¿Pueden los MOOC cerrar la brecha de oportunidades?: La contribución del diseño pedagógico social inclusivo

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are open courses made available online at no cost to the user and designed to scale up, allowing for a large number of participants. As such, they are a disruptive new development which has the potential to widen access to higher education since they contribute to social inclusion, the dissemination of knowledge and pedagogical innovation. However, assuring quality learning opportunities to all cannot be simply reduced to allowing free access to higher education. On the contrary, it implies assuring equitable opportunities for every participant to succeed in their learning experience. This goal depends on the quality of the learning design. To be successful, a massive open online learning experience has to empower learners and to facilitate a networked learning environment. In fact, MOOCs are designed to serve a high heterogeneity of profiles, with many differences regarding learning needs and preferences, prior knowledge, contexts of participation and diversity of online platforms. Personalization can play a key role in this process. In this article, the authors describe the iMOOC pedagogical model and its later derivative, the sMOOC model, and explain how they contributed to the introduction of the principles of diversity and learner equity to MOOC design, allowing for a clear differentiation of learning paths and also of virtual environments, while empowering participants to succeed in their learning experiences. Using a design-based research approach, a comparative analysis of two course iterations each representing each model is also presented and discussed.Los cursos en línea abiertos y masivos (MOOC) son cursos abiertos disponibles en línea sin costo para el usuario y diseñados para ampliarse, permitiendo un gran número de participantes. Como tales, son un nuevo desarrollo disruptivo que tiene el potencial de ampliar el acceso a la educación superior, ya que contribuyen a la inclusión social, la difusión del conocimiento y la innovación pedagógica. Sin embargo, garantizar oportunidades de aprendizaje de calidad para todos no puede reducirse simplemente a permitir el acceso gratuito a la educación superior. Por el contrario, implica asegurar oportunidades equitativas para que cada participante tenga éxito en su experiencia de aprendizaje. Este objetivo depende de la calidad del diseño de aprendizaje. Para tener éxito, una experiencia de aprendizaje en línea abierta y masiva debe empoderar a los alumnos y facilitar un entorno de aprendizaje en red. De hecho, los MOOC están diseñados para servir a una gran heterogeneidad de perfiles, con muchas diferencias con respecto a las necesidades y preferencias de aprendizaje, conocimiento previo, contextos de participación y diversidad de plataformas en línea. La personalización puede jugar un papel clave en este proceso. En este artículo, los autores describen el modelo pedagógico iMOOC y su derivada posterior, el modelo sMOOC, y explican cómo contribuyeron a la introducción de los principios de diversidad y equidad en el diseño MOOC, lo que permite una clara diferenciación de las rutas de aprendizaje y también de entornos virtuales, al tiempo que permite a los participantes tener éxito en sus experiencias de aprendizaje. Usando un enfoque de design-based research, también se presenta y discute un análisis comparativo de dos iteraciones del curso, cada una representando cada modelo

What is it like to learn and participate in rhizomatic MOOCs? a collaborative autoethnography of #RHIZO14

In January 2014, we participated in a connectivist-style massive open online course (cMOOC) called "Rhizomatic Learning – The community is the curriculum" (#rhizo14). In rhizomatic learning, teacher and student roles are radically restructured. Course content and value come mostly from students; the teacher, at most, is a curator who provides a starting point and guidance and sometimes participates as a learner. Early on, we felt that we were in a unique learning experience that we wanted to capture in writing. Explaining #rhizo14 to others without the benefit of traditional processes, practices, roles, or structures, however, presented a challenge. We invited participants to contribute narratives to a collaborative autoethnography (CAE), which comprises an assortment of collaborative Google Docs, blog posts by individuals, and comments on those documents and posts. This strategy afforded insight into what many participants found to be a most engaging course and what for some was a transformative experience. In discussing the findings from the CAE, our intent is to benefit others interested in rhizomatic learning spaces such as cMOOCs. This authoethnography specifically addresses gaps both in the understanding of the learner experience in cMOOCs and in the nature of rhizomatic learning

Part-time higher education students’ interactions with a virtual learning environment as an exploration of theories of connectivism

This article uses data from an action research project (ARP) conducted with part-time higher education (HE) students as a means of exploring the recent thinking about learning characterised by theories of connectivism. Both quantitative and qualitative data are presented to assess the extent to which connectivist theory might explain – and indeed develop – the use of a virtual learning environment (VLE) on a part-time Education degree in the United Kingdom (UK), particularly for students from non-traditional backgrounds. The article concludes by discussing what both the data themselves and connectivist perspectives on those data might have to say about VLE use in an age in which such learning platforms are but one means of accessing learning

