Abstract:

The Higher Education (HE) landscape is continually changing and transforming to meet the needs of students now and into the future. This has been even more evident in the last 12 months as universities have tried to adapt to a rapidly changing landscape. Subsequently, new pedagogical approaches and the use of digital technologies and online tools to support both students and educators has become synonymous with transforming learning within Higher Education. While a number of universities see this as a way of attracting more students into their courses, it can also be viewed as a an opportunity to offer more flexible learning experiences for students. Coupled with the fourth industrial revolution and the need for continuous life long learning, where there is an opportunity for all to further develop new skills and knowledge, online learning has a very important role to play. Consequently, the notion of Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) and micro and nano degrees have attracted growing interest in this market with a number of universities re-branding their degrees. However, the development of these MOOCS and micro and nano degrees can be challenging as many academics often lack the pedagogical and technical expertise to develop appropriate online learning experiences without an adequate support infrastructure. It is within this context that this paper will report on a four year project where a specialised support team was formed to support academics looking to offer more flexible online courses within a MOOC platform. The paper reports on the role of the support team in not just supporting academics, but also the role they played in transforming the academics pedagogical approaches to teaching and learning, through coaching and mentoring activities within an open community of inquiry (CoI). The project is set within a large nordic university, and draws upon the experiences of the support team as they worked with academics to provide this support infrastructure. The paper also brings to the forefront a framework for supporting the development of MOOCs, that emerged throughout the project.

Keywords:

Higher Education, MOOCs, Online Pedagogy, Support Teams, MOOC Framework, Transformation.