Good grades for UVED’s 2016 Circular Economy MOOC
The Université Virtuelle de l'Environnement et du Développement Durable - UVED, an online university specialising in the environment and sustainable development, runs and coordinates a series of MOOCs, including one devoted to The Circular Economy and Innovation. This is the assessment report for the second session of this massive open online course.
We are delighted to present the assessment report for Session 2 of the "Circular Economy & Innovation" MOOC, which ran from 17 October to 15 December 2016 on the FUN-MOOC online learning platform. This report covers qualitative as well as quantitative aspects and describes the changes with respect to Session 1, which ran in 2014.
It includes the key figures relating to this reworked session, which has been updated and enriched. The report also highlights the main changes between sessions 1 and 2:
- 6,016 registered students
- 78% of students located in France (and 10% in Africa)
- 58 countries represented
- 13 contributors from 12 different institutions contributed to this MOOC
- 55 learning content items, including 30 videos, 5 quizzes, 14 debate questions, 1 peer-graded assessment exercise and 5 bibliographies
- 276 students performed the peer-graded assessment exercise, achieving an average grade of 15/20
- 258 students (4%) obtained an attendance certificate
- The course newsgroup remained active throughout the course
- The average age of the student community was lower, with 38% aged under 30 (+7%)
- Increased demand from teachers and public authorities (+7%)
- Better quizzes (feedback ratings on a 10-point scale improved by 2.4 points)
- Decrease in student registration (-30%)
- Lower newsgroup activity (-45%)
- Stronger demand for practical content: the course is still largely theory-based.
Subtitles and text transcriptions (enriched with key diagrams) were provided, to enhance accessibility.
Many students highlighted the quality of contributions that provided practical insights into technical terms, statistics and levers for action, or offered examples for their personal and professional initiatives. On this point, certain students considered that the MOOC offered them an opportunity to steer their career toward activities connected with what they had learnt.
The videos produced for the MOOC are available on a self-service basis on the UVED YouTube channel; they are all included in the relevant playslist.
We would like to thank everyone who has helped to make this new session a success: teaching staff, the digital services department at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University, the learning support and innovation office (Mission d’Appui à la Pédagogie et à l’Innovation) at Bordeaux University, our financial partners (French energy and environment ministry (ADEME), Regional Council of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Regional Council of Nouvelle Aquitaine, the circular economy institute (Institut de l'économie circulaire) and last but not least, the students!
