Next up, Cathy Easton, Lancaster University, on MOOCs and legal education. Gave an overview of MOOCs, and the infrastructure behind the online product. In the UK, in addition to the US models of Coursera, edx and udacity, there’s Futurelearn. Free of course, but you can get a certificate at a cost. So MOOCs are being monetised, despite the rhetoric. Student validation and participation…? Cathy gave examples of keystroke analysis in Coursera, and proctoring. In legal ed, there’s U of London, English Common Law Principles. She cited LETR on enhancing consistency of education and training through a robust system of learning outcomes.
She is currently analysing how students learn from pop-up questions in lecture videos, and how they’re used on MOOCs. MOOCs have brought a renewed focus on online learning, with potential to be used in CPD or core legal modules. There are key issues, to do with regulation, quality, certification and standardisation. Useful issues brought up — I would like to have heard a lot more about her detailed research on the granularity of learning.