One-on-One Approach for Open Online Courses

Focusing on Large-Scale Online Courses

Masumi Hori

, Seishi Ono

, Kazutsuna Yamaji

and Shinzo Kobayashi

TIES Support Division, Tezukayama University, Nara Prefecture, Nara, Japan

NPO CCC-TIES, Nara Prefecture, Nara, Japan

Research and Development Centre for Academic Networks, National Institute of Informatics, Tokyo, Japan

CEO, SmileNC & co., Tokyo, Japan

Keywords: Open Education, Large-Scale Online Course, e-Books, e-Learning, GakuNin.

Abstract: Large-Scale Online Course (LSOC) requires stable and low-cost services and special learning and teaching

methods because numerous learners are generally studying on a course for free. This paper proposes

Learning Support System (LSS) using e-book with an access management federation designed for LSOC.

The proposed LSS reaches the solution to a flipped teaching and one-on-one approach of the massive

learner using e-book, which is a new e-portal alternative to a web.

1 INTRODUCTION

Recently, the utilization of Massive Open Online

Courses (MOOCs) are increasingly attracting

attention. MOOCs are an emerging tool of open

education that allows anyone who wants to

participate to freely study on the Internet. It is

estimated that hundreds of thousands of students

enroll in MOOCs (Lewin, 2012). Ivan Illich

predicted in “Deschooling Society” that the

Information Computer Technology would provide

an equal opportunity of open education (Illich 1971).

The activity of MOOCs was initially influenced by

his philosophy.

Large Scale Online Course (LSOC) like

MOOCs have the potential to bring revolutionary

change to education, especially higher education

because of this equal opportunity.

However, LSOC including MOOCs face

challenges in motivating learners and managing

system operation because the existing Learning

Support System (LSS) are limited by conventional

technology and methods. Therefore traditional LSS

do not meet the evolving specifications of LSOC.

This paper discusses a new LSS that combines

the benefits of e-books with an Access Management

Federation (AMF). This LSS will facilitate one-to-

one learning on LSOC even when there are

hundreds of thousands of learners.

2 LSS FOCUSING ON LSOC

The differences between LSOC and traditional

courses that utilize e-learning systems include scale

(number of learners) and cost (fees). It is estimated

that hundreds of thousands of students initially take

a MOOC at no cost (Carr, 2012). LSOC should

meet the following requirements.

 Provide a stable operation for online courses for

numerous learners

 Secure sustainable revenue for free open online

courses

 Provide efficient methods to motivate learners for

self-study.

As Hill points out (Figure 1), MOOCs have

barely addressed significant educational problems

relating to revenue models, credentialing,

accreditation, course completion rate, and learner

authentication (Hill, 2012).

Therefore, LSS designed for LSOCs require the

following.

A) Stable and Low-Cost Service:

Stability and afforadable services are essential

for a course having large numbers of learners.

Therefore it is imperative that the LSS should be

able to integrate with different media platforms.

B) Learning Methods Selected by Learners’

Intentions:

The LSS should provide diverse learning

177

Hori M., Ono S., Yamaji K. and Kobayashi S..

One-on-One Approach for Open Online Courses - Focusing on Large-Scale Online Courses.

DOI: 10.5220/0004413401770182

In Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU-2013), pages 177-182

ISBN: 978-989-8565-53-2

 2013 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)

methods chosen on the basis of the individual

learner’s intentions, such as receiving their

evaluation of learning outcomes and

accreditation or credit.

C) One-to-One Approach:

The LSS should provide one-to-one relationship

that is unrealizable in traditional classroom

between a teacher and a large number of learners.

3 LSS ON MOOCs

Existing LSOCs like MOOCs are insufficient for

the three above mentioned reasons. Here are

several significant examples of LSOC. The

activities of MOOCs include two distinctive

learning models of cMOOCs and xMOOCs

(Siemens, 2012). cMOOCs are based on the idea of

Web2.0 with interactive learning between educators

and learners on the internet. cMOOCs provide the

learning environment of the social network between

educators and learners by utilizing existing internet

resources such as wiki, blogs, and social networking

sites like Twitter and Facebook.

xMOOCs follows the method of conventional e-

learning and provides online courses with its

original learning support system.

Both LSSs have their distinctive challenges.

Figure 1: The Two Branches of MOOCs. (HILL, 2012).

