My experience at eMOOCs (Anas Ahachad)

The story begins with me being a person who is really obsessed with technology and education areas. This is clear in the field in which I am involved and for which I am going to obtain a PhD degree soon; Machine Learning. Knowing that MOOCs involve a lot of technicalities that are so close to my area of specialty encouraged me to seek volunteering in this event. It was such great time to be part of this wonderful team and this important event; A real summit that involved leaders of e-Learning from all over the globe in which I got to meet and talk to the leaders and founders of the most important MOOCs such as Anant Agarwal of edX and Rick Levin of Coursera, Simon Nelson of Futurelearn and researchers of the most important Arabic platform “edraak”. A few years back, particularly in 2013, I registered in one of Coursera's first courses, Andrew Ng's course on Machine Learning. Hence, it was of such great joy to see researchers like him presenting their last methods and strategies.

During the first day of event, I was in charge of reception of guests and guiding them to the registration table for which I had to start my volunteer work one hour before the opening of the summit. I had the honor to accompany very important professionals and researchers such as Anant Agarwal and brought them to the building where the event was held!

After the start of the event, I got to meet other researchers and professors from my area of study who were participants in different sessions and workshops whether as auditors or as presenters. I was so lucky, as I had the opportunity to learn more about the topic of MOOCs and what people do in this umbrella. It was clear that this event had the best of the best talents from prestigious universities like MIT, Harvard, UC Berkeley, etc. For example, when one of the presenters was describing a system that he developed, he mentioned that in order to solve a specific problem, he used a specific algorithm. One of the participants raised his hand and said that he was the developer of that algorithm! Another example was seeing someone program while he followed the presentation that was held. Also, I got to make new contacts for developing my skills in these areas and for building research collaborations through talking to some of the experts during the summit. As part of the volunteering work, I got the chance to register for a workshop of my choice. During the atelier that I attended “Learning Analytics to Overcome Language Barriers”, it was very interesting; on the one hand, I met a wonderful team of researchers from the University of Southampton in UK that we planned work side by side in a future project, and on the other hand, I tried to apply my background in Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing (NLP) for resolving a practice case: “the assessment of students” which we can use the algorithms of Question Answering, Word Sense Disambiguation and also Speech Recognition to automate the task of evaluation.

Furthermore, I made friends with a researcher from MIT who told me about his line of work and his research interests. I talked to him about my work as well and even invited him to my lab to show him some of my work. I was excited by the new ideas that we developed together. Moreover, the cream of all this event was meeting new friends from my university; we got to talk about the differences and similarities between our fields of study, It was fun to know of all these colleagues. I had great time working with you guys!

Summary of the experience (by Karolina Kedeva)

In this summary I would like to briefly state my experience of participating in the capacity of a volunteer at this years EMOOC’s Conference held at the Carlos III University Madrid.  Although I am a PhD in Law student, and do not deal on a daily basis in my studies and research with more advanced IT mechanisms and media designs and techniques, I have found this experience very colorful and stimulating.

Namely, not very far ago teaching, learning, gaining access to journals, live lectures, setting correspondence with top expertise in a field, had been extremely limited by the notions of space, time, available recourses (costs) and dedicated only to certain circles of the academic community. Proof of this would be the lengthy and challenging application procedures for teachers and academics in certain fields, and in certain countries for that matter, complex accreditation processes for students up taking courses and degrees abroad far away from their jurisdiction, expensive seminar and congress fees for participation, etc.  Thus one can undoubtedly claim that with the invention of an open online course, with the opportunity of free registration, easily accessible and publically shared resources, texts, videos, materials curriculums, and the option of integrating and corresponding with leading experts and practitioners in many fields of knowledge, life for the academic community has become much easier by and large.

Therefore, from my brief experience on the EMOOC’s conference, I can say that such an invention as the MOOC is a truly innovative tool aimed to assist all students who wish to freely organize or improve their knowledge and skills, but at the same time to assist the exchange of know-how among professors, assistants, and stimulate the interaction between the academic community and the students. It is also considered a great milestone in the development and progress of distance learning.

