Interesting question on incentivization for my MOOC learners
Tuesday, 10 Feb 2015, 09:05
Visible to anyone in the world
I was asked me in the H817 forum as to how I was planning on practicing skills for the IELTS speaking section which led me to reflect further on how I could incentivise people to engage with my course:
Well promoting that kind of interaction is one of the bigger challenges in any context, but when you're dealing with non-native speakers from a variety of cultures with varying levels of technological aptitude it can be even greater.
In relation to how it can be done from a functional perspective, of course, there are options for learners to upload videos or audio recordings. However, the learners have to be incentivised to do so and often might simply not have the knowledge or the motivation to learn how to, especially if instructions on how to will be provided in English as opposed to their native language.
The incentives we're probably working with is that feedback from ESL professionals such as myself and my colleague will be offered at the completion of a particular theme with their posting some writing or speaking. If we don't structure it as such (as we have found on the Facebook group), users will simply come in and upload stuff for free feedback. This will mean that they won't benefit from the preparatory work such as language input in the preceding classes, and we as administrators may become overloaded with work to provide feedback on, and not be able to invest sufficient time in developing the remainder of the course. We want to incentivise participation in the course itself while in the full knowledge that like most other MOOC courses, many people will fall away.
However, if it's something modular that has no specific deadlines as we are structuring it, users can take their time and dip in and out. Ultimately, if they have completed sufficient amounts of the course, they'll get various levels of interaction with ESL professionals. Possibly some written feedback on an uploaded video or recording of a speaking section 2 task, for example. Ultimately, we may explore an incentive of providing someone with a full mock IELTS speaking test via Skype, or Facetime, or within Moodle itself as well as a reading and listening mock test and feedback on their writing to give learners a good idea as to whether they're ready to spend the 120 odd pound on the real test.
However, as mentioned there is this issue of differing levels of competence from a tech savvy perspective. I feel that a lot of work will have to be expended on simplifying controls and providing multiple sources of instruction, which in an IELTS context can actually provide language input, so when, for example we approach the process description writing task, maybe that could be a description in writing and an audio with captions/transcript/slideshare of certain processes that form a part of interaction with the course.
I haven't done anything with podcasting to be honest. I listen to podcasts every day so in the past I suppose I've always felt it lends itself to longer recordings that would be cognitively too challenging for some learners. What is it you do with them?
Interesting question on incentivization for my MOOC learners
I was asked me in the H817 forum as to how I was planning on practicing skills for the IELTS speaking section which led me to reflect further on how I could incentivise people to engage with my course:
Well promoting that kind of interaction is one of the bigger challenges in any context, but when you're dealing with non-native speakers from a variety of cultures with varying levels of technological aptitude it can be even greater.
In relation to how it can be done from a functional perspective, of course, there are options for learners to upload videos or audio recordings. However, the learners have to be incentivised to do so and often might simply not have the knowledge or the motivation to learn how to, especially if instructions on how to will be provided in English as opposed to their native language.
The incentives we're probably working with is that feedback from ESL professionals such as myself and my colleague will be offered at the completion of a particular theme with their posting some writing or speaking. If we don't structure it as such (as we have found on the Facebook group), users will simply come in and upload stuff for free feedback. This will mean that they won't benefit from the preparatory work such as language input in the preceding classes, and we as administrators may become overloaded with work to provide feedback on, and not be able to invest sufficient time in developing the remainder of the course. We want to incentivise participation in the course itself while in the full knowledge that like most other MOOC courses, many people will fall away.
However, if it's something modular that has no specific deadlines as we are structuring it, users can take their time and dip in and out. Ultimately, if they have completed sufficient amounts of the course, they'll get various levels of interaction with ESL professionals. Possibly some written feedback on an uploaded video or recording of a speaking section 2 task, for example. Ultimately, we may explore an incentive of providing someone with a full mock IELTS speaking test via Skype, or Facetime, or within Moodle itself as well as a reading and listening mock test and feedback on their writing to give learners a good idea as to whether they're ready to spend the 120 odd pound on the real test.
However, as mentioned there is this issue of differing levels of competence from a tech savvy perspective. I feel that a lot of work will have to be expended on simplifying controls and providing multiple sources of instruction, which in an IELTS context can actually provide language input, so when, for example we approach the process description writing task, maybe that could be a description in writing and an audio with captions/transcript/slideshare of certain processes that form a part of interaction with the course.
I haven't done anything with podcasting to be honest. I listen to podcasts every day so in the past I suppose I've always felt it lends itself to longer recordings that would be cognitively too challenging for some learners. What is it you do with them?