Developing a MOOC Initiative: lessons learnt from The Universitat Politecnica de Valencia experience

Abstract

[EN] Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (UPV) was the European institution with more MOOC course runs done by December 2016. This paper describes and analyses the decision-making process, and rationale of the development of this low budget real MOOC institutional initiative carried out by a traditional higher educational medium sized institution. This analysis is done using an Evaluative Research (ER) method based on an iterative approach of 6 cycles of formative evaluation. It has been a multiple stage process that includes many aspects. In this paper, we will analyze two of them: the creation, organization and management of a fast and cheap MOOC production process, including the several tools, plans, and procedures that have enabled UPV to create courses fast and with a low-cost; and the technical evolution of the initiative, with the different platforms that have been used. As a consequence of this process, UPV has its own platform (upvx.es) based on openedX and is a member of edx.org, with 50 courses, 177 editions, and more than 632.000 enrollments. The completion rate is 8.69%, and post-course surveys reveal a high level of satisfaction from students. The paper will finish addressing the challenges of making this an entirely self-sustainable initiative and reflecting about what is required for evaluating this experience globally.