CONCEPTION AND

PROJECT
MANAGEMENT

MOOC
Step by Step
Session 3
Step 2

STEP 2:
DETAILED PLANNING
How will the course l be structured?

TIP

The detailed planning focused on 5 main

aspects:
Course index

ECO portal
(http://portal.e
colearning.eu)
offers access to
different
platforms
where you can
create your
MOOC:
OpenMOOC,
WeMOOC,
iMOOC, Arlearn
and Logiassist

Contents
Activities
Grading
Communication and organization

STEP 2:
DETAILED PLANNING COURSE
INDEX
TIP

The more
details you add
the easier and
smoother will
be the
realization of
the course as
you have clear,
from the early
beginning, the
resources'
investment
required (time
and staff),
possible critical
points and you
can organize in
the best way
your work and
that of your
team!

Which contents/activities does the

course contain? In which sequence?
The index should contain the list of all
contents and activities (both the ones
already existing and the ones to be
realized) organized in weeks and
modules.
Start from the form used in Step 1 and
enrich it.

STEP 2:
DETAILED PLANNING CONTENTS
TIP

3 main choices
exist

contents from
"others"
already
available

own contents
already
available

content to be
created

Which are the main elements to be

considered?

Time and budget availability

Simplicity in updating

Scientific validity

Three main choices exist:

CONTENTS FROM
"OTHERS"
ALREADY
AVAILABLE

OWN CONTENTS
ALREADY
AVAILABLE

CONTENT TO BE
CREATED

STEP 2:
DETAILED PLANNING CONTENTS
CONTENTS
FROM "OTHERS"
ALREADY
AVAILABLE

Internet is full of Open Educational Resources

(OER) that could be freely used: Youtube video,
ebook downloadable or accessible by
books.google.com , articles audio files or web
sites. Before integrating in your sMOOC an
existing content be sure to:
verify type of licence under which contents were
issued. Usually OER are public or issued under
Creative Commons or GNU Free Documentation
License that ruled the use and re-use (like reelaboration) or the content itself. To discover
more http://www.creativecommons.com/
source reliability. Many universities, news
headlines like BBC national or international
repositories managed by the European Union
offer valid OERs

here some examples:

http://openeducationeuropa.eu/
https://www.edx.org/
http://www.coursera.org/
https://www.futurelearn.com
https://iversity.org/
http://www.ted.com/
www.khanacademy.org
www.pok.polimi.it
(more info, in Italian, available here)

The educative path should be very clear. Students

must know why he have to follow a specific
content, how it is linked to the next one and
understand what he is going to monetize in terms
of knowledge and competences

STEP 2:
DETAILED PLANNING CONTENTS
OWN CONTENTS
ALREADY
AVAILABLE

Are they suitable for online fruition?

Probably you or the teachers you want to
involve in the MOOC already have material like
slides, books, images, and articles that can be
reused.
It is also probable that these materials should
be re-edited in order to make them effective
for online study as well both as their
integration in the course considering the
objective.
How to go on?
make texts and images easily readable
verify to have authorization for images online
distribution
consider that you can make them fitting with
your course objective proposing additional
material or integrating practical activities

STEP 2:
DETAILED PLANNING CONTENTS
CONTENT TO BE
CREATED

This activity is the most demanding in terms of

time and staff effort.
The format
You can use different formats for different
contents: you have to choose the one that fits
best specific didactic objective taking into
account time, budget and staff availability.
Non textual contents should be always supported
by texts (transcripts for videos or audios, slides,
pdf, etc...)
Video
Points of attention:
each video has to have a specific and clear
objective;
video should last among 2-10mins;
it may be associated to writing content to be
downloaded;
Possibly try to make something happen every 7-8
seconds in order to keep high the users
attention (e.g. let an image, an animation, a tag
appear on the screen; let an object appear or be
used by the teacher in the video; etc);
try to use videos with different formats (e.g.
video in external; use interviews; change
perspectives; use different supports;
Presentations with Prezi or Slideshare. They can
be easily embedded in online platforms
PDF to be downloaded and audio

STEP 2:
DETAILED PLANNING ACTIVITIES
The individual and collaborative activities
are the core of a sMOOC.

TIP

Have a look on
project
document (only
in English)
"ECO_D2.2
Instructional
design and
scenarios for
MOOCs

We suggest a list of to do that you can

follow in order to cover all the aspects:
1. define the specific objective of each
activity you want to offer in a clear and
easily comprehensive way. Moreover the
objective should aim to experiment
contents in a concrete project/activity
define the modality and/or tool.
2. Plan intermediate steps also with dates,
etc
3. define how to launch the activity.
4. define how to collect results
5. define how to evaluate results
6. define how to return the evaluation to
students
7. define how to assess results.

STEP 2:
DETAILED PLANNING ACTIVITIES
TO DO LIST

1.define the specific objective of each

activity you want to offer in a clear and
easily comprehensive way. The objective
could be:
to support the introduction of a new
argument
to explore a theme/content looking for
bibliography or references
to develop critical competences
to test/evaluate content argument
comprehension
to collaborate
2.define the modality and/or tool. Some
examples:
discussion among peer on a critical issue
peer assessment
quiz with multiple choice, etc.
project work realization (video on
youtube, wiki pages, shared bibliography,
etc )
guided online search
3.Planning intermediate steps like, for
example:
Define precise date when activities will
go on
Suppose in advance what is going to
happen during each step in order to be
able to prevent difficulties and problems

STEP 2:
DETAILED PLANNING ACTIVITIES
TO DO LIST

4. define how to launch the activity. Practical

procedure approach:
define the system of grading
fix the whole calendar so you can choose the
most suitable date
prepare instructions in advance
test the instructions from student's perspective
make the activity presentation and instructions
always available to students as they can
participate at different moments.
communicate through emails all activity steps
in order to guide students along the way
5. define how to collect results
6. define how to evaluate results:
to fix who will be in charge to evaluate
activity results (could be the teacher or the
students for example)
to prepare and share, before peer assessment
activity starts, the rubric with evaluation
criteria
7.

define how to return the evaluation to

students

7. define how to assess results. Some examples:

choose the best 3 or 5 students
responses/works and/or frequent mistakes or
difficulties and present them organizing and a
hangout and/or assess them in the forum
and/or social networks
integrate activity results in the course
contents

STEP 2:
DETAILED PLANNING GRADING
TIP
Important for
stimulating
student
participation
and
engagement.

In order to keep students engaged in

the course and activities it is important
to assign points/badges during the
paths.
Once you fixed the detailed plan you
can define the minimum score to be
reached for passing the course and
which activities will contribute in
achieving this score and in which way.
This aspect must be clearly explained to
students.
Scheduled to give students a final
reward. If you are not allowed to give
official credits (ECTS) you can give
students badges or a certificate of
participation.

STEP 2:
DETAILED PLANNING
COMMUNICATION AND
ORGANIZATION
TIP

All these
aspects must
be planned
before the
course starts.

Not only educative aspects should be

considered during planning activity but also
organizational and communication issues
like:
fixing a calendar for each MOOC edition
path but also for next future editions
taking into account vacancy, schools
holidays, etc...
have in mind that 2 people minimum are
needed for conducting a MOOC: one who
takes care of contents, the another who
manages technical and organizational
aspects
define internal communication fluxes:
teacher-students; students-students.
design a communication plan of the MOOC
(see details in session 5)
decide how to collect enrolments