The use of MOOCs in social enterprise education: an evaluation of a North–South collaborative FutureLearn program

Abstract

This study contributes to the literature on technology and entrepreneurship education, and in particularly to the discussion on massive open online courses (MOOCs) in social enterprise education. Using the Freeth/Kirkpatrick's evaluation model, this paper examines the effectiveness of a social enterprise MOOC program – The FutureLearn (FL) Social Enterprise Program – created in a collaboration between Middlesex University, Living in Minca Ltd in London and the Jindal Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship at O.P. Jindal Global University in Delhi, India. To date, there is no evidence of previous work evaluating the effectiveness of a MOOC in social enterprise education, particularly one designed in collaboration between institutions from the global North and South countries. Our findings revealed that the FutureLearn Social Enterprise Program was perceived as positive, and we identified evidence of changes in behavior, as well as, benefits and opportunities for both individuals and organizations. The results provide insights into alternative forms of collaboration for the creation and implementation of enterprise education courses, and specifically for collaborations in the design of social enterprise MOOC programs done between global North and South countries.

Cette étude contribue à la littérature sur l’éducation à la technologie et à l'esprit d'entreprise, et en particulier au débat sur les cours en ligne ouverts et massifs (MOOCs), dans le cadre de l’éducation à l'esprit d'entreprise sociale. En s'appuyant sur le modèle d’évaluation de Freeth/Kirckpatrick, cet article examine l'efficacité d'un programme de MOOC sur l'entreprise sociale – le programme de FutureLearn sur l'entreprise sociale – élaboré dans le cadre d'une collaboration entre l'Université du Middlesex, l'entreprise sociale Living in Minca Ltd. (Londres) et le Centre Jindal pour l'innovation et l'entrepreneuriat sociaux (Delhi). À ce jour, rien ne prouve l'existence de travaux antérieurs d’évaluation de l'efficacité d'un MOOC dans l’éducation à l'esprit d'entreprise qui, notamment, aurait été conçu en collaboration avec des institutions de pays du Nord et du Sud. Nos résultats ont révélé que le programme de FutureLearn sur l'entreprise sociale était perçu comme positif, et nous avons identifié des preuves de changements comportementaux, ainsi que d'avantages et d'opportunités, aussi bien parmi les individus que parmi les organisations. Les résultats apportent un éclairage sur les formes alternatives de collaboration pour la création et la mise en œuvre de programmes d’éducation à l'esprit d'entreprise, notamment pour les collaborations dans la conception de programmes MOOC, réalisée entre des pays du Nord et des pays du Sud.

Keywords:

• social enterprise
• MOOC
• education

Mots-clés:

• entreprise sociale
• MOOC
• education

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the British Council India and FutureLearn for their support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The term ‘SE’ has been used to refer to earned income strategies by not-for-profit organizations (Dees 1998), voluntary and community organizations (VCOs) that are contracted to deliver public services (Di Domenico, Tracey, and Haugh 2009), democratically controlled organizations that aim to benefit the community (Defourny and Nyssens 2006), profit-oriented business with social aims (Kanter and Purrington 1998) and community enterprises that have been founded by local people to tackle a particular social problem (Williams 2007).

2. UniMinuto University (in Spanish, Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios) has an international reputation for its work in supporting grassroots social innovations, having been recognized as the first university in the world to have established a Scientific Park of Social Innovation in 2012. It has received several international awards such as the World Bank 2011 and 2012 Project of the Year, the G20 Award in 2012 and the Financial Times Award in 2016.

3. The terms North and South, when used in a global context, are alternative designations for ‘developed’ and ‘developing’ countries. Generally, definitions of the global South include Africa, Latin America and developing Asia including the Middle East. The global North includes the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand and developed parts of Asia (including Israel, Japan and the Four Asian Tigers).

4. Founded in the 1960s, Middlesex University Business School is one of the largest Business Schools in the UK. JSiE, a social innovation lab at O.P. Jindal Global University in North India, helps individuals and organizations to develop innovative solutions to complex social and environmental problems. Living in Minca Ltd is a company established in 2012 as an initiative to promote social enterprises and the social and solidarity model around the world.

