Research Article
Jaitip Nasongkhla, Siridej Sujiva
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 14, Issue 4, Article No: ep392
ABSTRACT
This design research aims to propose a HyFlex strategy for students and participants in the workplace using massive open online course (MOOC) flipped between the two settings, an active in-classroom to an action learning in the workplace. The research methods were designed into two major parts, where the first part was a design stage which included the review and design process, while the second part involved case studies. The learning design is analogous to an origami paper folding system that processes the diversified questioning of real-world problems and recursively reflects the thought, action, and solutions to the problems. The case studies showed a statistically significant increase in participants’ creative problem-solving at the 0.5 level.
Keywords: MOOC, connectivist MOOC, flipped learning, action learning, creative problem-solving
Research Article
Ricardo-Adán Salas-Rueda, Ricardo Castañeda-Martínez, Ana-Libia Eslava-Cervantes, Clara Alvarado-Zamorano
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 14, Issue 1, Article No: ep343
ABSTRACT
Technological advances such as Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) allow the construction of new spaces where students consult the information at any time, take the online exams and communicate with the participants of the educational process from anywhere. This quantitative research analyzes the perception of the teachers about the organization of the school activities in MOOCs and use of ICT considering machine learning and decision tree techniques (data science). The participants are 122 teachers (58 men and 64 women) from the National Autonomous University of Mexico who took the “Innovation in University Teaching 2020” Diploma. The academic degree of these educators is Bachelor (n = 35, 28.69%), Specialty (n = 4, 3.28%), Master (n = 58, 47.54%) and Doctorate (n = 25, 20.49%). The results of machine learning (linear regressions) indicate that the organization of the school activities in MOOCs positively influences the motivation, participation and learning of the students. Data science identifies 3 predictive models about MOOCs and ICT through the decision tree technique. According to the teachers of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the organization of the school activities in MOOCs and use of ICT play a fundamental role during the COVID-19 pandemic. The implications of this research promotes that educators use MOOCs and ICT to improve the educational conditions, create new remote school activities and build new virtual learning spaces. In conclusion, universities with the support of technological tools can improve the teaching-learning process and update the course during the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, MOOCs represent a technological alternative to transform the school activities in the 21st century.
Keywords: MOOCs, teaching, data science, machine learning, ICT, COVID-19
Research Article
Eirini Tzovla, Katerina Kedraka, Thanassis Karalis, Marina Kougiourouki, Konstantinos Lavidas
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 13, Issue 4, Article No: ep324
ABSTRACT
Teachers’ Professional Development Massive Open Online Courses (TPD-MOOCs) are a new form of MOOCs and have influenced an intense research interest. This study reports on the design and implementation of a TPD-MOOC which utilizes digital educational content and Open Educational Recourses (OER) and supports in-service elementary school teachers to enhance their self-efficacy beliefs. In the design framework we take into consideration the findings of previous research and the educational needs of the participants. We conducted an experimental design research and compared the teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs before and after their participation in a TPD-MOOC. A total of 251 teachers enrolled in this course and 142 of them completed it. We used quantitative data to measure the enhancement of teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs and the effectiveness of the course. The results provide evidence that our TPD-MOOC improved in service elementary school teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs in teaching biological concepts. Recommendations are made for future research.
Keywords: teacher professional development, MOOC, self-efficacy beliefs, elementary education, improving classroom teaching
Review Article
Rakesh Kumar Meet, Devkant Kala
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 13, Issue 3, Article No: ep312
ABSTRACT
Advent of internet has a revolutionary impact on every sector of economy and so is with the education sector, which has witnessed the evolution of online education through scalable educational technology, namely, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). The purpose of this paper is to summarize the pool of available knowledge related to MOOCs in the scholarly literature, published during the period 2013–2020. One hundred and two available published studies in peer reviewed journals & conferences searched in major academic databases have been reviewed and presented in the systematic literature review. The findings have been divided under the various research themes of MOOCs including geographical contribution of MOOC studies, citation trends, prominent research themes, theoretical frameworks and methodological rigor in the existing scholarly works. The results demonstrate that most empirical research were conducted by the researchers having affiliation to institutions based out of United States followed by institutions in the developing economies of China and India. The most focused area of research in MOOCs is on MOOC adoption. Limited research has happened on poor MOOC completion status, the instructor-related topics and on democratization of MOOC. Thrust areas of MOOC researches and future research directions are also discussed.
Keywords: Massive Online Open Course (MOOC), e-learning, online education, educational technology, technology adoption, literature review
Research Article
Olga Pilli, Wilfried Admiraal
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 7, Issue 3, pp. 223-240
ABSTRACT
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) as a new approach to distance education, which originated from the open education resources (OER) movement, are becoming widespread throughout the world. Over time, early versions of cMOOCs have undergone changes in terms of use, name and structure. In their short life, MOOCs have been categorized into different taxonomies depending on, for example, their types, pedagogies, orientations, target participants, resources and content. This article proposes a new taxonomy to position MOOCs on two dimensions: massiveness and openness, which brings a fresh perspective for understanding varieties of MOOCs based on the two definitional elements. The dimensions of massiveness and openness are identified and discussed. Based on these, we conclude two dimensional matrix with four categories: (i) small scale and less open, (ii) small scale and more open, (iii) large scale and less open, (iv) large scale and more open. This classification provides a comprehensive description of different types of MOOCs which could be helpful to answer the necessities of MOOC providers, educators, students, and researchers.
Keywords: Massive open online courses, MOOCs, Open learning, Distance education, Online courses, Taxonomy of MOOCs