 I would like to give an example of one very practical and interesting WorkShop that I was actively engaged in during the conference: “Framing the ‘Talking Head’’ by Jeanine Reutemann (University of Applied Sciences and Arts Basel, FHNW, Switzerland). The main objective of this workshop had been to demonstrate how variations in media design can help the educator to communicate his message with the audience.  Although the title and some of the context had been technical to people in the media design industry, a lot was said about the various teaching methods, delivery and speech in front of the camera and overall delivery of presentation too. Being a lawyer and PhD in Law student these particularities relating to visualization of presentation techniques seemed very intriguing to me.

 Thus for instance when watching live examples of lectures on the MOOC’s we identified and debated about the various speeches, the lecturers’ delivery, tone of voice, gestures, distance, etc. In that sense, the lecture was very important for professors and us as future lecturers our fields, to assist with the details that can have a great impact on our delivery to the target audience. We analyzed the importance of rehearsal prior to recording the lecture, the importance of the so called “social distance” that is individual but should be evaluated whether too close/ or too far depending on the setting, and finally the importance of gestures which usually assist to fulfill the unsaid in a certain lecture. Hence this practical workshop had been designed to demonstrate not only awareness from behind the camera, but also was very educative for educators presenting and preparing for lectures in front of the camera.

The workshop was designed in a manner to actively include all participants, and thus part was left for the technical producers practical exercises, but also all participants were divided into small groups and had the chance to bring up thoughts, questions and answers to certain problems, and case studies that we worked with on the course. Primarily some of the greatest challenges to producers in media design were discussed, such as lightening, positioning, angles, sound, setting the focus on the speaker (the eyes), the closed innovative model, and other technological aspects of the usage of the 4D camera. However, also a great part had been divided into the speech itself such as the importance of the ‘story telling’, pre-scripting, the abovementioned use of appropriate gestures and social distance through specific examples and identifying the target audience. Finally the outcome of the MOOC design was presented as depended on both produces and educators, and the key aspects for success were revealed to both parties. One interesting example and point was that not every lecturer is the same in the sense that some are more introvert or extrovert than others, and dependent on that adaptations should be made in the video formatting but also on the part of the speaker with increased or decreased gestures, tone of voice, etc. Being a film director herself the lecturer perfectly delivered all key aspects of creating the perfect MOOC, through the prism of applied film studies.

All in all my experience on this EMOOC’s conference and the respective Work Shops had been very educational and would recommend it without doubt to all students and lecturers with the urge to achieve more in their academic career. 

Karolina Kedeva

PhD in Law student. Carlos III University Madrid

An experience for life! (by Carlos Fujita)

As a novice doctoral student in UC3M, I was presented the opportunity to offer myself as a volunteer in helping to organize EMOOCS 2017.

The idea seemed interesting: I had been interested in MOOCs before, even have completed a few, and participating in the event would grant me a few credits, that I needed to complete my doctoral studies. There was nothing to lose, it seemed.

Nonetheless, I must confess that I did not have high expectations as to what I would live in terms of personal experience. I hoped that I would be able to have a glance at some of the speeches, debates and workshops, but it seemed that, primarily, it would be work.

Boy, was I mistaken!

Let me try to summarize the great experience that participating in EMOOCS 2017 was. I hope not to leave anything out:

One of the first things that I realized, even before the event started, is how passionate the UC3M staff was about the organization of the event itself. Eva, Rosa and Raul, to name just the ones more in the “front line” seemed very excited about the event, and – to me, at least – the excitement was such as to be contagious. It was clear that something big was taking place.

Then came the event itself. How surprised was I to find out that there were so many great people heavily involved in studying MOOCs and striving to continuously improving the experience not only of the students, but also of those who are somehow involved in their design and production. How all those people were not intimated in the least by the huge challenges posed by the current limitations of MOOCs, and how enthusiastic were all of them with the future of this educational instrument! It was a joy to be there and to share their experiences, and know their expectations for the future of MOOCs.