5. A Web 2.0 website allows users to interact and collaborate with each other in a social media dialogue as creators of user-generated content in a virtual community, in contrast to the first generation of Web 1.0-era websites where people are limited to the passive viewing of content. Examples of Web 2.0 features include social networking sites and social media sites such as Facebook, blogs and wikis.

6. Coursera: https://www.coursera.org

EdX: https://www.edx.org/

FutureLearn: https://www.futurelearn.com

Iversity: https://iversity.org/

Udacity: https://udacity.com/

HOME stands for Higher Education Online: MOOCs the European way: http://home.eadtu.eu

OpenupEd: http://www.openuped.eu/es/

ECO: http://project.ecolearning.eu

SCORE2020: http://score2020.eadtu.eu

BizMOOC: http://bizmooc.eu

MOONLITE: https://moonliteproject.eu

7. Although social capital has several definitions, it has been broadly described as: resources within communities which are created through the presence of high levels of trust, reciprocity and mutuality, shared norms of behaviour, shared commitment and belonging, formal and informal social networks, and effective information channels which may be used productively by individuals and groups to facilitate actions that benefit individuals, groups and communities more generally. (Evans and Syrett 2007, 62)

8. The SE MOOC program was awarded with £17,802 from the Newton Fund Grant Agreement Researcher Links: Travel Grant Scheme. The money was used for video editing and travelling expenses for educators. The partners involved in the project (Middlesex University, JSiE and Living in Minca Ltd) put in a number of resources, calculated at a total of £50,000) to finalize the program.

9. Learners have the possibility to buy a certificate of achievement once the course or program has been completed (59 euros plus shipping for one course or 177 euros plus shipping for the whole program). For more details, see the following website: https://www.futurelearn.com/programs/social-enterprise.

10. For more details, see link here: http://www.memoirs-of-solidarity.org/

11. This architecture reflected FutureLearn's pedagogical underpinnings inspired in social constructivism and Laurillard's conversational framework developed in 2002, that enables participants to easily reflect their opinion and interact with others for better social engagement (Ferguson and Sharples 2014). FutureLearn provides curated data to its partner institutions, incorporating demographic data and that resulting from learner activity. Collaboration between different institutions with different experiences can be used in the FutureLearn platform to provide a wider visual field, building expertise that can be transferred to the different institutions and learning technology teams benefitting all the partners.

12. https://es.coursera.org/specializations/social-entrepreneurship-cbs

13. Due to the success of the first run of the SE MOOC program, the educators decided to continue running it. The program has been offered twice more in 2017; (January–March) and (June–August) and it will continue to run in 2018.

14. Participants to the courses can be divided into joiners and active learners. The joiners are those participants who enrolled in the course and attended all the lectures. The active learners are those who enrolled in the course, attended the lectures, completed the given assignments and took part in the discussion.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the British Council [grant number 56734].

Notes on contributors

Sara Calvo

Sara Calvo is a senior lecturer in Organizational Behaviour and the Social Enterprise Champion at the Enterprise Development Hub at Middlesex University Business School. She has carried out research and consultancy work for social enterprises in South America, Africa, Asia and Europe. She is also the co-founder and director of a social enterprise organisation, Living in Minca Ltd. Sara has published several papers in established international journals, books and other relevant material.

Andres Morales

Andres Morales is a researcher at the Open University and the Managing Director and co-founder of Living in Minca. He has worked as a social enterprise consultant as well as an educator in several European, African, Asian and Latin American countries. More recently, Andres has deepened his knowledge and experience researching about social enterprises and social innovation having published several articles and books. Andres is a video researcher and a documentary filmmaker having participated in a number of international film festivals.

Jeremy Wade

Jeremy Wade began his career at the US Department of the Treasury, where he helped supervise a portfolio of financial institutions in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis from 2008–2012. He has also worked in investment banking in Beijing, China and completing two research projects with the U.S. State Department's Office of eDiplomacy VSFS program. He is the founding director of the Jindal Centre for Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship at the O.P. Jindal Global University where he teaches international business.