FAQ on the University of Copenhagen's work with MOOCs

Why does the University of Copenhagen offer massive open online courses?

There are several reasons why the University of Copenhagen and all of its six faculties have decided to offer Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs).

One primary reason is that it is our belief that the new technologies and rapid innovation within online learning will ultimately lead to better education – not just for the University’s more than 1 million MOOC students, but also for the students enrolled at the University of Copenhagen.

Integrating MOOCs with on-campus courses provide the students with an opportunity to be part of a truly global classroom, which among many other features offers the students an international professional network and a global outlook on career opportunities. The integration of new technologies, pedagogies, and blended approaches to learning, can also offer both students and instructors a much more interesting, challenging, and inspiring classroom experience on normal campus-based courses. In this way, our work with MOOCs is a natural part of the ongoing work to continually increase the quality of the study programs offered by the University, as well as strengthen the employability of our graduates.

Another reason is the sharing of knowledge. At the University of Copenhagen, we consider MOOCs to be a democratisation of access to knowledge which ties in well with our commitment to the tradition that research and teaching should benefit society at large. We are already operating in a globalised world of research and education, and through collaboration with Coursera the University’s interaction with the world is considerably strengthened.

Finally, the University of Copenhagen can use the involvement in MOOCs to attract international students to its study programs, and improve access to life-long learning in Denmark and beyond. It is also an efficient way of highlighting the work of internationally leading research groups at the University of Copenhagen, thereby attracting international talent to our Faculties.

How many students are there on the MOOCs that the University of Copenhagen is offering?

Student activity data for all UCPH MOOCs are available in the impact section of this website: UCPH MOOC impact

Because enrolment numbers say little about the success or failure of a MOOC and experience shows that just a little over half of the people who sign up end up participating in the course. The number of people who end up finishing the entire course and receiving a certificate depend greatly on the workload, topic and format of the course, but usually it is somewhere between 5 and 20% of the active students.

Why do only a small part of the students that start on a MOOC end up completing it?

In 2012, when MOOCs first started appearing, much attention was given to the extremely high number of enrolled students – some courses boasted several hundred thousand enrollees. As more studies have been made of MOOC student activity levels and learning patterns, it has become clear that students do not join a MOOC with the same expectations of completing the course as they do on the smaller credit-bearing (online or campus based) courses in traditional study programs. And furthermore, since most MOOCs are free and there are no restrictions on access, many people will sign up but never enter the online course room and interact with the course materials.

So although it is obviously nice to see a great number of students interacting with the entire course material that is not necessarily the best way to measure if a certain MOOC is a success. Due to the flexibility of the format the University embraces the many ways a course participant can benefit from a MOOC, and letting the participants pick and choose the elements that they find important and worthwhile is just a way of accepting more individually tailored and adaptive ways of learning.

Do course participants receive university credit for passing a MOOC from the University of Copenhagen?

The University of Copenhagen does not offer ECTS credits for the completion of a MOOC.

Course participants can pay USD 49 and if completing a MOOC by doing all assignments and living up to the grading criteria receive a certificate. These documents are issued electronically by Coursera.

Some credit-bearing courses have students from the University of Copenhagen participating in a MOOC as part of their UCPH studies. This blended format is an experiment, where the educational materials and large peer network of the MOOC can enrich the learning experience and improve outcomes by flipping the class room of a campus-based course. In such cases, the students will, of course, receive ECTS credits from the campus-based course which is a part of their own programme curricula.

Do MOOCs and online learning mean that UCPH students will spend less time with their professors/instructors?

The University of Copenhagen is committed to the idea that an important part of quality education is close contact between students and faculty.

Because of this, the University does not consider MOOCs as an alternative to traditional classroom courses nor as something that will ever replace the campus experience. Instead, they are seen as an add-on – something that can enrich the educational experience, as we know it from field trips, case-based learning, guest lecturers, lab experiments, group work, and many other pedagogical tools in the educator’s toolbox. Rather than shortening the time that professors and students spend together, MOOCs have the potential to make their shared time more interesting, challenging, and conducive to learning.

Are MOOCs a threat to the future of higher education as we know it?

At the University of Copenhagen, we do not consider these new developments in educational technologies and online pedagogies as a threat to the University’s role as a center for the creation and dissemination of knowledge and higher education. We embrace the advantages that new technologies can render the learning experience of our students, and believe it is fruitful to experiment with different formats in our never-ending quest to improve education and share our knowledge with the world.

What is the difference between MOOCs and other forms of online learning?

One major difference is that MOOCs are not credit-bearing. They are designed to scale – so thousands of students can follow the same course – so the student-instructor ratio is very low on MOOCs. This means that there is only a very limited or no opportunity for direct interaction with the professor. On MOOCs, most of the moderation of online discussion forums is undertaken by fellow course participants or participants from previous sessions of the same course (So-called Community Teaching Assistants).

Smaller scale credit-bearing online courses will often be closely moderated, and offer much the same advantages as traditional class room teachings – such as close and real-time contact with a professor and good opportunities for feedback. These types of courses have shown great results in facilitating group work and interaction between students and instructors.

Generally, though, both formats can learn a lot from each other. Just like online education can learn from great classroom education – and vice versa.

Who owns the course materials that are made for MOOCs?

The material you see online is produced in collaboration by many different people at the University: professors, guest lecturers, academic assistants, and partner universities as well as administrative and technical staff.

The University of Copenhagen owns all material produced for the courses (unless otherwise stated), and the material can be withdrawn from the Coursera platform at the University’s discretion.

How are the MOOCs from the University of Copenhagen financed?

The production cost is paid for by the Faculties and Departments that are offering the courses.

Who decides which courses the University will offer on Coursera?

Please contact the UCPH MOOC Unit in case you have an idea for a course or want to know more.