‘Academic Skills for University Success: Capstone’, the fifth and final MOOC in CET’s ‘Academic Skills for University Success’ Specialization on Coursera, goes live on the 13th of March. The Specialization is a resource for pre-undergraduate students to help them prepare for university study and provides them with an introduction to the norms, expectations, and values of academic culture (Brick, Herke & Wong, 2016).
The Capstone MOOC presents an innovative approach to course design, and uses adaptive learning courseware. The course employs a unique inquiry-based learning approach (Laurillard, 2012), providing learners with a challenging task relevant to their interests, access to specific resources, and guidance and personalised feedback to assist them in the completion of the task. The course tasks learners with developing a project proposal that will benefit a community of interest to them, and encourages them to draw on the skills addressed in the other four MOOCs – information and digital literacy, problem-solving, critical thinking, and communication.
To assist the learner develop their project, adaptive learning courseware is used to support their progress through the course. CET learning designers worked closely with Smart Sparrow, an adaptive learning courseware developer, to create an online learning experience that reflects the inquiry-based approach of the course. The result is a unique hybrid of MOOC and adaptive learning that scaffolds the learner through the development of their project – from early brainstorming of ideas to the creation of written and video proposals detailing their ideas.
Students can access MOOCs 1-4 in the Specialization for free at www.coursera.org by selecting the audit option when enrolling. If students would like to complete the full Specialization with the final Capstone MOOC, or would like a final grade and certificate, they can choose the ‘premium’ option and pay for a verified certificate.
For more information, take a look at the MOOCs at sydney.edu.au/cet/moocs
