Astronomy for astronomical numbers: A worldwide massive open online class

Astronomy: State of the Art is a massive, open, online class (MOOC) offered through Udemy by an instructional team at the University of Arizona. With nearly 24,000 enrolled as of early 2015, it is the largest astronomy MOOC available. The astronomical numbers enrolled do not translate into a simila...

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Autores principales:	Chris D. Impey, Matthew C. Wenger, Carmen L. Austin
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Athabasca University Press 2015
Materias:	education distance education online learning online ducation science science education Special aspects of education LC8-6691
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/26838f6a52004a5a9ab78cc581e171e4
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:26838f6a52004a5a9ab78cc581e171e42021-12-02T18:03:24ZAstronomy for astronomical numbers: A worldwide massive open online class10.19173/irrodl.v16i1.19831492-3831https://doaj.org/article/26838f6a52004a5a9ab78cc581e171e42015-02-01T00:00:00Zhttp://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1983https://doaj.org/toc/1492-3831 Astronomy: State of the Art is a massive, open, online class (MOOC) offered through Udemy by an instructional team at the University of Arizona. With nearly 24,000 enrolled as of early 2015, it is the largest astronomy MOOC available. The astronomical numbers enrolled do not translate into a similar level of engagement. The content consists of 14 hours of video lecture, nearly 1,000 Powerpoint slides, 250 pages of background readings, and 20 podcast interviews with leading researchers. Perhaps in part because of the large amount of course content, the overall completion rate is low, about 3%. However, this number was four times higher for an early cohort of learners who were selected to have a prior interest in astronomy and who took the class in synchronous mode, with new content being added every week. Completion correlates with engagement as measured by posts to the online discussion board. For a subset of learners, social media like Facebook and Twitter provide an additional, important mode of engagement. For the asynchronous learners who have continuously enrolled for the past 15 months, those who complete the course do so quickly, with few persisting longer than two months. The availability of a free completion certificate had no impact of completion rates when it was added midway through the period of data analyzed in this paper. This experiment informs a new offering of an enhanced version of this MOOC via Coursera, along with a co-convened “flipped” introductory astronomy class at the University of Arizona, where the video lectures will be online and class time will be used exclusively for small group labs and hands-on activities. Despite their typically low completion rates, MOOCs have the potential to add significantly to public engagement with science, and they attract a worldwide audience. Chris D. ImpeyMatthew C. WengerCarmen L. AustinAthabasca University Pressarticleeducationdistance educationonline learningonline ducationsciencescience educationSpecial aspects of educationLC8-6691ENInternational Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, Vol 16, Iss 1 (2015)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	education distance education online learning online ducation science science education Special aspects of education LC8-6691
spellingShingle	education distance education online learning online ducation science science education Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Chris D. Impey Matthew C. Wenger Carmen L. Austin Astronomy for astronomical numbers: A worldwide massive open online class
description	Astronomy: State of the Art is a massive, open, online class (MOOC) offered through Udemy by an instructional team at the University of Arizona. With nearly 24,000 enrolled as of early 2015, it is the largest astronomy MOOC available. The astronomical numbers enrolled do not translate into a similar level of engagement. The content consists of 14 hours of video lecture, nearly 1,000 Powerpoint slides, 250 pages of background readings, and 20 podcast interviews with leading researchers. Perhaps in part because of the large amount of course content, the overall completion rate is low, about 3%. However, this number was four times higher for an early cohort of learners who were selected to have a prior interest in astronomy and who took the class in synchronous mode, with new content being added every week. Completion correlates with engagement as measured by posts to the online discussion board. For a subset of learners, social media like Facebook and Twitter provide an additional, important mode of engagement. For the asynchronous learners who have continuously enrolled for the past 15 months, those who complete the course do so quickly, with few persisting longer than two months. The availability of a free completion certificate had no impact of completion rates when it was added midway through the period of data analyzed in this paper. This experiment informs a new offering of an enhanced version of this MOOC via Coursera, along with a co-convened “flipped” introductory astronomy class at the University of Arizona, where the video lectures will be online and class time will be used exclusively for small group labs and hands-on activities. Despite their typically low completion rates, MOOCs have the potential to add significantly to public engagement with science, and they attract a worldwide audience.
format	article
author	Chris D. Impey Matthew C. Wenger Carmen L. Austin
author_facet	Chris D. Impey Matthew C. Wenger Carmen L. Austin
author_sort	Chris D. Impey
title	Astronomy for astronomical numbers: A worldwide massive open online class
title_short	Astronomy for astronomical numbers: A worldwide massive open online class
title_full	Astronomy for astronomical numbers: A worldwide massive open online class
title_fullStr	Astronomy for astronomical numbers: A worldwide massive open online class
title_full_unstemmed	Astronomy for astronomical numbers: A worldwide massive open online class
title_sort	astronomy for astronomical numbers: a worldwide massive open online class
publisher	Athabasca University Press
publishDate	2015
url	https://doaj.org/article/26838f6a52004a5a9ab78cc581e171e4
work_keys_str_mv	AT chrisdimpey astronomyforastronomicalnumbersaworldwidemassiveopenonlineclass AT matthewcwenger astronomyforastronomicalnumbersaworldwidemassiveopenonlineclass AT carmenlaustin astronomyforastronomicalnumbersaworldwidemassiveopenonlineclass
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Astronomy for astronomical numbers: A worldwide massive open online class

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