All of this was coupled with the perception that everyone involved from the UC3M side was clearly determined in offering the participants the best possible experience. How impressed I was with the commitment of everyone involved, both from the staff and from the volunteer team!

And at the end of each day, everyone realized that everything (well, almost everything, for nothing can be perfect) had gone well, despite of all the unforeseeable things that always take place in an event of this magnitude. It is really hard to describe the feeling of seeing the joy of the staff when all the hard work progressively resulted in the success of the event – and the feeling of being a part, albeit small, of this success. It is rewarding beyond any academic credit that one can get by taking part in such an endeavor!

Last, but not least, there is the content itself. I was unexpectedly able to participate in most of the events that interested me the most. I could even take part in a workshop where people from all over the world were debating the best practices of design when conceiving a MOOC. As someone who has some experience as a Professor, and who wants to develop a solid career in the academy, I cannot possibly start to measure the value of this experience in a personal and professional perspective.

In the end, the academic credits seemed almost unimportant compared to the other tangible effects of participating: I made new friends; I felt a deep sense of belonging; my appreciation for UC3M as a fantastic institution grew even bigger than it already was; I developed a better sense of what is going on in the University apart from the regular classes; and last, but not least, I left with the strong conviction that I will not rest until I get involved in the production of a MOOC. Not bad for a 25-hour volunteer experience!

A week around/inside EMOOCs (by Ana Mora)

From my perspective as an empirical scientist, I could never imagine the scope of online learning platforms. Although I have participated as a learner in some language and transversal skills courses, I had never stopped to think about its importance in an increasingly technological world. The idea to offer quality knowledge with the advantages of online learning could seem simple, but I have learnt this week how many problems must be face up: starting from social differences to avoid misunderstandings at language MOOCs, until making easier the access to the courses without internet connection.  These are only two examples of many others that have been discussed by experts during this intense week.

One of the sessions that I have enjoyed the most (maybe because it has been the most revealing for me) was about MOOCs aimed at immigrants and refugees. When we think about what these people need, I am sure that basic necessities come firstly to our mind. Nowadays, in a world that runs fast, integration, multiculturalism, and solidarity are daily words. The massive amount of people that run away from their houses looking for a better life and wellbeing, are needy of language and cultural training to achieve a quick adaptation and return to normality as soon as possible. In this session, the speakers talked about the possibilities and the advances that have been developed during the last years in order to help refugee to feel comfortable at the place they arrive. I can imagine how much easier would be to know the foreign language only to explain how you feel, and MOOCs seem to be a suitable possibility for this purpose. In my opinion, this could be a good way through which western world can support them and fight for integration. However, as one of the speaker said, it has to be real and reach everybody in this situation, which means that it has to be facilitated to people without internet or computer. The way? It has to be find, but where there is a will there is a way.

In addition, the UC3M volunteers had the opportunity to attend to one of the workshops of the congress. In my case, I enjoyed the two sessions of the workshop “Learning Analytics to Overcome Language Barriers”. During this time, we firstly discussed about the challenges that face a student of a language course in a MOOC. After an intense brainstorm, we concluded that the most common problems are cultural misunderstandings in forums or due to typical expressions and idioms of the language, the necessity of a glossary for technical terms, and also the difficulty to learn a language in a another language. Although some of these problems could be solve through the data that the MOOC can provide, in the majority of the cases these massive data are difficult to manage. For this reason, the workshop conclude with another idea storm about what we think could be the best question to the data the MOOC offers. From my little experience in the MOOC-world, I realized at this moment that research about data we can obtain from the platforms and how to manage them is essential.

I would like to end this post by thanking the organizing committee for giving me the opportunity of being part of the organization of the conference. For me, the EMOOCs 2017 Summit has been a very enriching experience, not only professionally but personally. 

