For my thesis I had to do a few interviews which then had to be transcribed. If you've transcribed interviews before, it literally is the most mind-numbing thing to do. Especially when they're longer than 20 minutes.

The one major plus to doing your own transcription is really getting to grips with what the interviewee said and you'll remember important bits when analysing your data.

So if you're like me and can't persevere through the transcribing or don't have the time, then the best option is to use a transcription service. Now the downside of these services are that they are ridiculously pricey. As a student you can't pay R10 or a $1 a minute. It's just not feasible.

So I ended up doing a few transcriptions myself and then for the rest I used Fiverr.com. The best/cheapest option you'll find! You can even get deals such as $5 for 20 - 30 minutes of audio.

I've already completed two orders on Fiverr, with the transcriptions having roughly a 95% accuracy. I'm currently putting through three more orders. I highly recommend the service. If you want to test the waters, choose well rated individuals. I also suggest informing your transcriber of the common words use in your interview. Most people don't know what MOOCs are, so I gave the transcriber a little heads up.

In the previous post I discussed finding the perfect venue for filming a MOOC. It was exciting that we managed to find a venue that made the instructor happy. We scheduled two weeks during the university vacation with hopes that campus would be calm and quiet for the duration of filming. Unfortunately, things didn't go the way we had hoped. We experienced countless distractions which made filming near impossible. We knew that there would be noise, we just didn't realise how bad it would be. We booked the room at times we thought would be quiet, but that didn't work out as planned.

At work we have a little MOOC studio in which many of our MOOC videos are filmed, but whether we use this the studio is up to the MOOC instructor. It's really based on the look and feel the MOOC instructor wants. In the case of the MOOC I'm working on, the instructor wanted to be filmed in a classroom that has an oldschool "Oxford" feel to it. Since it's 2015 almost all venues at campus have been renovated. I mean where and how was I going to find a venue with a blackboard and wooden frames?!

Luckily we have a centralised system for campus venues and I emailed them to find if they knew of any venues that met these specifications. They happily replied with in a day with a list of venues I could look at. I ran around campus with TinaShe from our video production team to have a preview of the venues. I took photos of them (below) and then emailed the MOOC instructor to ask him which of the venues he preferred.








He chose his preferences and within a short time we managed to do a trial shoot in the venue. We had issues like two of windows in the venue refused to close and one where a student came inside the room while we were filming despite my "filming in progress" signs all over the doors.

Later this month we'll be filming the lectures for this MOOC. Eeek. I find it a bit nerve-wrecking because this is an entirely new experience for me. But one thing for sure, the MOOC creation process is interesting. It differs greatly across MOOCs, highly dependent on the topic and the instructor/s.

I'm working on a MOOC that uses slides for screencasts and I realised it's so important that we create slides that creates a good learner experience. The expectation that learners download slides to view on their large computer or laptop screen is no longer the norm. More and more learners are using smaller devices, like their phones and tablets to view slides. This means we have to consider designing more accessible slides for these devices. We need the font to be readable, the images to be big enough and the colours to be easy on the eyes. These tips are especially important when designing slides that you plan on using in a video.

I haven't really been blogging about my endeavors in educational technology, but I think it's a perfect time to start since I started my job as an assistant learning designer at the University of Cape Town two months ago. Since I'm completing my master's degree educational technology on the topic of MOOCs, my job serves as an extension of this field. When I arrived to my job, I happen to come at a pressing time, which was the week before UCT's first MOOC, Medicine and the Arts was about to start. My a few of my first tasks were to check transcripts and upload them to the platform, edit readings and assist with some of the social media. Since then I've been assigned two of my own courses where I'll be very involved in the learning design. It's been very interesting, stressful and all sorts of chaos because I'm still inexperienced. So far, it has been a great learning experience, with more responsibility than I'm used to. 

UCT's second MOOC, What is a Mind? with Professor Mark Solms as the lead educator is starting next week, 11 May. 


If you want to chat about MOOCs, find me on twitter.