In order for the Open Science courses to be successful, there will need to be variations between the live courses–either in-person or virtual–and online courses. The rest of this document lays out suggested guidelines for course instructors and creators to achieve this balance.
The online course, designed in Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) style, is central to the TOPS open science curriculum. The instructors of this course are also its creators, so the following tips shall be grounded in pedagogy for good MOOC creation.
A central theme to keep in mind is that a MOOC is not simply a recording of an online class or a “talking head’ on a screen.
Successful MOOCs are emotionally engaging for the audience of learners, encouraging them to form a community with one another by deep, critical discussion on topics that they care about (Deng, R. 2021.) MOOCs tend to have a high drop-out rate since completion by 100% of students is not the intended outcome of a MOOC; instead, many learners tend to look at what interests them and discard the rest, as if they were auditing a course in college rather than taking it for credit. Others will not complete a MOOC if they discover the teaching style or course design doesn’t mesh well with their learning style (Waks, L. 2016; Bartolome, A. Steffans, K. 2015). Indeed, modern MOOC pedagogy argues that the most valuable part of MOOCs is the opportunity for creating a community around a particular topic (Bali, M. 2014).
As a central goal of NASA’s TOPS and Open Source Science Initiative (OSSI) programs to educate 20k scientists in open science principles over five years, the open science MOOC shall need to be engaging and rewarding. Some core principles to keep in mind to achieve this are the following, which are grounded in suggestions from Drake, J. O’Hara, M. Seeman, E. 2015 and Bali, M. 2014.
- Make the course meaningful
- Clearly distinguish core concepts and tie examples back to reality Motivate learners with tools and resources they can use in their own scientific studies. If possible, let them complete assignments using their own data-sets/examples. Design quizzes and other assessments to evaluate learning beyond “mere recall.”
- Make the course engaging
- Avoid lecture videos, keep animations short and interspersed with prompts for discussion, concepts maps, pictures/visual aids, study guides and self-assessment quizzes. Use interactive tools such as Jamboard or Canva to encourage MOOC cohorts to engage with each other as they complete assignments. Use the TOPS GitHub community board, slack, Zenodo community spaces, or other online forums to encourage interaction within and between cohorts. If possible, consider holding “office hours” with live instructors using video conferencing.
- Design the course to be measurable
- Take advantage of OpenEdEx analytics tools to verify learners are engaging with the material as expected. Understand how assignments will be graded and certification/badges awarded at the end.
- Design the course to be accessible
- Consider language, internet bandwidth and time constraints when designing assignments. A core theme of the course is open access, so verify that all resources can be downloaded without institution access to publications. Provide reading at various levels of academic rigor, to account for differences in education, scientific training, and professional role.
There are two forms of live courses to consider: (1) In-person instruction at conferences, science team meetings and similar in which instructor and learners are in the same, physical space; and (2) Virtual instruction, hosted via video-conference tool in which instructors and learners are not in the same room, but the conversation is occurring live. The primary role of the instructor in these scenarios is to teach the content that was already collected for the MOOC. While some instructors may have been involved in the MOOC design, this is not necessarily the case, and instructors should take care to familiarize themselves with the MOOC content prior to planning their “class.”
Some overarching tips to instructors for both scenarios are the following:
- Do not feel obligated to include all the content for the MOOC into the time allotted.
- A course designed for 2.5 hours online has 2.5 hours of content that has been trimmed and edited to meet time constraints. Natural presenting will likely be unable to stick to such a tight window. Prioritize what is important for the community in which you are presenting, and point learners to the online resources for the rest. Consult with the Transform to Open Science (TOPS) core team if more than a fourth of the content is being cut to ensure the learners are still meeting the basic requirements for the badge.
- Do encourage participation in small groups.
- Utilize breakout rooms in virtual settings, and arrange chairs when in-person to facilitate small discussion. Make sure to have people “report-out” to the main group.
- Utilize the TOPS Github and 'chat' in both settings for asynchronous and continuous discussion
- Do encourage learners who know the material to assist others
- Learners will likely be at different levels of proficiency with the technology described in this course. Encourage learners to volunteer what they know and ask those who are more familiar to assist the others. Provide alternative pathways for success to keep everyone engaged.
As each module is intended to be 3 hours long (2.5 hrs of content, two 15-min breaks), it is important that the “presentation” is interspersed with hands-on instruction and discussion. As such, it is suggested:
- Break up the “sage on a stage” by sharing videos developed for the MOOC, this also adds variety by allowing different “instructors” to take the stage
- Have learners pair up or work in groups when tackling the assignments, this may require re-arranging the room. Consider which assignments to include – some developed for the MOOC may require more time than is available in a typical classroom setting.
For virtual but live sessions, using technology designed for use in large, online settings will be key to its success. Some suggestions are:
- Prep break-out rooms and virtual whiteboards (e.g, Canva, Jamboard) for discussions. Have people add themselves to the virtual whiteboard as they join the session initially, to save some time in the middle
- Break up the “sage on a stage” by sharing animations or activities developed for the virtual course. Additionally, try to set up the virtual space so that the face of the instructor is centered on the screen along with any slides.
- Try to keep the “sage” bits short to keep interest. Have someone other than the main instructor monitor the chat in order to ask questions as they come up. Encourage participants to use the chat and raise hand feature.
- Use breakout rooms for discussion, and then have the smaller groups report out to the larger group. Have them fill a virtual white-board or a slide, to encourage deep thinking and provide a measurable mechanism for participation.
- Use interactive whiteboards or other learning tools in order to encourage participation during the presentation, not just after. This can help keep some styles of learners engaged.
- Use the TOPS Github community spaces for continuing discussion past the event - this will allow for interaction among cohorts not just during a single session.
- If permitted, experiment with using other avenues for communication in addition/instead of just video calling e.g., Gather.Town
Both the MOOC and the live courses ought to inspire learners to rigorize their own scientific research to include a wide breadth of open science principles. By creating courses that are likewise grounded in those principles, TOPS aims to inspire a true transformation to open science.