Background
Teach the world
Last year, people all over the world could, if they wanted, attend five series of free digital lectures from Leiden University. Over the next two years, the university will invest nearly one and a half million Euros in these “moocs”. Are they a good idea or merely an expensive calling card?
Petra Meijer en Gabe Kramer
Wednesday 4 February 2015

“I was the university guinea pig eighteen months ago”, says Stefaan van den Bogaert, Professor of European Law. He was the first Leiden lecturer to prepare a “mooc”, a massive online open course. “It was an awful lot of work, all of it was new, but when I saw that people in Australia were on the forum discussing European Law with people in India and Cameroon, I realised that I was onto something special.”

“We suddenly had three times more enrolments than the entire university”, says Edwin Bakker, Professor of (Counter) Terrorism, who has also given a mooc. “You can’t make a single mistake, because you’ll be inundated with emails.” Van den Bogaert adds: “It really forces you to examine your teaching methods – there’s no room for error. It’s got to be right first time.”

“Moocs are essential for developing online learning”, says Vice-Rector Simone Buitendijk. “It raises our public profile and gives us an opportunity to demonstrate the things we’re exceptionally good at while teaching the whole world. However, designing online courses is also important for our own students because they have the chance to work with students all over the world in “spocs” (small private online courses). In addition, much of the material is used for regular lectures. Students can watch the films whenever it suits them and can discuss the content more exhaustively in tutorials.”

Professor of Islam in the Western World, Maurits Berger, held a Master’s level spoc. “I prefer chalk and blackboards, I’m not really into all that modern stuff, but it does have its advantages. I don’t want any more work and an online course should make my life easier. I can use the material I’m preparing now again next year, which will save me time in the future.”

Lecturers should ask themselves what the advantages of an online course could be, he continues. “Papyrologists with only three students can recruit students abroad. Or if you have a large group of staid Dutch students, it might be good for them to exchange ideas with Iranian or Chinese students. My aim was to persuade external students to do research for me. I didn’t get any subsidy but instead of having three PhD students, I now have twenty Master’s students doing research for me abroad. I train them first and then send them out do to fieldwork.”

He turned his second spoc into a really large experiment when he told his students to make a documentary instead of writing a paper. “A Brazilian student is making a documentary about the Islamic Council in Brazil. A student from Russia filmed a local Muslim community in Russia – they’re my eyes and ears abroad.”

Bakker adds: “We can ask students things like whether they are worried about terrorism. All that data is producing an enormous database.” Marco de Ruiter, Professor of Clinical and Experimental Anatomy, works with 3D images to teach students about the stomach and pelvis. He has assigned lots of work to the “masses”. “We ask the students to label ‘slices’ of the body in special drawing programs which we will use to build 3D reconstructions in the future. Moreover, we hope that this mooc will teach us more about how students work: what works and when do they start to drop out?”

According to online-education expert Marja Verstelle from the Centre for Innovation, that is exactly the point of the moocs: “They are the drivers of teaching innovation and give lecturers new ideas.”

“Lectures are actually quite inadequate”, claims Professor of Linguistics, Marc van Oostendorp. “If you can’t approach a large group of students individually, you stand in a large hall and just talk at them. Moocs are intended for large numbers too but we can improve interactivity. I recorded my footage with two students but speakers of six different languages also worked on it.”

Verstelle adds: “Online courses will never replace regular education but we have formulated a strategy per faculty following our experiences with online learning.”

The five Leiden moocs have already been attended by 200,000 students in 186 different countries. Over eight thousand certificates have been awarded in total. A certificate costs the students around fifty dollars each. The university will invest 1.4 million Euros over the next two years and seven new courses are already being prepared.

Buitendijk can’t predict whether that will lead to more enrolments. “We have some anecdotal evidence though: there’s an American student who decided to take a Master’s in Leiden after following our mooc on European Law.” But as long as it isn’t clear whether the online courses generate more enrolments or not, they remain a very expensive calling card. Preparing a mooc costs around sixty thousand Euros – roughly the equivalent of a new lecturer’s annual salary.

Verstelle is not ruling out paid versions. “We’re looking into charging for courses. Imagine developing more exclusive courses that require a small contribution from a large group of people.” Bakker is not adverse to the idea either. “I would consider online Master’s programmes with one or two weeks of summer or winter school. It might sound a bit American and faraway but I think we can meet the demand of an enormous market: think of Africa or India!”

