Open Learning
Open learning programmes make ETH courses, or parts of them, available to a wider audience and licensed under external page Creative Commons. On the one hand, all ETH students can benefit from learning opportunities that are shared with a wider community. On the other hand, ETH can present itself through insights into teaching and research.
Open learning opportunities contribute to sharing and exchanging knowledge with the world and enrich/supplement one's own teaching. They increase the international visibility of cutting-edge topics and promote the media skills of ETH lecturers and researchers, as well as interdisciplinary and international collaboration. These courses usually take place online and can be categorised according to the focus areas "Blended Learning", "Upskilling" and "Outreach".
Which open learning programmes are supported by Innovedum?
Innovedum supports open learning programmes when ETH students or staff benefit from mutual interaction with external learners and experts. Specifically, Innovedum supports the following forms of open learning programmes for ETH teaching and continuing education (upskilling):
ETH students use the attendance time of a course at ETH to acquire, practise, collaborate, discuss, research or create content. In addition, activities are carried out online. Some of these online activities may be publicly available (marked in yellow). This allows for an exchange between ETH students and external learners, which is enriching for both groups. Other online activities, e.g. specific exercises, may only be accessible to ETH students.
ETH students attend a blended learning course at ETH, which was developed together with lecturers from another university and is offered at the same time. ETH students and students from the other university use the same online course environment to participate in online activities. An exchange or collaboration between the two groups can take place. Some of the online activities could be publicly available and contribute to exchange/collaboration on a global level.
ETH students or employees attend a (continuing education) course at ETH, the online part of which is also offered worldwide (hybrid MOOC). ETH students and external learners take part in the same online activities. This may involve an exchange or collaboration between the two groups.
Outreach programmes (MOOCs)
Outreach programmes that are not directly linked to ETH teaching are not supported by Innovedum. However, we are happy to provide you with a course environment for a so-called "MOOC".
The term "MOOCs" stands for Massive Open Online Courses. These courses generally relate to learning content at ETH Zurich, but are open to all interested parties worldwide as self-contained courses. They do not lead to an official degree from ETH Zurich.
A MOOC reaches interested learners all over the world. This increases the visibility of ETH and the subject areas. It is not uncommon for new contacts to be made and joint projects to be launched through MOOCs.
Experience shows that thousands to tens of thousands of participants can be expected, with only a fraction actually actively taking part. As MOOCs are basically free of charge, the inhibition threshold for enrolment is very low.
An important element in MOOCs are the short, instructive videos, which are embedded in interactive elements such as forums, tasks and tests. Additional information (script, links to external sources, etc.), questions and answers in online forums and quizzes are offered on the edx.org platform.
A large part of the communication between participants and with the course organisers takes place in discussion forums, which have to be intensively moderated. In addition, there are so-called feedback videos in which the course organisers react to the activities of the learners (e.g. how tasks were solved) and provide general feedback on the course progress. Sometimes course participants give each other feedback on certain tasks.
Creating these learning videos with the associated learning activities and setting up the online self-study environment requires a lot of time. A minimum lead time of six months before the start of the semester is recommended.
For the creation of the 5-minute videos, ETH-internal, fee-based services for audio and video production are usually utilised. Usually 2-4 videos are created per lesson, with an average of 30 per MOOC.
MOOCs usually last around 6 weeks and can be completed with a certificate. There are also MOOCs that are "self-paced". Here you can enrol at any time and complete the course at your own pace (but within the time prescribed for the course).
Cost example
Production of 30 videos in the video studio: CHF10,000
Production of video trailer: CHF2,000-4,500
Course structure and delivery: CHF30,000-70,000
Total average MOOC: CHF74,000
Platforms and data protection guidelines
The platforms and data protection guidelines for the various open learning programmes are described here.
Lecturers' experiences
Prof Tobias Luthe describes his experience with the Global Course «external page Beyond Systems Thinking»:
"Statement follows"
Prof Felix Kienast describes his experience with the Global Course «external page Landscape Ecology»:
"My experience of the Global Course was extremely positive. You gain access to a group of highly motivated international students and doctoral students who act as multipliers in their own countries, applying what they have learnt and promoting the discipline. My students became aware of the international scope of the topics through interaction with international students."
Further links
Guidelines for MOOC and blended learning projectsContact
Abt. für Lehre und Lernen
Haldenbachstr. 44
8006
Zürich
Switzerland