By Courtney Lockemer, Communications Manager for Online Duke
What does it take to make a MOOC?
What does it take to make a MOOC? Duke’s Center for Instructional Technology created a infographic that tells the story of one MOOC, Medical Neuroscience, taught by Duke professor Leonard White. The infographic illustrates just how much effort goes into one online course (196 videos, for example) and the many far-reaching impacts that come out of it.
Duke University was an early Coursera partner and has produced 31 MOOCs (and counting) for a total of over 2 million enrollments since 2013. Duke faculty who created and taught MOOCs often found the experiences personally rewarding and pedagogically transformative.
Value of MOOC’s at Duke
One of the great values of MOOCs at Duke has been not just the impact of reaching thousands of individuals around the world, but the multiple impacts beyond the course. Duke MOOC instructors used materials and approaches from their MOOCs to improve one or more on-campus courses, conducted scholarly research on MOOC data, adapted online course materials for continuing education courses and alumni education, and shared content for use in courses and programs at other universities around the world.
Amount of work to make a MOOC
However, other faculty and administrators at Duke often didn’t understand the great amount of work that went into producing a course and the many indirect impact those of us who worked on the courses saw. We wanted a way to quickly communicate the long-term “story” of a MOOC: what goes into it, what gets made, and the many additional impacts that come out of it.
“Story of a MOOC”
We selected Medical Neuroscience as an example because over several sessions it was both popular and impactful. Working with a graphic designer, we created an infographic we titled “Around the World and Back Again: The Story of a MOOC.” The infographic has been well-received by individuals at Duke, Coursera, and other institutions who face similar challenges communicating about the long-term impacts of their online courses.