My experience at EMOOCs 2017 (by Muriell Mundaca)

Anyone who is interested in education is encouraged to learn more about new technologies. In particular, massive open online courses (MOOCs) are considered a very good alternative and/or complement to traditional education, which is why I was interested in getting involved with this event.

It is relatively easy to understand what MOOCs are, but it is not that obvious all the work that has to be done to fine-tune them. When I applied to be a volunteer, I was expecting to get to know more about these courses, and what I obtained in the end was not just a broad idea of what they are, but I had the opportunity to understand all the hidden work related to them, and I could also grasp its potential.

My role as a volunteer was to give support mostly with manual work. While doing different simple tasks with other volunteers and speakers, I got to know very interesting people, who I could not have known in other circumstances, and I could see how everyone could imagine many ways to integrate MOOCs into their careers, even when they had different professions.

Apart from the sessions, there were workshops, and as volunteers we could attend at least one of them. The workshop I attended  was “Green Keen?”, moderated by Gabi Hurlen, Aslak Ormestad and Emma Vestli, who are advisors at Oslo and Akershus University College. They explained us how convenient was to use a green background for layering two images –or video streams– together. It was not just a workshop on how to use this technology, but we also had an exciting discussion on the differences between traditional classroom and online learning… Should teachers read in front of the camera or not? There was no consensus, but everyone learned more about the benefits and disadvantages of choosing one way or the other. In any case, what the moderators made clear is that efficiency is not an irrelevant issue when you are producing a MOOC. 

Another workshop that I enjoyed a lot, although I attended as a volunteer and not as an attendee, was “Speaking on Camera”. This workshop, taught by Laura Penn, was ideal for people interested in improving their oral presentations. It is very well known how important it is to present information in a clear and effective way, but you don’t know the relevance of your voice and body language until you have the opportunity to hear someone like Laura Penn explaining how to connect with your hypothetical audience using precisely your voice and your body.

To conclude, I must say that this experience was extremely helpful and gave me the opportunity to understand more about online learning and non-conventional education and how I could integrate it into my professional life in the future. And, as I said before, it was also a good ocassion to meet different and inspiring people.

EMOOCs 2017 (by Estefanía Crespo)

My opinion about EMOOCs

As the saying goes, “El saber no ocupa lugar” (the Spanish version) or “You can never know too much” (the English version). Although in the particular case of the EMOOCs, maybe the knowledge may take a few hundred megabytes on a server, but that is not relevant 😉 .

More seriously, in my opinion, the important thing here is that the knowledge acquired through an EMOOC can be later transferred to the classroom. Moreover, the best EMOOCs are backed by prestigious institutions and professors that transmit their knowledge so that anyone can learn from them.

On the other hand, thanks to the pill format (videos that are 4 to 12 minutes long) lessons are concentrated within a short time and come straight to the point. This allows teachers to change the approach of their classes, applying the EMOOCs and spending the rest of the time discussing or carrying out any other participatory activity that may help to the assimilation of the theoretical concepts.

Finally, I wish to emphasise that during the congress I have realized that as a future professor (if I am lucky), I must keep in mind that students should be educated to think about the future and not about the present. And in this case, I really believe that MOOCs are the future. Hence, this does not mean that they will replace "traditional" education, but they will complement it. I am convinced that transferring this idea to students will be key for their future.

 

Workshop number 4: Green Keen?

The main topic of the workshop revolved around the "Green Screen" technique (also known as chroma key) very well known by all of us in the cinema area. This is a technique in which a video is shot with a single colored background (usually green as it is not a very common clothing color) that can be made transparent and replaced with a still image. Thanks to a special software presented during the workshop, it was not necessary to wait until the editing process to see the results. In fact, two monitors situated on the right and left side of the person showed in real time a composite of the person on background slide.

Green screen made it simple to superimpose a person onto any chosen background. In the following figure you can see me trying this amazing technique.

