments said learners had been referred by teachers.

Quite a few teachers registered for the course to see what it was like to see if they would recommend students for revision and to brush up their own knowledge.

FL high school or less = 24%

• October 2013

Initial concept submitted

• October 2013 – Jan 2014

Leah has a heavy semester 1 teaching load so can’t do much content development

• Jan 2014 – May 2014

Most of the content development takes place

• May 2014

I got a new job and left University of Liverpool

Content development lessons:

Think how much time it will take.

Then double it.

QA needs to be done ideally by someone with subject knowledge.

• September 2014

Course runs

Overseen by another academic from EEE at Liverpool who organised a team of PhD students to help with the comments.

Some of the learners were really helpful to others.

Some comments were really unhelpful.

• 62% said content was about right

• 25% said it was a bit too basic

(but then many qualified this in the comments by saying it was a bit too basic for them, but right for being pitched as a taster course)

• 26% had no previous experience in the subject

• 30% had studied it at school (below uni level)

So, taster courses can succeed pitched at an entry level.

Post course survey had a lot of generally constructive comments in the free text.

Lots of people said they were going to go on to do more electronics and programming in their own time.

I’d like to develop more distance courses in the future… I have plans!

The next challenge…

The not so good…