3.1 For Stable and Low-cost Service

As explained above, a cMOOC creates LSS in

combination with the existing available service on

the Internet such as social network service and

provides its online courses without own LSS for 1.5

million learners (Carr, 2012).

In principle, the idea of cMOOC is effective for

providing a stable and affordable LSOC because it

is not dependent upon a particular network

infrastructure.

xMOOCs which have their own LSS, provide

courses through their own original service. As such,

xMOOCs require substantial investment and face

difficulties in providing stable operations. Actually,

Coursera experienced a partial outage caused by its

AWS’s system failure in October 2012

(examiner.com, 2012). The accident impacted close

to million users and clearly presented a significant

challenge.

3.2 Learning Method Selected

based on Learners

LSS’s concepts of cMOOCs and xMOOCs are

incompatible. Hence learners can select neither

learning support systems nor learning methods,

according to their learning purposes.

cMOOCs have an advantage in their stable and

low-cost LSS. However, this LSS cannot be

utilized to evaluate learning outcomes. cMOOCs

are indifferent to learning assessment, accreditation,

and credit, even though they are interested in

dissemination of learning.

In contrast, xMOOCs can be utilized to evaluate

a student’s learning outcomes and grant credit.

They follow the method of conventional e-learning

and provide online courses with its original LSS. In

this regard, Siemens, as one of the early developers

of cMOOCs, criticizes xMOOCs as merely

traditional learning using lecture videos and quizzes.

LSS designed for LSOC should be capable of

dealing with any kind of LSOC even if LSOC has

different methods of implementation.

3.3 One-on-One Teaching

Many LSOCs such as cMOOCs and xMOOCs have

functions making it possible to create a one-on-one

relationship between the educator and the learner on

chat, live video, and SNS.

One-on-one approach is an essential function of

the LSS and should be carefully examined.

The

existing LSOC that both an educator and teaching

assistants teach numerous learners is not truly one-

on-one teaching. One-on-one teaching should be

that one educator teaches one learner.

4 DEVELOPING THE LSS USING

E-BOOK

The LSS designed for LSOC requires the functions

that allow for a stable and low-cost operation;

learning methods based on learners; and a one-on-

one approach between an educator and a learner.

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The authors developed the new LSS using e-

book that is a substitute for web interface.

4.1 LSS using e-Book

LSS using e-book has the following characteristics:

 The inherent functions of e-books allow various

formats such as html, video as well as contents or

learning topics on online courses to be packed into

one book.

 e-Books can provide online course content

through different media including web, mail,

portable electric devices and e-book store.

 e-Books have high discoverability on the Internet,

including assigned Digital Object Identifier (DOI).

Our newly developed LSS based on e-book have the

following advantages.

1) Standardization:

e-book structure inherited from traditional books

has an established standard. In addition, e-book

format has an established standard like epub

format.

2) Portability:

e-Book is readily portable.

3) Using varied the Internet resources:

e-Book can provide diverse learning

environment tailored for each learner combining

use of learning contents and Internet resources

such as SNS.

4) Content distribution:

e-Book provides online courses through a

variety of ways such as e-library, e-book store,

websites, and e-mail.

5) Flipped Teaching:

Learners freely can edit distributed contents of

e-Book created by an educator. And this e-book

will be prevalent in the LSOC community

worldwide (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Flipped teaching.

6) Diversity of access methods:

Learners study online courses by various access

methods regardless if there is the Internet access

or not.

7) One-on-One approach:

The environment for conducting one-on-one

approach is easily implemented by simply

adding the application.

The authors designed LSS based on e-book by

utilizing the formerly mentioned advantages (Hori

2101). Figure 3 below shows the concept of LSS.

Figure 3: An Online Course Portal by e-book.

4.2 Three Essential Components

for the LSS

LSS based on e-book consists of three essential

components.

1) Discoverability:

DOI, an element of metadata of network

information resources, which overcomes URL’s

limitations like temporariness, attempts to

identify digital media on various levels such as

paragraphs, sentences, and figures. The

assignment of a DOI makes it possible to

identify learning resources of online courses.

2) Flipped Teaching:

DOI name prefix can be assigned to each

“flipped teaching” community within a LSOC.

Each community can assign DOI numbers to

their e-books. Herewith, discoverability and

traceability are expected in these e-books thus

guaranteeing product quality.

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3) Learners Authentication:

As previously mentioned, e-book with academic

AMF realizes low-cost and high reliability user

authentication.