“Well, count me out if they start charging for them”, says Marc van Oostendorp. “We’re a knowledge institute and traditionally we give away lots of knowledge.” Berger doesn’t think he’s being realistic: “That’s the education communists talking: free education for everyone. I’m more in favour of an exchange – more work perhaps, but it produces more too. You can’t mark twenty essays just for the fun of it.”

Nonetheless, he believes his spoc could have been cheaper and has decided to produce a low budget version. “It doesn’t have to cost loads of money. We installed some lamps in my office and I recorded it on my laptop.” He admits that there were some technical problems. “Google Hangout was a particular disaster, but that was my own stupid fault, I wanted to do everything.”

Edward M. Roche (62)

From: New York

Job: Internet Governance Forum, United Nations

Followed: Introduction into European Law

“I want to save on expensive text books. I can’t imagine why we have to pay so much for really old books in fields like maths. That knowledge should be accessible to everyone. Introduction into European Law was essential to my work at the United Nations as I had to research Internet regulation. I’ve been following online courses for ten years but found the Leiden mooc tougher. It was more challenging. As there were between 15,000 and 20,000 people following the same course, it produced some new, refreshing angles. You communicate with the other students like you do on social media and you can get notes from fellow-students on the other side of the globe. However, a large number of students drop out. Even so, if one per cent pass, that’s still more people than an average lecture hall holds.”

Valeria H. Reyes

From: Tampico, Mexico

Job: Environmental technician

Followed: Introduction into European Law, Terrorism & Counterterrorism: Theory and Practice, The Changing Global Order

“I dropped out of previous moocs halfway. The Leiden mooc Introduction into European Law was the first I managed to pass. During the course, I set up a study group with a Whatsapp group and a Facebook group with people from places like Greece, Mexico, South Africa and the United States. Because I was more active on the forum than anyone else, they asked me to be a community teaching assistant, so I help maintain the forum and answer questions about the course. Now I’m doing the same for the mooc The Changing Global Order. It’s quite challenging, partly because in the town where I live, hardly a day goes by without a drugs-related shooting. Thanks to the moocs, I can now see mistakes the Mexican government in the fight against the drugs cartels that I didn’t see before.”

Roy Namgera (38)

From: Mbezi, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Job: Fellowship at UNESCO in Poland, geologist with Bharat Gold Mines Limited and working on a project at Uranium One in Tanzania

Followed: Wheels of Metals: Urban Mining for a Circular Economy

“I was looking for information on the Internet that related to my work and by chance I found on the mooc Wheels of Metals. So that was the first one I did. I was fascinated by the lectures, which mainly discussed the recycling of metals. They gave me lots of new ideas about recycling that will help me do my job better. Perhaps the subject matter could have been discussed in more depth – I missed the depth. I want to follow another Leiden mooc before I go back to Tanzania, preferably another one related to my field.”

Andris Krasti?š (30)

From: Latvia

Job: Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, department of International Law

Followed: The Changing Global Order (finished), Introduction into European Law (unfinished), Terrorism & Counterterrorism: Theory and Practice (unfinished)

“I didn’t finish my first Leiden mooc, Introduction into European Law, due to lack of time. After that, I started on The Changing Global Order. I’m going to apply for a certificate too so I can put it on my CV. It’s easier for me to understand the policy officers, so in the end, the mooc was more useful to me than I initially thought. But it’s not just a professional interest: I take them to learn more about other subjects too, like biology.

Everything is very professional in Leiden compared to other universities, where moocs tend to consist of all sorts of information thrown together. And the forum was great too: discussing stuff with other students and getting feedback from the professor. You can study whatever, whenever and wherever you want.”

Iva Vukusic (33)

From: Zagreb

Job: Researcher at Sense News Agency, specialising in human rights and war crimes.

Followed: Introduction into European Law, The Changing Global Order, Terrorism & Counterterrorism: Comparing Theory and Practice

“A colleague recommended this to me in the spring of 2013. The weather was bad, so it was a good reason to try it straight away. I started with International Law and a few months later I followed the first Leiden course: Introduction into European Law. Now I’m already on my thirteenth, one on political philosophy. The courses all relate to my work, human rights. I’m following them mostly to acquire more general knowledge and to refresh my memory.

Most moocs at other universities are first-year level; the Leiden moocs have a higher standard. A problem I’ve noticed with all moocs is the large number of students. Together, they generate huge amounts of content and comments that are not always any good. But I can’t think of any other way of coming into contact with so many people who are interested in the same subject. Talk about democratization of knowledge!”