Are MOOCs impacting on-campus students? Jul. 2014 | Page 17

research has become available on how teaching has changed through the use of
MOOCs.
This new era of interest in using blended learning for education is one of the
reasons for the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation to invest in the EDx platform. They
state that their goal is to fund research into how MOOCs can influence the student
experience for on campus students, including answering a range of questions such
as student motivation, knowledge retention and the most effective ways of teaching
complex ideas (Edx, 2013). The founder of Edx, Anant Argarwal has commented
on the recent collaboration with San Jose State University and by using blended
learning with a MOOC on one of their more difficult courses they managed to reduce
the failure rate of the course from 41% to just 9% (Savenije, 2013). The report cites
active learning and engagement, already previously identified above, as known
factors of a blended learning environment that provide the right conditions for
success.

2.5 FLIPPED CLASSROOM
Flipping the classroom has been one of the more recent applications utilized on
campus with the introduction of MOOCs. This is not a new idea, from Humanities
subjects to Mathematics, text books have been required reading before the lecture.
Advances in the availability of web 2.0 technology has meant that this concept can
be achieved easily using videos, Khan Academy and MIT Open Courseware for
example (Bertodano, 2012; Fizz, 2012). This and other forms of active learning,
have long been established as an alternative to passive lectures, which are not
suited to all learning styles. Despite lectures being adapted for more active learning
for over ten years, it seems that the pedagogy has largely been ignored, until now.
Although many of the tools that are discussed here have been superseded or
enhanced by social media, the ontology remains the same. (Lage, Platt, & Traglia,
2000; Michael, 2006; Bonwell & Eison, 1991, cited in Grissom, 2013).
Flipping involves being more active in the lecture or classroom. Using MOOCs as
the media rich environment has spawned a series of innovations for academics who
have never before had such a wide range of access to resources or the impetus to
try. As most MOOC partnerships have been driven via top down means, the
support has been in place for institutional activity (Bruff, Fisher, McEwen, & Smith,
2013). An article in Information Week recently mentioned Duke University where

MSc Digital Education

University of Edinburgh, 2014

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