In this case I was superimposed onto a PowerPoint presentation. At the same time, I could manually advance the slides of the presentation. Of course, all this process was recorded. Additionally, one important thing I could learn in this workshop is that the way in which you look at the camera it is very important to reach the person situated behind it.

To sum up, I conclude this section encouraging teachers to test this technique.

 

What did I expect from my experience as a volunteer?

Previously to my participation as a volunteer in "EMOOCs 2017", I thought that it would be a great opportunity being part of a conference's organization, "being in the backstage" and thus completing my previous experience attending to conferences where I have showed my research progress as an oral presenter.

Finally, what has been my experience as a volunteer?

At professional level

As the days went by, I learnt that attending a conference, even though it is not directly related with my research line, it is far from sitting in a classroom and listening to an unalterable speech over time. In fact, the main characteristic of this conference was that it was linked to a current issue which will have a great impact on our society in the short term.

At personal level

It has been a unique experience of teamwork, in a completely new way for me, with a flexible structure where all volunteers not only have had time to participate in the organization of the conference, but also they have attended as listeners to the different sessions, always with the clear aim of enjoying the moment.

Finally, I can only say thank you for letting me join EMOOCs 2017.

 Estefanía Crespo Bardera

 

My Experience at EMOOCs 2017

My Experience at EMOOCs 2017 by Eva Espinosa Cano

From the 22nd to the 25th of May, the international EMOOCs 2017 Conference took place at my University (University Carlos III de Madrid). It was the first time the EMOOC conference was hosted by a Spanish university and I was lucky to be part of the organization team as a volunteer. In this post I want to share with you my experience and some opinions about MOOCs that I have built during this week.

The Organization Experience

The EMOOC conference was a great experience at all levels. First of all, I have to thank the organization team for making this experience unforgettable. I thought about being part of the organization of EMOOC 2017 as a challenge that I should face to build my future as a researcher and as a professor and I was not disappointed. I already had experience organizing small sport events but they cannot be compared to such a big research conference. We were responsible for guiding attendants and for making them feel like at home and I think we all did the work and everything went even better than expected. From my point of view, it was a highly enriching experience.

The Volunteers

At the personal level, I met really interesting people. There were other fifteen PhD students from the same university working as volunteers and each of them had different research fields. These research fields were, in most cases, very different from mine giving us the opportunity to learn from each other.

 

The workshop

In workshop 5 "Framing the talking head" (Jeanine Reutemann) I found experts in MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) production and post-production and they help me to get familiar with all challenges I will face in the future when I would prepare or participate in a MOOC. They also gave me ideas on how to solve those problems in such a way that now I feel more confident with the idea of facing a MOOC.

 

How to apply MOOCs in my current work?

However, I think for me it was even more important that the conference open my mind at the professional level. The first day I already had an idea of a MOOC that I should implement in my workplace. I talked to my supervisor and we both found it a great idea. The MOOCs open us a window to the world, it could be for us as researchers a way to let everyone know who we are and what we do. Moreover, we can teach students the basics they need to know to be part of our team, those things that are not taught at the university. For instance, we can teach the basics of cell biology to chemists or the basics of chemistry to a biologist.

What have I learned about MOOCs?

As well as for researchers, I understood that MOOCs are essential in future learning, in companies and in many other aspects. I consider that MOOCs are part of the future of superior education. They will be one of the tools that will make possible an educational revolution that will translate into a new way of teaching at universities. They are also the best way to get people from undeveloped countries closer to superior education and an opportunity for everyone to learn from experts from all over the world. However, I realized that they are not of common knowledge and I feel that I should talk about them at work, but also to my friends and family.

MOOCs in my future

Regarding my future, I do not know if as a professor (if I ever become one) I will be able to use MOOCs or not. Nonetheless, I am sure that, at least, I will have them on mind and I will try to find the way to make them part of my education plan. 

To conclude, I would like to say thanks again to everyone that make this experience possible. I hope we can see each other soon!