Fund raising and key issues for setting up an online course
In the last two blogs[1] I wrote about the creation of a digital course and the online environment, the platform, that is necessary for this course. The goal of the Connected Academy is an innovative hub and digital platform offering a variety of free and open courses. The ambition is to push the boundaries of online participation through new forms of technology-enhanced learning and instruction. To see how the team plan their funding application is as interesting to see.
Choose the right moment for funding
They will build the Connected Academy before they ask for funding. The team agreed on a small budget that enables them to pay speakers who will be interviewed by one of the partners, for production costs, and for six partner institutes. The ambition is to find funding for three years and have students to follow not 1 course, but at least 3 courses. The partners commit to the project for 3 years too. Nishant Shah, dean Graduate School at ArtEZ and one of the project partners, knows from experience: in the third year your teaching is best. When 3 to 4 courses run, they will have a consultancy revenue model and funding is not necessary anymore. That’s the story they offer the funding foundation: we have built a pilot class with the necessary digital platform, and over the next 3 years we will improve this platform and create more courses, all free and open accessible. After 3 years the Connected Academy will be able to run without the extra funding money.
“Talking Pictures” will be the pilot project, built around images of the archive of the World Press Photo Foundation. This first class is a course on visual literacy that prepares participants in the basics of visual journalism, storytelling, and critical analysis. With this course and with the online platform developed for this course, and tested through this course, they will approach the funding foundation to get money to build the next courses. In the next years the platform will be used for new courses of the WPPF and for new courses of other institutes, e.g. ArtEZ. ArtEZ has committed to new Master Programmes, up to 9 new programmes in the next 4 years. The use of digital media is obligated for the pilot modules created in the last year. With the platform of the Connected Academy, ArtEZ has an online environment that can be used for these courses. One of the most important features of the platform is the modularity of it. This means parts of the website can be used and, if not needed, parts can be skipped. The applications made for the platform, the streaming app for audio and the 4C image app, can also be used for these Master courses. After three years not only a proven platform is built, but also content in the form of at least 3 to 4 courses of the WPPF, and about 5 to 7 Master modules. These modules combined might become a complete Master programme. But that’s for the future.
Key issues
How to keep the learners and have them complete the class? That’s the real measure of success. Getting a lot of participants is one thing, but having them finish the course will show the real success of the course. At Leuphana Digital School, Germany, they are pleased with their 52% of completion. But if participants quit, they will never return again. That’s why the participants of the Connected Academy pilot course, and of the following courses, have to register. Not in a way that they can be tracked. The course environment will be a safe platform and participants should be able to join the course and participate in the discussions without fear of being chased for their statements. But they need a twitter account and therefor an email address. For this address they are responsible themselves. On the website we will give advice for safety and privacy issues. The reason for registration is commitment. Commitment to continue participation in the course and to follow the class through to the end. This does not mean that one can’t enter the website without registration. Without registration you can see the images and interviews, and also the annotations of others, but you can’t participate in the class and join the discussion. However if they want to learn more, they have to sign up!
Commitment will also be created with assignments. Participants need to upload a visual before the start of each module of the pilot course. The participants get a small basic prompt that introduces the theme of the module. Also 2 or 3 questions are given, that they need to reflect on in order to create an image (it is possible to use an image found elsewhere). After the module they will be asked to recreate the visual with what they have learned in the class, and produce the annotations around it. With publishing their final image and the annotations to the course community, they get information of the next class and a teaser for what is to come.
Another form of commitment is created by teaching the course at live events. At 6 places in the world, in 6 different time zones, the class will be given at location, live, by a partner organisation. These locations will become local hubs and generate conversation. Their participants will be the first people who take the course. The course will start in Amsterdam at the WPPF. The partners will find a suitable time in the following two weeks. While the course is running it is locked up. After these two weeks it is open and archived on the platform.
This means you will have participants who 1) attend an event (attending learner), 2) don’t attend, but do participate at distance (synchronous learner), 4) take the class afterwards (asynchronous learner), and 4) do not register but do learn from the website material (non-registered learner).
[1] https://www.wendydevisser.nl/learning-how-to-apply-digital-learning-part-1/
https://www.wendydevisser/learning-how-to-apply-digital-learning-part-2/