A collaborative accounting, finance and business MOOC · 2017. 7. 21. · Overview • Course aims ... Joint MOOC – Leeds University Business School (LUBS) and Institute of Chartered

A collaborative accounting, finance andbusiness MOOC

ESLTIS Conference 2017

Alice Shepherd FCA SFHEASenior Teaching FellowLeeds University Business School

Leeds University Business School

Overview

• Course aims, structure and platform

• Development process

• Pedagogies

• Learner characteristics

• Learner behaviour

• Course feedback and reflections


Course aims

• By the end of the course you will be able to:• Demonstrate your commercial

awareness to employers• Have confidence in dealing with financial

matters• Appreciate the impact of cash flow on a

business• Understand the strategies used for

growing a business

• Target audience(s):• Pre-university students (16-18)• Undergraduate students in any discipline• Workers with an interest in this area

Joint MOOC – Leeds University BusinessSchool (LUBS) and Institute of CharteredAccountants in England and Wales(ICAEW)


Course structure


Course platform

FutureLearn

• Not for profit company owned by the Open University

• Started as an alternative to US xMOOC platforms

• >6m platform users (FutureLearn, 2017a)

• 126 partners

• Courses optimised for range of devices

• Strong element of social learning based on conversational framework (Laurillard, 2002)

• University of Leeds has run 30+ FutureLearn MOOCs on topics including innovation,WW1, politics, physical theatre, anatomy with partners such as the BBC and Marks andSpencer (FutureLearn, 2017b)


Development process

• June 2014-September 2015

• Collaborative and iterative

• Educators: Professor Peter Moizer (Dean of LUBS) and Alice Shepherd

• 3 additional subject specialists: Pro-Dean, tutor and freelance writer

• Digital learning specialists from University of Leeds Digital Learning Team

• Course team met weekly

• Agile project management approach used on other UoL collaborative MOOCs (Elston andMorris, 2015)

• ICAEW Student Recruitment, Professional Qualifications and Marketing teams – two reviewmeetings for sign-off of content, but regular contact (existing relationship)

• LUBS UG student reviewers – reviewed draft content summer 2015

• Moderation rota


Pedagogies (1)

Video – teachingand interviews

Discussionprompts

Quizzes and test


Pedagogies (2)

Interactiveexercises

Skills portfolio

http://www.personal.leeds.ac.uk/~acdgw1/icaew_ex/


Learner characteristics

• Source: pre-course survey responses (1st run n=1,052 (8% joiners), 2nd run n= 168(3% joiners))

• 57% (67%) of participants from UK (top other countries: India, Malaysia, Spain,USA, Nigeria)

• Most common learning aims (both runs): learn new things, improve careerprospects Characteristic First run Second

runOther UoLMOOCs(Morris etal, 2015)

Female 53% 66% 60%

Not taken an online course before 71% 75% 57%

Working full time 36% (35%in full timeeducation)

30% (48%in full timeeducation)

65%


Learner behaviour (1) - participation

• Source: learning analytics data fromFutureLearn platform

• Funnel of participation (Clow, 2013)• Social learners 24% (22%) of learners• Option to take a paid-for additional test for

a certificate• Completion rate 19% (18%) cf 23%

(Morris et al, 2015)

Joiners: 12,897 (5,533)

Learners: 5,533(2,171)

Activelearners: 4,217(1,617)

Fullyparticipatinglearners:1,048 (383)


Learner behaviour (2) – step visits


Learner behaviour (3) – comments

• Commenting funnel• 23% (21%) of learners made at

least one comment• Median number of comments per

participant 2• 60 (203) participants made 10+

comments• Most commented-on steps all had

discussion prompts

Week 1: 4,660 comments(1,430)

Week 2: 1,924comments (541)




Learning preferences


Course feedback

• Source: Post-course survey responses (1st run)

• 93% found the course good or excellent (92% (Elston and Morris,2015))

• 64% felt course level was about right, 21% too basic

• 91% found educators very or fairly engaging (92-99% (Elston andMorris, 2015))

• Favourite aspects: interactive exercises, quizzes, video interviews

• Least favourite aspects: longer videos, longer text articles,discussions with other learners


Course feedback - comments

“Excellent course, thoroughly enjoyed it! Agood start for anyone interested in finance,accountancy and business. Lots of usefulinformation and at a decent pace for anyone(like myself) who is a novice. The quizzes inparticular really helped solidify theinformation and tested my very rusty mathskills.! I would highly recommend it. Thanksso much to all involved.”

“Thanks for the plain Englishexplanations. I felt my lack of financial

knowledge would hold me back (I have alot of experience in my chosen field butmost of it has been operational). The

explanations are pitched just right whichshould help me address my skills gap.”

“Regarding the course, I find the stylevery useful. The combination ofpractical activities and the videos havebeen very helpful to me. It has beenonly two weeks but this course so farhas made me revisit and correct aspectof my work that needed attention.”

“Great exercise. Another one that'sgreat for non financial types. I didn'tget all the answers right but theexplanations were easily understoodand helped me pinpoint where I hadgone wrong. I will probably return tothis as revision!”


Reflections

• Did reach target audience (especially on 2nd run) but other audiences too – aimednot to exclude in design but some felt course was too basic (ICAEW students?)

• Learners younger and less experienced with online courses than on other UoLMOOCs – less likely to complete (Morris et al, 2015)

• Mismatch between learner preferences and feedback and FutureLearn’s sociallearning emphasis

• Discussions were short – more guidance, setting expectations?

• Interactive exercises popular – application, authentic

• Live synchronous sessions with educators?


And finally…

University of Leeds MOOCs

https://www.futurelearn.com/partners/university-of-leeds

@unileedsonline

@AliSheph

[email protected]


References

• Clow, D. (2013) “MOOCs and the funnel of participation”. In: Third Conference on Learning Analytics and Knowledge(LAK 2013). http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1145/2460296.2460332

• Elston, C. and Morris, N. (2015) “Making MOOCs collaboratively: working effectively with stakeholders”, ProceedingsPapers, European MOOCs stakeholders summit

• FutureLearn (2017a). About FutureLearn. Available online from: https://www.FutureLearn.com/about-FutureLearn

• FutureLearn (2017b). University of Leeds. Available online from: https://www.FutureLearn.com/partners/university-of-leeds

• Laurillard, D. (2002) “Rethinking university teaching: a conversational framework for the effective use of learningtechnologies”, 2nd edition, Routledge Falmer, London

• Morris, N., Hotchkiss, S. and Swinnerton, B. (2015) “Can demographic information predict MOOC learner outcomes?’,Proceedings of the European MOOC Stakeholder Summit (2015): 199-207

Documents

A collaborative accounting, finance and business MOOC · 2017. 7. 21. · Overview • Course aims ... Joint MOOC – Leeds University Business School (LUBS) and Institute of Chartered