OIKONET Massive Open Online Course
Creators: name: Riddy, Paul
name: Charalambous, Nadia
name: Pattichi, Elina
name: Moreira Rato, Vasco
name: Paio, Alexandra
name: Pifko, Henrich
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: subject: Architecture
subject: FOS: Civil engineering
subject: Architecture
subject: Urban studies
subject: Housing
subject: Housing
subject: Environmental sustainability
subject: Education
subject: Education
subject: Innovation
subject: Educational Technology
subject: Learning

description: This document summarises the purpose, underlying thinking and development activities for the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) developed within the WP4 Pedagogical Activities of the OIKONET project. Two iterations of the MOOC were designed, planned and delivered during the course of the project.

The MOOC subject is “Housing Design: from Concept to Fabrication” and it was intended as an introduction to the design of housing for novice learners. The pedagogical design is based on constructive alignment as implemented in previous OIKODOMOS projects1, and the topics follow the same pattern and broad scope as implemented in the OIKONET workshop held in Lisbon in July 2014 (see Deliverable 4.3 “International Workshops (Lisbon)”. The programme of the workshop integrated five subjects around the design of a housing prototype: sustainability, energy efficiency, parametric design, digital fabrication, and participatory processes. For the MOOC, the housing prototype has been simplified to suit the starting knowledge of the students and the concept of a “Dolls House” (“Play House” second edition of the MOOC) was adopted as a unifying theme. The five main topics, treated as individual course modules, led participants from social considerations for design of this simple model through a series of modules leading up to the final outputs required for digital fabrication.

The MOOC relied on self-study and peer learning, with the learning activities designed to encourage and support both. Formative assessment tasks were used within the modules, building up knowledge and skills which could be brought together into submitting an entry to a competition for the best design.The Canvas MOOC environment was used for delivery. Five tutors from project partners collaboratively designed and subsequently completed a common design template (Appendix A) which was used to structure the modules and select the resources and assessments (see module descriptions in Appendix B). Tutors worked with the lead author of this report as coordinator. Each tutor facilitated the delivery of their module.

Two iterations of the MOOC were delivered -from September thru November 2015, and from May thru June 2016- with modifications to some of the course materials and delivery processes being implemented for the second iteration. The differences between cohorts for the two iterations complicated the analysis of the results and limited the conclusions which could be drawn. This was further complicated by the small number of learners who completed the requirements for the modules or for the course overall.

The course was designed on sound pedagogical principles for working within a MOOC environment. Overall the authors/tutors felt that the course was well designed but that it failed to engage students as members of a community of learners. The reasons for this are discussed and will be addressed in future iterations of the MOOC.