IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - June 2016 - 88

The preparation workload was considerable; for example,
the issue of securing copyright clearance for images was an
unexpectedly large task. As the course materials were
designed to be viewed outside of the usual university copyright jurisdiction, many hundreds of images used in the
original slide sets needed to have explicit clearance or substitution with an equivalent free-to-use image, a purchased
stock image, or a newly created image. In addition, every
image on every slide had to be captioned with its source.
Further effort needed to be directed to preparing weekly
multiple-choice assessment questions as well as formulating
MATLAB programming assignments that required a problem description, a model solution, and a grading script, all
of which needed to be coded and tested. The quizzes and
MATLAB programming assignments were created through
a web-based authoring system. Frequently, we needed to
enter mathematical notation, and this was conveniently
achieved using the MathJax plugin which allows mathematics to be written directly using LaTeX notation.
Facilitating and Building
the Participant Community
Following the design and development of the courses, considerable effort was also required for implementation. For example, actively managing and building the student community
was important, and we focused considerable attention on this
phase [11]. Feedback from the discussion forums and the
post-course survey indicated that this support was valued
and appreciated by students.
We engaged a small group of teaching assistants (TAs), all
high-achieving students of the university undergraduate
course. They were now
senior undergraduates,
research assistants, or
Despite the challenging
graduate students who
were ably qualified to
work of designing,
assist with content, including MATLAB programdeveloping, supporting,
ming. They received
training in online facilitaand facilitating the online
tion for community
engagement and provided
courses described here,
an ongoing teaching presthere are exciting prospects ence [11] along with the
committed contribution
of the lead lecturer. The
for delivering a suite of
TAs were rostered on each
day to manage communirobotics courses for a
ty conversations, and they
hosted live events (synrange of purposes based
chronous Google Hangouts). The live events were
on this MOOC adventure.
also recorded and placed
on site as asynchronous
resources. Students were able to create groups based on geographical location, groups devoted to special interests such as
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IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE

june 2016

discussions about the pros and cons of using different
technologies for creating the project robot (i.e., LEGO or
Arduino), or even groups for their own events. The overall
positive student rating of each of the MOOCs can in part be
attributed to the work put into supporting these online communities: 60% rated the first MOOC as excellent, and 31%
rated it as good in the post-course survey (n = 383).
Use in Blended Learning
In 2014, the classroom version of ENB339 was used to road
test the MOOC content. Using a flipped classroom
approach, one of the two weekly face-to-face lectures was
replaced with online material that the students reviewed
before class. The remaining one-hour lecture, termed a lectorial, became an opportunity for the lecturers and students
to engage in deeper thinking, discussion, and analysis
based on the previewed content. A web-based student
response system, GoSoapBox, allowed students to nominate, or up vote, a question that they would like covered
during the lectorial. This worked well with a class of 80 students, and the sessions were characterized by a lot of discussion. Theoretically, students did not need to come to the
lectorial, but generally two-thirds of the class attended each
week. The evaluation of this approach indicated that the
high-achieving students were even more successful; however, some students struggled with the increased requirement
for self regulation of their study.
Overall Outcomes
The two MOOCs provided an overwhelming amount of
data, much of which is still to be analyzed and will be discussed and reported elsewhere. With respect to our initial
higher-level goals, the two MOOCs have:
● Attained global reach and profile (visibility): Over
20,000 participants, (73% under age 30) had exposure
to Robotics and QUT (40% had no university qualifications). Pathways are being developed for using MOOCs
to introduce students to graduate and professional
courses. Other academic institutions have approached
the university regarding use of segments of the courses,
and certain companies have registered interest in customised, corporate online modules.
● Created and repurposed resources: Resources prepared
for the MOOC have been effectively adapted and reused
in the original undergraduate course ENB339.
● Enhanced production processes and expertise: This has
included the development of copyright clearance workflows and processes, effective online educational assets,
and educational design and multimedia design processes.
● Applied learning analytics to massive data sets: Participant
demographics, motivations, and engagement data has been
collected and is being analyzed. This informs future design
and learning and teaching processes.
● Increased knowledge about online pedagogy: New and
innovative approaches have been successfully introduced,
including integration of MATLAB for automatic grading

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - June 2016