Course Expectations and Certification

The time commitment of learners in the MoM course was anticipated to be about four hours per week and centred on viewing video lectures. Three synchronous chat sessions were scheduled between participants and instructors. Each session was for one hour and was held midday, India Standard Time. Transcripts of these chat sessions were posted as links in the Resources section on the MoM course website. Throughout the course, instructors made themselves available to respond asynchronously to learners’ queries.

In regards to certifications, information on the course brochure (and an announcement on the course homepage) stated the following:

Learners who fulfill the minimum participation criteria will be issued certificates of participation. Those who complete online assessments in addition to fulfilling minimum participation requirements will receive certificates of competence. Certificates will be jointly issued by Continuing Education Programme IIT Kanpur, COL and TEQIP.

(MOOC on MOOCs, 2014a)

A certificate of participation was awarded to participants who viewed 50 percent of the video lectures and/or downloaded 50 percent of the PowerPoint slides or transcripts.

To earn a certificate of competence participants were required to meet the criteria for a certificate of participation and to create and submit a short video lecture of approximately 300 seconds related to the course. Videos were to be submitted to YouTube and were to include a description of the topic, and a description of the technological requirements (e.g., type of camera used, editing software). Links to the videos were posted on the course website. An added component (though ungraded) was that all participants’ video submissions were available for viewing on the website and open to comments from other participants. There were 111 video submissions (and consequently, 111 certificates of competence awarded).

Grading criteria for the video assignment was measured against 14 parameters that were categorized under the following four headings:

• Content
• Presenter
• Technical Aspects: Video
• Technical Aspects: Audio

Two instructors reviewed each video and marked each video assignment. The grades were subsequently consolidated by a senior instructor who assigned the final grade for the assignments. A sample grading report is provided in Appendix C.

Evaluator Comments

The information posted regarding requirements for certification was somewhat unclear. There were no minimum participation criteria or a description of online assessments provided at the beginning of the course on either the course brochure of the course homepage. Three weeks after the course was underway, two postings were made available under the Announcements area of the MoM course website:

[Posting 1]: Minimum requirement is to have viewed 50% of all the videos posted OR to have downloaded 50% of the PPTs or scripts. Certificates to those fulfilling the requirements will be mailed sometime in the second half of October 2014 and your registered email ID will be used. [Posted Sept. 26, 2014]

[Posting 2]: The Assignment can be accessed via the Course Home page. It is a part of the Week 3 module. Upload the Video in the Assignment Submission space on the platform. By 6th October (1200 hrs IST) at the latest – earlier the better. This would give enough time for all the participants to see and comment. [Posted Sept. 26, 2014]

(MOOC on MOOCs, 2014c)^[1]

As will noted in the Results Section (Section III), there seemed to be disconnect between instructors’ outlook that assessment was unnecessary and participants’ expectations that there would be assessments throughout the course. The video assignment was created to appease participants’ requests for some form of assessment.