Immersive and engaging e-learning experiences: insights from an e-course on dinosaurs

Abstract

The paleosciences continue to inspire generations of science learners by bringing Earth’s incredible past to life. E-learning is emerging as an important part of these efforts. I am going to present a case-study on Dinosaur Ecosystems, a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) offered by the University of Hong Kong which I produced and teach. My talk will focus on the strategies employed to address the opportunities and challenges of delivering our goal to create an immersive and engaging dinosaur e-course. We leveraged the e-learning format to make heavy use of field-based learning so students could see palaeontological work in action. This involved visits to world-renowned field sites and institutions in more than 6 countries, including the Gobi Desert of Northern China and the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The online format also allowed us to give learners a unique perspective of cutting-edge developments in the field through direct connections with myself, coinstructor Prof. Xing Xu and 20+ international experts. As non-compulsory courses, student engagement is a paramount consideration for MOOCs. We addressed this through a relaxed learning experience using bite-sized, content-rich videos with clear and concise learning objectives. Grassroots community activities were employed to encourage peer-to-peer learning and two mobile apps were developed to further involve younger people. The course has so far reached 16,000+ learners from 120+ countries and in 2018 was nominated for the edX Prize for Exceptional Contributions in Online Teaching and Learning. As a testament to elearning’s vast untapped potential, I will conclude by sharing current efforts to introduce newer production technologies to enrich future editions of the e-course.