Golden MOOC design advice (part 2)

See here for part I.
This article continues with the summary of all the golden advice we got from many people on designing our LeaderMOOC.

4- Stick to what you are good at

Now that you know what MOOC means to your project and you dared to make choices to the audience you target, it is time to get clear on the actual topic. Inge warns to stick to what you are good at. There is a dual reason for that. For yourself and your organisation it would add extra complexity and stress to go for a MOOC that is not about something you are already very good at and is part of your core. For a first MOOC, you have lots of things to figure out, so let the topic and content not be one of those. The second reason is external: people are attracted to your MOOC for what they perceive you are good at. Popular xMOOC platforms try to only host courses from star professors and their star courses. If your brand is all about X, then don't make a MOOC about Y just because your business strategy or marketing department finds it is a good vehicle to bring the world the 'new you'. Stick to what you are good at. It is a MOOC remember, so network effects and scale will ensure that participants can and will add stuff they are good at. Everybody wins that way.

As Hans points out: if you can select a topic that generates a digital artifact. This is for example a problem in our LeaderMOOC - unlike MOOCs on mobile learning or English writing or digital design, a MOOC on a behaviour such as leadership doesn't give you something you can upload. It makes it more difficult to design project experiences or peer evaluation into the MOOC - but not impossible.

5- Design towards an ending

Learning is never done, and succesful MOOCs will have an afterlife where people stay in contact. But you still should have a clear start and end for your MOOC because people want to know up front what they are signing up for. So just like your MOOC needs a start date, it needs an end date where it comes to a natural conclusion. That end date is usually also the final date to upload assignments or do quizzes (most participants cannot stick to weekly deadlines for the full duration of your MOOC.)

Another 'end' you need to think about is what people get out of it in terms of recognition. Some MOOC platforms like Coursera are testing the waters to make the certification part a paying service. Inge's MobiMOOC offers badges based on participation and project criteria. Other teched enterpreneurs like degreed.com take up MOOCs in their credentials.

Lastly, having a clear period when your MOOC 'runs' may be one of the reasons MOOCs became so popular. It is Clive who told me the effect of "I was there". People want to have the feeling to be part of an experience - much like people want to be part of the rock concert although they could get all the music for free on the Internet. And this psychological effect also works when it is all virtual. So having a start and end might make people want to be part of something. Maybe we should have T-shirts "LeaderMOOC - I was there" :-).

In terms of our design, we opted to give the brand new Mozilla Openbadges a go as a form of recognition (there is no such thing as a 'leader diploma') - and we will have a 7 week MOOC where every week stands separate but together they build the big picture for week 7.

Sample badge created with openbadges.me

6- Keep it as simple and clear as you can

MOOCs are messy by nature because of their scale and their network effects. Many people told us that. And many people are put off by messy. So that means two things: you should tell people up front this may happen in a MOOC so they can prepare themselves, and if you can make it less messy participation and engagement will go up.

Especially for people who first do a MOOC, you need to tell them very clearly what they may expect. You also need to maintain that clarity throughout your MOOC - but as a scaffolding rather than as the mandatory path. Below is a popular YouTube video of one of the makers of the cMOOC concept.



MOOCs are perceived as less messy if there is a single central platform that is 'the window' to the MOOC. This platform might actually be a meshup of different technologies, but it helps if there is a central place to go.

For our MOOC, we designed a matrix with as rows the repeatable structure every week (setting the stage, things to learn, things to do, the essential question, earning your badge...) and as columns the weeks. We feel that worked very good to get us clarity but also to create clarity for the participants. It is almost a bit like making a series of weekly TV-shows: define your format first, then make that format concrete for every episode. We also plan to have a 'week 0' to orientate people in how to make the most out of the MOOC.

7- Quality matters

Of course quality matters. I'm not necessarily talking about TV studio quality video (you can do a lot with simple cameras), but about stellar speakers who can set the tone from the start and good quality content to spark the interest and discussions for every week. Chris mentions this as a key succes factor for MOOCs. In terms of speakers, keep in mind your international audience! Ideally your MOOC speaker is as engaging and to the point as many TED speakers... Also, edit the videos so they match quality rules (there are free or cheap tools to reduce noise, to add a title or effects, ...


I'll finish this series in the last part another day...