Using an interdisciplinary MOOC to teach climate science and science communication to a global classroom

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bärbel Winkler ◽  
John Cook
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Psychology ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Climate Science ◽  
Online Course ◽  
Scientific Content ◽  
Course Content ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Video Lectures ◽  
The University

<p>MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) are a powerful educational tool, making scientific content available to a large and diverse audience. The MOOC “Making Sense of Climate Science Denial” applies science communication principles derived from cognitive psychology and misconception-based learning in the design of video lectures covering many aspects of climate change. As well as teaching fundamental climate science, the course also presents psychological and critical thinking research into climate science denial, teaching students the most effective techniques for responding to misinformation. A number of the enrolled “students" have been secondary and tertiary educators, who have adopted the course content in their own classes as well as adapted their teaching techniques based on the science communication principles presented in the lectures. The MOOC—developed by John Cook while at the University of Queensland's Global Change Insitute—integrates cognitive psychology, educational research and climate science in an interdisciplinary online course that has had over 40,000 enrolments from over 180 countries since the MOOC was launched in 2015.</p>

The story of Skeptical Science: How citizen science helped to turn a website into a go-to resource for climate science

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bärbel Winkler ◽  
John Cook
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Science ◽  
Environmental Research ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Massive Open Online Course ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Video Lectures ◽  
Study Team ◽  
Turn Over ◽  
The University

<p>Skeptical Science (SkS) is a website with international reach founded by John Cook in 2007. The main purpose of SkS is to debunk misconceptions and misinformation about human-caused climate change and features a database that currently has more than 200 rebuttals based on peer-reviewed literature. Over the years, SkS has evolved from a one-person operation to a team project with science-minded volunteers from around the globe. The Skeptical Science team also actively contribute to published research, with a highlight being the often cited 97% consensus paper published in 2013 (Cook et al. 2013) for which team members content-analysed about 12,000 abstracts in a study whose publication fee was crowd-funded by readers of the website.</p><p>The SkS author community formed in 2010 in response to the proposal to expand existing rebuttals to three levels: basic, intermediate, and advanced. Since then, team members regularly collaborate to write and review rebuttal and blog articles for the website. Volunteer translators from many countries have translated selected content into more than 20 languages including booklets such as The Debunking Handbook, The Uncertainty Handbook or The Consensus Handbook. In addition to the already mentioned consensus study, team members have helped with other research projects initiated by John Cook such as the efforts to train a computer to detect and classify climate change misinformation. Another significant project is the Massive Open Online Course (or MOOC) “Denial101x: Making Sense of Climate Science Denial” in collaboration with the University of Queensland, for which the SkS team produced numerous video lectures and for which forum moderators were recruited. Outreach activities such as the “97 Hours of Consensus” were crowdsourced with team members collecting and organising content and providing technical support.</p><p>Challenges: Due to the volunteer nature of people’s involvement, there are some challenges involved as not everybody is available to help with tasks all the time. People help as much – or as little – as their time allows and there’s always some turn-over with new people joining while others leave.</p><p>Skeptical Science (SkS): (accessed November 29, 2019)</p><p>Cook, J., Nuccitelli, D., Green, S. A., Richardson, M., Winkler, B., Painting, R., Way, R., Jacobs, P., & Skuce, A. (2013). . <em>Environmental Research Letters</em>, <em>8</em>(2), 024024+.</p><p>Cook, J., Schuennemann, K., Nuccitelli, D., Jacobs, P., Cowtan, K., Green, S., Way, R., Richardson, M., Cawley, G., Mandia, S., Skuce, A., & Bedford, D. (April 2015). Denial101x: Making Sense of Climate Science Denial. <em>edX</em>. </p><p>Cook, J., & Lewandowsky, S. (2011). . St. Lucia, Australia: University of Queensland. ISBN 978-0-646-56812-6.</p>

Giving Facts a fighting chance against misinformation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bärbel Winkler ◽  
John Cook
Keyword(s):  
Climate Science ◽  
Expert Advice ◽  
Online Course ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Massive Open Online Course ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Logical Fallacies ◽  
The University

<p>Skeptical Science is a volunteer-run website publishing refutations of climate misinformation. Some members of the Skeptical Science team actively research best-practices refutation techniques while other team members use the provided materials to share debunking techniques effectively either in writing or through presentations. In this submission, we highlight several of our publications and projects, designed to help to give facts a fighting chance against misinformation. While some of the resources are nominally related to climate change, the underlying techniques apply across different topics. Resources include the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) “Denial101x - Making sense of Climate Science Denial” co-produced with the University of Queensland in 2015, the “FLICC-framework” explaining the taxonomy of science denial with its five main techniques (fake experts, logical fallacies, impossible expectations, cherry picking, and conspiracy theories), the Debunking Handbook 2020 which summarizes research findings and expert advice about debunking misinformation, and the Conspiracy Theory Handbook distilling research findings and expert advice on dealing with conspiracy theories. We will also introduce the Cranky Uncle smartphone game, using critical thinking, gamification, and cartoons to interactively explain science denial techniques and build resilience against misinformation.</p>

