Project-based MOOCs

Story rich, project-based technical training.

Challenge

The challenge we set upon ourselves was to build technical courses informed by cognitive learning research, creative storytelling, and project-based activities.
Approach

We created IOT courses centered on a Mission to Mars storyline. Following this we created another series focused on AR app development for a consumer and industrial storyline.
Results

With a stellar team of educators, creatives, and tech experts, we built and released several courses that reached 100,000 students in 180+ countries.

Mental frameworks were the cornerstone to curriculum and teaching design.

The ThingWorx Development Process breaks down the app development process into five stages. This process is taught to students so they have an easy model to remember and implement. In addition, we designed the IoT specialization around this framework. The first course introduced the process and students built a simple IOT app with it. In the following four courses students dived deep into Model, Connect, Build and Analyze practices from which they built more advanced application services. When a framework combines as both a learning and instructional design model, I call it a Power Framework as it is powerful in serving two education purposes.

Stories were crafted to engage and contextualize app development

Our first IOT series focused on a Mission to Mars storyline, In the AR course we focused on two storylines, one story for a coffee maker company and another for a manufacturing scenario.

Core competencies

The courses were designed for students new to the internet of things. To ramp up each student we started the course with lectures that covered key concepts and skills such as components of an IoT system, standard development paradigms, marketecture and detailed architecture designs, and descriptions of how IOT data moves from edge to end user.

Industry case studies

Course knowledge and skills were brought to life with real world examples from the key IoT settings such as manufacturing, service, finance, and retail.

Hands-on projects

Each course included a technical project where they got their hands on an industrial IoT platform, ThingWorx, and coded working solutions such as remote monitoring dashboard for Mars vehicles in the field.