MOOC 2.0: The Rise of Immersive Learning Technologies

MOOC 2.0

The Rise of Immersive Learning
Technologies

By Peter Shea
Director of Professional and Instructional Development
Middlesex Community College

And J.M. Grenier
Instructional Designer, Title III
Massbay Community College

Who are you guys?

JM Grenier, M.Ed. Mass Bay Community College
Title III Instructional Designer

Mass Bay CC

Peter Shea Middlesex Community College
Title III Instructional Designer
Director, Professional Development

Middlesex CC

What are your credentials in this area?

Who are the leading spokespeople for MOOCs?

Daphne Koller

Professor, Department of Computer Science, Stanford MacArthur
Fellowship recipient
Co-founder, Coursera

Andrew Ng

Associate professor,
Department of Computer Science, Stanford
Co-founder, Coursera

Sebastian Thrun

Research Professor,

Computer Science ,Stanford Thomas L. Friedman

Former director, Stanford Artificial Intelligence Columnist, New York Times

Laboratory (SAIL) Author, The World is Flat: A Brief History of the

Co-founder, CEO Udacity Twenty-First Century

Anant Agarwal

Professor of Electrical Engineering and
Computer Science, MIT
President, Edx

Why do we care about MOOCs?

“When one professor can teach 50,000 people, it alters the
economics of education.”
Andrew Ng, Coursera

Great. We all know what MOOCs are. What will
they become?

• Think of a MOOCs as a continuum
• We are now in MOOC 1.0 (presentational

media, data-gathering, quizzes)
• We need to think about MOOC 2.0
• What will that entail?
• Our guess? Immersive Learning

Environments
• i.e – simulations & serious games

Why????

• Immersive Learning Environments can do
several things that many learning
environments cannot do
1. Provide an engaging learning challenge
2. Provide rapid feedback on performance
3. Adapt to the individual learner’s needs
4. Allow for new scenarios and rapid
revisions
5. Gather moment by moment data on the
performances of individuals and groups

Why do you think this
change is needed?

• Current-traditional pedagogies in the physical classroom are not
aligned with the research on best practices in learning

• Constructivist/Connectivist (Active learning) theories and research
emphasize that learners must be active and interactive in order to
gain new skills and knowledge.

• The older paradigms emphasize the teacher, not the learner

• The online environment allows for a diminished dependence on a
teacher as disseminator of information and encourages more
autonomy and responsibility on the part of the learner (less learned
helplessness)

• Frees the teacher from the “tyranny of strict content delivery”

Ancient
Theatre

21st Century College Classroom
at MIT

(Slide based on image created by
Anant Agarwhal)

What makes us so sure that MOOCs will embrace
immersive learning tools?

“If great lecture is
theatre, the future of
learning is games.”

Anant Agarwhal

[Source: Inaugural Celebration Symposium: The Future of Education. 2012 MIT
Alumni Leadership Conference .http://storify.com/mitalc/2012-mit-alumni-
leadership-conference]

What is a serious game?

"Serious games are simulations of real-world events or processes designed for the
purpose of solving a problem. Although serious games can be entertaining, their main
purpose is to train or educate users..."

[Source: Wikipedia]

Example: Agent Surefire: Interactive game for teaching Example: Budget Hero: Asks users to balance federal
cyber-security budget.

Food for Thought

“The availability of online learning. It will
take root in the simplest of applications,
then get better and better…

. …Most [institutions of higher learning] will
evolve hybrid models.”

Clayton Christensen,
author of The Innovator’s Dilemma

[Source: "The Disruptor." Wired Magazine.
March 2013]

Where are MOOCs Today?

Transition MOOC 1.0 to 2.0:
Partnerships

Sources

"Infographic: Major Players in the MOOC Universe - Chronicle of Higher Ed
@chronicle): http://chronicle.com/article/The-Major-Players-in-the-
MOOC/138817/ "

"End of college graphic and article" CS Monitor , June 2 -
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2013/0602/How-online-learning-
is-reinventing-college

"Revolutionizing Education" EdX video -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=IlNU60ZKj
3I

Where can I learn about Serious Games and
Simulations?

What writers talk about these learning
environments?

Clark Aldrich Chris Dede
American author and practitioner who has Timothy E. Wirth Professor in
pioneered and expanded the use of Learning Technologies at
educational simulations and serious Harvard’s Graduate School of
games for education and professional Education.
skills
His fields of scholarship include
emerging technologies, policy, and
leadership

Let’s Continue the Conversation!

Jim Grenier Peter Shea
[email protected] [email protected]