Understanding Online Learners' Media Literacy for Effective Training of Online Instructors

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Cathryn Crosby
Keyword(s):  
Media Literacy ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Online Course ◽  
Academic Literacies ◽  
Online Learners ◽  
Online Instructors ◽  
Course Content ◽  
Literacy Proficiency ◽  
Academic Reading ◽  
Writing Practices

The increase in online courses offered in higher education, the reliance on highly developed academic literacy skills to learn course content, the complex nature of media literacy, the negotiation of multiple technologies, and the corresponding media literacy together can be quite challenging for online learners. Most research conducted on academic literacies has focused primarily on academic reading and writing practices rather than on media literacy. This chapter discusses an investigation of media literacy in an online course, the experience learners had with this literacy and online tasks. The chapter discusses results of data from the online learners and instructor, which showed the instructor required different media literacy proficiency than what the online learners possessed prior to beginning the online course. Finally, the chapter presents implications the study findings have for online instructors' effective development, design, and delivery of online courses and development of online learners' media literacy.

scholarly journals Enquiry-Based Learning Online: Course Development and Student Experience of a First-Year Enquiry-Based Learning Seminar

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 129-142
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Murray ◽  
Nathan John Lachowsky ◽  
Natalie Green
Keyword(s):  
Online Courses ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Online Course ◽  
First Year ◽  
Course Development ◽  
Online Distance Education ◽  
Online Course Development ◽  
Online Distance ◽  
The University ◽  
First Year Seminar

Online courses are increasing in popularity while universities are using first-year seminars to address the challenges of large impersonal classes, lack of student engagement, and increased skills development. Could the learning experience and benefits of an in-person first-year seminar be achieved through an online distance education (DE) format? How would students’ experience benefit from an online DE first-year seminar? At the University of Guelph, an online interdisciplinary first-year seminar was developed and offered four times. This essay includes reflections from the faculty instructor and educational developer who co-designed the course, results from pre- and post-course surveys completed by students, and interviews conducted with students.

scholarly journals Webs of activity in online course design and teaching

2004 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Peruski ◽  
Punya Mishra
Keyword(s):  
Activity Theory ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Online Course ◽  
Teaching Online ◽  
Work Activities ◽  
Collaborative Activities ◽  
The University ◽  
First Time

In this study, we followed three faculty members’ experiences with designing and teaching online courses for the first time. In order to complete the activity, the faculty members had to work collaboratively with others across the university. Activity theory provided a framework within which to study faculty members’ collaborative activities with members of different activity systems that had different goals, tools, divisions of labor and accountabilities. In concordance with activity theory, such differences led to contradictions, disturbances, and transformations in thinking and work activities. The results of the study have implications for individuals and systems undertaking technology integration in teaching.DOI: 10.1080/0968776042000211520

Designing Online Courses as a Team

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-73
Author(s):  
M'hammed Abdous
Keyword(s):  
Course Design ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Collective Intelligence ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Public Institution ◽  
Online Course ◽  
Degree Programs ◽  
Course Content ◽  
Institutional Experience

Unlike the traditional “lone ranger” method for online course design—a method that hinges on individual faculty efforts, expertise, and knowledge—a team-based approach (TBA) harnesses the collective intelligence of several experts to design effective online learning experiences. Using learning design (LD) as a conceptual framework, this article describes the experience of a public institution in using a team-based approach to produce a large number of online courses for degree programs. After establishing the relevance of a team-based approach, the author discusses the premises that underpin the model, in terms of process, faculty relationship, and quality assurance. Building on these premises, a cyclical backward design process is described which is intended to (1) clarify course-learning outcomes and align course content, (2) determine acceptable evidence of students' learning, and (3) plan the learning experience. The article is concluded with a few insights and lessons learned from the institutional experience.

Implementation and Evaluation of Online Courses

2009 ◽  
pp. 305-329
Author(s):  
Chao Lee
Keyword(s):  
Online Teaching ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Technical Support ◽  
Learning System ◽  
Online Course ◽  
Course Content ◽  
Course Materials ◽  
Support Team ◽  
Addie Model ◽  
Teaching Learning

As stated in the discussion of the ADDIE model in the last chapter, implementation and evaluation are part of the development process. Once online course materials are developed, the next task is to deploy the course materials to students. The first topic of this chapter will deal with the issues related to the deployment of online course materials. In this chapter, we will discuss the tasks such as planning and training involved in the deployment process. Once the online course materials have been deployed, there will be a large number of requests from the students for help on technology and course content related issues. To keep the online teaching/learning system running successfully, we need a strong technical support team including experienced computer service personnel, instructors, and fellow students. This chapter will deal with the issues related to technical support. We will discuss various ways to provide technical support services.