4.3 Access to Academic AMF

The specification of student’s learning resource is

necessary for the evaluation of student’s learning

outcomes. In this case, student authentication is

required. For example, the proctors on Coursera

monitor learners via a mix of webcams and

`keyboard dynamics’ for strict authentication

(chronicle.com, 2013). However, the authors will

develop a low-cost system with the Access

Management Federation (AMF) to evaluate learning

outcomes.

The authors adopt a common authentication

platform that the National Institute of Informatics

(NII) promotes the Academic AMF in Japan

(GakuNin) (Yamaji et al., 2010).

The Academic AMF in Japan consists of both

users (universities) and producers (publishers) of

academic e-resources. By mutually implementing

rules and policies stipulated by the Federation,

organizations can easily access each other.

A user’s authenticated account of each

authorized participant in GakuNin is issued after

verifying its identity, which is guaranteed by the

participants, including higher education institutes.

4.4 Creating Microlecture Contents

The authors have introduced a one-minute lecture

video (microlecture) as the method to motivate

learners (Figure 4).

Figure 4: Example for microlecture.

Microlectures are brief lecture videos focused on

key concepts and are widely utilized by Khan

Academy and TED-Ed. EDUCAUSE cites

microlectures as a new educational approach

(EDUCAUSE, 2012).

Microlectures allow learners to be free of time

constraints, increase completion rates, and generate

a sense among learners that they are receiving a

face-to-face lecture via mobile.

4.5 Flipped Teaching on e-Book

Table 1 by Gende shows roles of both teachers and

learners in the process of creating a textbook based

on e-book (Gende, 2012). For example, in the

learner-centric approach, learners are involved in

making the textbook in Research and the Inquiry;

while teachers are also involved in Topic Selection

and Essential Questions. The same process happens

when creating e-books. Thus, learners can add and

revise in e-book provided by an educator in the

process of the Inquiry or the Research.

The learner may become the teacher and create a

new learner’s community and redistribute the e-

book to other learners who belong to the community.

The learner has developed a deep understanding of

educational contents thus contributed to the

enhancement of the educational quality.

Table 1: Teacher and Learner Roles (Gende, 2012).

4.6 One-on-One Approach

based on e-Book

One educator has to handle diverse requests and

intentions of numerous learners to create a one-on-

one approach on LSOC. It is so challenging that

many LSOCs depend on various means such as

SNS and teaching assistants. In contrast, LSS based

on e-book with AMF and DOI should make flipped

teaching possible which can then enhance the

quality of education. This LSS will lead to

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cooperation and collaboration between educators

and learners on the Internet. A number of small

communities based on one-on-one relationships can

be formed.

5 THE CHiLO PROJECT

Figure 5: The CHiLO e-book distribution.

A Creative Higher Education on the Learning Open

Course (CHiLO) is a new project for Open Online

Course in Japan. Within this project, the authors of

this paper aim developing new LSS based on e-

book, which is called a CHiLO Book. In this LSS,

e-book will consist of microlectures (Figure 4) and

will provide authentication services endorsed by the

GakuNin (Yamaji, 2010). Additionally, this e-book

will be granted DOI to ensure discoverability and

traceability. Finally, the CHiLO Book will contain

varied Internet resources to replace website (Hori

2012).

These elements will realize flipped teaching,

which may facilitate the creation of several small

communities of learners in the LSOC (Figure 2).

As a result, these the goal of one-on-one teaching

will be achieved (Figure 5).

The CHiLO Book, which is distributed in these

small communities, will continue to develop the

educator-to-learner or learner-to-learner link and

further promote mutual understanding of

educational contents.

6 CONCLUSIONS

LSOCs hold the potential of resolving the challenge

attaining educational equality and changing

traditional pedagogy.

The authors propose an LSS based on the e-book,

which will maintain learners’ motivation, evaluate

their learning outcomes, and provide stable and

low-cost access.

LSS facilitates a one-on-one approach, provides

diverse learning methods and environments chosen

based on an individual learner’s intentions, and

utilizes the flipped teaching to enhance educational

quality. This method also ensures learner

authentication by using academic access

management federation. Such functionality meets

all requirements of LSS designed for LSOC.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors thank the members of the Education

Support Office (ESO), Musashi Academy for their

assistance and advice. The authors are grateful to

Brian Masshardt, Ph.D., and ESO Academic

Coordinator for his careful proofreading and useful

comments. The authors also thank Yuka Ito, ESO

Assistant Coordinator for her extensive translation

and useful advice.

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