WOU launches its first Open Online Course
WOU launches its first Open Online Course
New Delhi, 12/02/2015: Wawasan Open University (WOU), Penang, Malaysia organised the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) on “OER in eLearning” and “Action Research” launch seminar under auspices of the WOU Seminar Forum to highlight its entirely online courses offered from February 2015 under its Centre for Professional Development & Continuing Education (PACE). Commonwealth of Learning (COL) and its regional centre Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA) is supporting for both the MOOCs.
The launch seminar was held at the main campus of WOU on 29th January 2015 and 35 academic staff participated. In his presentation Vice Chancellor Prof Dato’ Dr Ho Sinn Chye indicated that WOU joined the MOOC bandwagon in 2014, focusing on Open Educational Resources (OER). WOU Board of Governors Chairman Tan Sri Emeritus Prof Gajaraj Dhanarajan called for caution in the face of all the hype, suggesting a checklist of all the claims before deciding on MOOCs. Reflecting on the 50year history of distance education, he said, “How difficult it has been to bring distance education from side stream to main stream. Yet MOOCs has become main stream overnight!” He listed the pros of MOOCs such as freely accessible, courses presented by world class experts, and reaching tens of thousands of students simultaneously, while the cons included “uncertainties around quality of assessment and credentialing, requires highly developed ICT infrastructure, high costs by present providers for enrolment leading to certification, and proprietary platforms will add to cost”.
WOU Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic-OCL) and Acting Director of PACE, Prof Mohandas Menon, in his presentation titled ‘WOU on the MOOC way?’, said that WOU has now the capacity to offer short courses entirely online, but that it is up to the University whether it wants to still call its online courses MOOCs or not. He said WOU’s online courses meet certain criteria of MOOCs like open content, free participation for guests, affordable, local cohorts, a learning community, and badges/credentials. He added the WOU’s MOOCs are however not massive, are entirely OER, provide registration with a fee for assessment and certification, along with discussion forum and online tutorial support, and have no real-time interaction “It is WOU’s own version of MOOC”. In looking forward, Prof Menon shared that WOU is currently using Moodle 2.5 platform for its online courses, but hope to identify the most appropriate platform for large numbers. Other plans, he said, are instituting online self-registration, online fee payment, and training of more WOU staff in online tutoring/facilitation. “The MOOC experience could be seen as the beginning of the online offer of WOU’s ODL programmes”.
School of Education, Languages and Communications (SELC) Associate Prof (Dr) Goh Lay Huah spoke about the Action Research course offered by SELC to guide educators, teachers and teacher trainees on writing an action research proposal. She mentioned that 155 participants have registered to date, mostly from teacher training colleges. The four-module course is from 9 February to 3 May 2015. Prof Phalachandra Bhandigadi of SELC talked about the ‘OER in e-Learning’ course, which will enable participants to offer OER-based eLearning courses and programmes. This course runs from 9 February to 17 May 2015.
