Since econometrics was the first course at the Erasmus University to publish a MOOC (https://www.coursera.org/learn/erasmus-econometrics), we asked one of the initiators, mister Heij, to tell use some more about the MOOC.
Could you give a brief explanation on what the MOOC is?
MOOC means Massive Open Online Course, which makes it immediately clear that the whole course is lectured via the internet. Furthermore, you don’t have to pay and you don’t have to subscribe in order to follow the course, which means that it is open to everyone who is interested in it. Massive means that because it is so easily accessible, in general you will find that quite many people will follow either parts or the complete MOOC.
Another purpose was to inspire instructors all over the world to do more with econometrics
Prof. dr. Ph. H. B. F. Franses
Since it is free to enter, there is no financial motive behind the initiative of the MOOC. So what is the main motive behind the MOOC?
In general universities are part of society, so we are paid by our citizens, who hope to get back something for it. Of course they get back research, but this is not always visible for everyone. Next to that, education is an important thing they get back, but a university should also be of more general assistance to society. The MOOC fits this purpose since it is education outside the classroom, accessible for everyone in society who is interested, not just in The Netherlands, but worldwide.
Another motive is that it is in general quite unknown what econometrics means. But Coursera, on which the econometrics MOOC is offered, is a very big platform with a broad range of MOOCs, that can be on terrorism or on how to raise your child. Now people can also find the econometrics MOOC on Coursera and if they are curious, they can find out what it is.
Furthermore, lecturers in economics, but also lecturers in mathematics and engineering can also follow the MOOC and we hope that they become enthusiastic and think: ‘hey, econometrics is a nice addition to our programme, let’s introduce it’. The dean of the ESE has already travelled to Ghana, Uganda and Kenya to introduce the MOOC to the universities there. For those countries, the MOOC is a nice way to get in touch with econometrics, because books are often too expensive. So another purpose was to inspire instructors all over the world to do more with econometrics.
How is the MOOC programme structured?
We have had long discussion about the level on which we should offer our MOOC, if we should make it accessible for high school students for instance, but we thought that was not possible because you need some background for it. Therefore, our MOOC is quite advanced and it is intended for persons who have a bachelor in for instance business administration, economics or engineering. So you need to have a certain level in statistics and mathematics.
In one week we already had nearly 10000 visitors and 3000 active learners
The people behind the MOOC
What about current econometrics students at Erasmus University or other universities, can they also benefit from the MOOC?
Yes, I think they can. It may be helpful, for example, for students writing their thesis in econometrics, or economics and business and related disciplines, who want a refresher on econometrics. Further, in my own course, Econometrics 1, but also in Econometrics 2, I can say that you need certain background in statistics and matrix algebra. All this material is treated in previous courses, but sometimes these courses are taught a long time ago. To freshen up your knowledge you can watch a video from the MOOC in which a certain topic is covered and make some assignments with it. However, it can only be used as reference material, not as a replacement for our education.
Coursera has as a rule that videos cannot be too long, because otherwise people will get distracted. Therefore, we made videos with a maximum length of 9 minutes. So if you add the length of all videos up, it will be about 5 hours of video. If you compare this to the number of hours you get lectures on these topics, that will be at least ten times more. So that means that the level is lower, of course, than the courses you get. In the MOOC only the main points of our econometrics book are covered, it is a first introduction.
So if they are interested they start a master econometrics at EUR?
Yes, we hope so. Every university has strategic goals, and one of the main goals of EUR is to get a higher degree of international students and staff members. And again, econometrics is quite unknown so an important motive for us was to try to convince students abroad that it is nice to do a master in Rotterdam, so that the level of the MOOC is suitable for anyone considering a premaster in econometrics.
And how many people do you hope to reach in total?
Before we started we were expecting to have less viewers than a terrorism MOOC for instance, because econometrics is not very well known. But now we are one week open (on 10-11-2015) and we already have nearly 10.000 visitors and more than 3.000 active learners, and this number grows every day. So as you can see the number of active learners is quite impressive, we did not expect that and neither did Coursera. (At the end of 2015, mr Heij informed us that the MOOC had 26,000 vistors, 9,000 active learners, and 60 course completers who completed the course even faster than the suggested deadlines.)
Do you know where all these people come from?
Yes, they come from all over the world. We have quite some people from India and the USA, but also from many other countries, such as Montenegro and Qatar. In total we have participants in 175 countries (at the end of 2015).
We have participants in 175 countries
Prof. dr. Ph. H. B. F. Franses
And with whom have you worked on the MOOC?
It was a big project so we had many people involved in it. First of all, the dean of the ESE Philip Hans Franses, who made the proposal and also does the first set of lectures. The following lectures are given by respectively myself, Michel van der Wel, Dennis Fok, Richard Paap, Dick van Dijk and Erik Kole. Furthermore, we had two PhD candidates helping us with making webcast solutions of all kinds of exercises, Francine Gresnigt and Myrthe van Dieijen. Since the MOOC is quite professional, we also needed help from the people from media support and the marketing department of the Erasmus University.
How long did it take to make the MOOC?
It took one year. We first thought it would take longer, but then we sat together and decided that since it is such a big project, we did not want to stretch it over a long period of time. Sometimes it is better to finish a big project as soon as possible, otherwise it can become a burden for the people who work on it.
The MOOC is available through the Coursera website: https://www.coursera.org/learn/erasmus-econometrics