Towards flexible personalized learning and the future educational system in the fourth industrial revolution in the wake of Covid-19

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Higher Education Pedagogies on 25/02/2021, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/23752696.2021.1883458The concept of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is examined and related to a ubiquitously connected and pervasively proximate (UCaPP) world, Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity (VUCA) as well as Barnett's concept of 'supercomplexity' in Higher Education and its response to Covid-19. Pedagogies need to be aligned with institutional and views about 'quality education' but with respect to the likely changes in the nature of undergraduate student intake in the formulation of a Future Educational System. Considerations include students from 'nontraditional' sources adapting to existing university structures and how adaptive structures might accommodate these students on top of changes and disruptions resulting from Covid-19. We consider that mobile devices (phones and tablets) allow Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) to be developed in accordance with individual students' needs. PLEs allow ubiquitous, flexible educational structures to be developed to improve personalised and quality education. Educational policies should be associated with connectivist approaches involving active learning via broad curriculum development and the core values of 'hybrid-flexible' learning and appreciate the importance of individual student needs and capabilities, socio-economic as well as academic. We stress the importance of broadening access to higher education, in particular, those who have been 'neglected' by current procedures

Postgraduate student experiences of workplace learning in a professional psychology qualification in the South African context

Expanding access to higher education has taken priority in South Africa. There is a focus on improving entry into learning contexts and subsequent economic and social mobility opportunities by developing attributes in graduates that are in line with employment sector expectations. Work-integrated learning (WIL) processes serve to expose students to the real expectations of the workplace with the intention of bridging the gap between study completion and work readiness. The implementation and coordination of WIL placements are therefore an important component of professional degrees such as psychology masters. This article adopts the theory of connectivism as the central lens and emphasizes that knowledge is gathered through a network of connections between entities (nodes) that may consist of individuals, groups, fields, ideas or communities. The article describes the learning experience from the student’s perspective and provides an example of how the connectivist approach can be used to bridge the complex learning process in professional qualifications.Psycholog

An analysis of learner autonomy and autonomous learning practices in massive open online language courses

The study investigates the perception of learner autonomy with Massive Open Online Language Course (MOOLC) participants, more specifically; (i) to what extent EFL learners in an English MOOLC are autonomous, (ii) the perception of learners' and teachers' roles in learner autonomy, and (iii) the autonomous learning practices the learners are involved in by participating in the MOOLCs. It contributes to the understanding of online learner as an agent in highly heterogeneous language learning contexts and the link between online learning and learner autonomy. The mixed-method design is employed to present data from a Learner Autonomy Questionnaire by Joshi (2011) conducted with 57 participants from three English MOOLCs with a variety of focus as well as a content analysis method was used on the interaction data in the form of open discussion forum posts, which were added by the participants, to create a frame of autonomous learning activities in these MOOLCs and learners' attitudes towards them. The findings show that the English MOOLC participants are highly autonomous and willing to be more responsible for their own learning. Similarly, the learners' perception of their own roles indicates a positive inclination towards autonomy. Furthermore, the participants favor the MOOLCs that encourage learner-centered and autonomous language learning practices. Due to the interactive, communicative, and collaborative nature of MOOLCs, learners are advised to develop globalized autonomous skills to participate effectively in such multicultural learning platforms because learner autonomy goes beyond traditional classrooms

Innovation and openness through MOOCs: Universidade Aberta's pedagogical model for non formal online courses

In face of the recent but fast growing worldwide interest on Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC), many universities, both open and traditional, have being discussing strategies to implement this new format of educational delivery. The huge successes of the experiences from the top universities in the United States have been an inspiration, especially to European higher education institutions. Universidade Aberta, the open university of Portugal, has been the first educational institution to develop an institutional pedagogic model for open online courses, thus issuing an institutional standard practice model for MOOCs. This paper details the institutional rationale behind this initiative, describes the pedagogical approach used and discusses the main features of the model. Finally, the authors reflect on the possible characteristics of a European-style response to the challenge of massive open online higher education.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

How the Covid-19 pandemic has changed Open Distance Learning – a curriculum perspective

My presentation this morning is on ways of how the Covid-19 pandemic has changed Open Distance Learning, using a curriculum perspective. First, I would like to share the overview of the presentation with you: starting by first providing some information on the lens or the perspective we will be using to look at ODL, followed by the context of this presentation. Thereafter, we will focus on ODL, what it means as well as a brief look at its history, in order to determine where we currently are, and then a discussion on how the teaching and learning experience has changed because of the corona pandemic. After this reflection I’d like to leave you with a few thoughts on the way forward for ODL.Curriculum and Instructional Studie