Other Planning Considerations for a MOOC
Audience Considerations
- Who is the target audience of the MOOC?
- What are their needs and wants?
- What are their technological abilities?
Time Frame Considerations
- What is the timeline for planning and designing the MOOC?
- When will the launch date be?
- Will all of the content be ready to go before launch?
- What is the time frame for delivering the MOOC's content?
- Will all course content be available at launch or will it be released as modules over time?
- How long will the MOOC last?
- Will materials remain available as resources after the end of the MOOC?
Marketing Considerations
- How will the MOOC be publicized?
- Press releases?
- Professional organizations?
- Websites?
- Social Media?
- How far in advance of the opening will the MOOC be publicized?
Course Content Considerations
- What is the overall goal (objectives) you are trying to accomplish with this MOOC?
- What is the course syllabus?
- How will the content be organized (e.g., modules/weeks)?
- What are the learning outcomes for each module/week?
- What approach will be used to deliver content? (Content should be designed and delivered in a way to reach different types of learners and various generations of workers)
- Videos?
- Slide presentations (narrated or not)?
- Podcasts or other audio?
- Readings/journal articles?
- What permissions are needed to use content?
- Speaker releases?
- Copyright issues?
- How will the content be delivered?
- Synchronously?
- Asynchronously?
- Both?
- What activities will promote the learning outcomes?
- Discussion board questions?
- Tests/quizzes/surveys or other assessments?
- Student journals?
- Group projects?
- Other?
- How will the activities be assessed and how will feedback be given?
- Formative/summative?
- Machine grading?
- Peer assessment rubrics/models?
- Proctoring (webcam or in person)?
- Adaptive learning criteria?
Technological Considerations
- What learning management platform, tool, or service will be used to host the MOOC? (It should be user-friendly.)
- What other technology will be used?
- Web-conferencing?
- Social media?
- Video hosting services?
- How will participants enroll in the MOOC?
- Participant-driven?
- Instructor approval required?
- Will the MOOC meet accessibility requirements?
- Are videos captioned or will they need to be captioned?
- Is the MOOC screen-reader friendly?
Credit/Certification Considerations
- What credit/certifying options are needed?
- If an external certification organization is used, what are their requirements?
- What is the cost for credit/certification?
- How will the cost be collected?
- Are there options for students to participate who do not need or want the credit?
- What activities will credit-seekers need to complete?
- How will completion be monitored?
- When will credit be given?
Staffing Needs & Considerations (Volunteer and Paid)
- Administrative / Project Managers
- Who will keep the MOOC timeline on schedule?
- Instructor/Content Experts (Corporate leaders should be involved in the development, and ideally, some of the delivery of content)
- How will they be solicited?
- Will they be compensated?
- Course Designers
- Discussion Leaders
- Who will facilitate discussion?
- Will they actively respond to discussions or simply monitor discussion?
- How will issues like incivility be handled?
- Technology Assistance
- Who will help participants with technology-related and enrollment-related issues?
- Interpreters
- How will potential language barriers be handled?
- Post-MOOC Support
- Who will sustain the MOOC after the end of the scheduled sessions?
- Will the content remain as Open-Courseware? If so, how will content be updated to reflect changes in technology overtime?
Metric Considerations
- What metrics will be gathered?
- System-generated data (e.g., usage statistics)?
- Participant surveys?
- Participant assessments?
- How will you know if the MOOC is a success?