A Case Study of the Adult Learner's Perception of Instructional Quality in Web-Based Online Courses

2010 ◽  
pp. 271-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry T. Kidd ◽  
Holim Song
Keyword(s):  
Interaction Design ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Instructional Quality ◽  
Online Course ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Course Content ◽  
Learning Programs ◽  
Online Distance Learning ◽  
Online Distance

This study assessed the perceptions of adult learners in online distance learning programs regarding the instructional quality of Web-based courses via WebCT. The results showed an overall positive perception regarding the instructional quality of online courses delivered via WebCT (M = 3.51, SD = 1.1362). The mean obtained for students’ perceptions regarding the instructional quality items ranged from 3.7 to 3.37. The visual appeal of Web site and appropriateness of the course materials received the highest rating (M = 3.625). Clarity and purpose in introduction to content components earned the lowest ratings (M = 3.37). These results were closely correlated to students’ responses regarding the important aspects of instructional quality of online courses. The most important aspect indicated by students was the idea of having online course content and materials relevant to the course. The results of the study also indicated other perceived aspects that affect students’ views of the instructional quality of an online course, including interaction, design, convenience, feedback, and usability.

scholarly journals Types of Participant Behavior in a Massive Open Online Course

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tali Kahan ◽  
Tal Soffer ◽  
Rafi Nachmias
Keyword(s):  
Online Courses ◽  
Massive Open Online Courses ◽  
Online Course ◽  
Discussion Forums ◽  
Massive Open Online ◽  
Massive Open Online Course ◽  
Video Lectures ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Course Achievement ◽  
Participant Behavior

<p class="3">In recent years there has been a proliferation of massive open online courses (MOOCs), which provide unprecedented opportunities for lifelong learning. Registrants approach these courses with a variety of motivations for participation. Characterizing the different types of participation in MOOCs is fundamental in order to be able to better evaluate the phenomenon and to support MOOCs developers and instructors in devising courses which are adapted for different learners' needs. Thus, the purpose of this study was to characterize the different types of participant behavior in a MOOC. Using a data mining methodology, 21,889 participants of a MOOC were classified into clusters, based on their activity in the main learning resources of the course: video lectures, discussion forums, and assessments. Thereafter, the participants in each cluster were characterized in regard to demographics, course participation, and course achievement characteristics. Seven types of participant behavior were identified: <em>Tasters</em> (64.8%), <em>Downloaders</em> (8.5%), <em>Disengagers</em> (11.5%), <em>Offline</em> <em>Engagers</em> (3.6%), <em>Online Engagers</em> (7.4%), <em>Moderately Social Engagers</em> (3.7%), and <em>Social Engagers</em> (0.6%). A significant number of 1,020 participants were found to be engaged in the course, but did not achieve a certificate. The types are discussed according to the established research questions. The results provide further evidence regarding the utilization of the flexibility, which is offered in MOOCs, by the participants according to their needs. Furthermore, this study supports the claim that MOOCs' impact should not be evaluated solely based on certification rates but rather based on learning behaviors.</p>

scholarly journals Are There Metrics for MOOCS From Social Media?

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Ruby ◽  
Laura Perna ◽  
Robert Boruch ◽  
Nicole Wang
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Instructional Delivery ◽  
University Of Pennsylvania ◽  
Course Content ◽  
Opportunities For Learning ◽  
Nuanced Understanding ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The University

Since “the year of the MOOC” in 2012, the effectiveness of massive open online courses (MOOCs) has been widely debated. Some argue that MOOCs are not an effective mode of instructional delivery because of low completion rates. In the interest of developing alternative indicators of performance this study draws from recent efforts to measure engagement in social media, as well as from research on indicators of student engagement in traditional college courses. Using data from 16 Coursera MOOCs offered by the University of Pennsylvania we calculate standardized access rates for lectures and assessments. While these indicators have clear limitations as measures of educational progress they offer a different, more nuanced understanding of the level and nature of users’ engagement with a MOOC. This paper shows that a very small share of users takes up available opportunities to access course content but notes that the standardized access rates compare favorably with those for social media sites and with response rates to large-scale direct mail marketing programs. For MOOC providers and platform managers, indicators like the ones developed in this study may be a useful first step in monitoring the extent to which different types and combinations of activities may be providing better opportunities for learning.

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