Internet Learning Volume 3, Number 1, Spring 2014 | Page 66

Many Shades of MOOC's
Game mechanics
The MOOC was designed using
game mechanics with a storyline (similar to
the reality television show “Survivor”) about
the world of math challenges on “Believe
Island.” The course consisted of four different
levels for the competencies related to
Tri-C’s lowest level of developmental math.
In each level, students were able to interact
with a variety of open educational resources,
including an open educational textbook,
instructional videos, and practice activities.
Once they felt confident, students were then
required to complete both checkpoints and
challenges. Each checkpoint helped the students
as a “self-test” on their proficiency of
a key concept, while the challenges were
designed to demonstrate mastery of all the
concepts in a particular level. Students had
to complete the challenge with a score of
80% or better. If they successfully completed,
students “leveled up” into the next level
of the course and earned a virtual badge (integrated
with Mozilla Open Badges). If students
did not earn an 80%, they had the opportunity
to complete the challenge as many
times as they needed based on a random
block question pool developed by the faculty
subject matter experts. The challenges
created a low-risk, safe-failure environment
to encourage persistence in the learners.
Open educational resources
The Tri-C MOOC did not recreate
the wheel. Instead, the course was designed
using existing open learning objects for
the Pre-Algebra MOOC. This included the
open textbook, videos, practice activities,
and more. The checkpoint and the challenge
questions were developed by the faculty.
The selection and vetting process
to align the OER with the course objectives
was a time-consuming task. The faculty
worked collaboratively with the instructional
designers to vet and view the resources
through Kahn Academy, Connexions,
Teacher Tube, and other sources. Tri-C also
openly licensed, through Creative Commons,
the images and the entire course for
use by any nonprofit institution.
Quality Matters
Tri-C’s Developmental Math MOOC
was designed with the principles of QM in
mind. The course site was the first MOOC
in the country to earn QM recognition via
the QM CPE Rubric (Quality Matters, 2014).
This demonstrates that MOOCs can indeed
meet high standard of course design quality.
Course video tour.
An overview of the full course design
can be found in the navigational video
at http://www.youtube.com/embed/kMeh-
DOaVtHo.
Technical Design
The course was designed in Blackboard
Course sites, using open educational
resources from Khan Academy and a
number of additional repositories. Students
could register and enroll directly in the
Blackboard Course sites to gain access to the
course.
Marketing
Tri-C used a number of different
marketing strategies to reach out to the multiple
audiences, including: (1) informational
flyers – (in both print and virtual formats),
(2) emails, (3) webpages – Tri-C’s website
and the eLearning & Innovation blog, (4)
face-to-face communication at the testing
centers where students complete the placement
tests, and (5) collaboration with a
number of local high schools. Furthermore,
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