Analysis of Teacher Candidate Responses to the Needs of Blended Learning Model Based on MOOCs and Augmented Reality

The article aims to analyze the response to the need for a blended learning model based on MOOCs and augmented reality for prospective teachers. The sample data were 52 prospective teachers. The instrument used in this study was a questionnaire sheet for the needs of prospective teachers. The results of this study indicated that the instruments used are valid and reliable. It was evidenced by the results of the validity calculation which states that 18 questions were valid and no questions were issued. Then, the calculation of data reliability using the Cronbach alpha method with a score of 0.878, this value was greater when compared with the rtable value for α = 0.05, namely 0.273. Hence, it can be said that the data used  reliable. For the percentage of prospective teacher needs, 88.86% was obtained, which means that prospective teachers strongly agree that the need for a blended learning model based on MOOCs and augmented reality for prospective teachers Keywords: Teacher Candidate Response, MOOCs, Augmented Reality, Blended Learnin

How to design for persistence and retention in MOOCs?

Design of educational interventions is typically carried out following a design cycle involving phases of investigation, conceptualization, prototyping, implementation, execution and evaluation. This cycle can be applied at different levels of granularity e.g. learning activity, module, course or programme. In this paper we consider an aspect of learner behavior that can be critical to the success of many MOOCs i.e. their persistence to study, and the related theme of learner retention. We reflect on the impact that consideration of these can have on design decisions at different stages in the design cycle with the aim of en-hancing MOOC design in relation to learner persistence and retention, with particular attention to the European context

Towards Economic Models for MOOC Pricing Strategy Design

MOOCs have brought unprecedented opportunities of making high-quality courses accessible to everybody. However, from the business point of view, MOOCs are often challenged for lacking of sustainable business models, and academic research for marketing strategies of MOOCs is also a blind spot currently. In this work, we try to formulate the business models and pricing strategies in a structured and scientific way. Based on both theoretical research and real marketing data analysis from a MOOC platform, we present the insights of the pricing strategies for existing MOOC markets. We focus on the pricing strategies for verified certificates in the B2C markets, and also give ideas of modeling the course sub-licensing services in B2B markets

Analysis of the pedagogical perspective of the MOOCs available in Portuguese

After an initial stage of exponential growth in MOOCs, a need has arisen of to address several different aspects of these innovations in order to understand and develop them from different perspectives, such as this one, with the analysis of pedagogical dimensions aimed at improving course design. This paper presents an updated review of the literature and proposes five research lines for an in-depth approach. This study is part of a broader research project1 and here analyses 356 MOOCs delivered in Portuguese by 16 different platforms. The research design is quantitative, non-experimental and transversal. An adaptation of the MOOC Educational and Interactive Indicators Instrument —INdiMOOC-EdI— was used in the data collection process. The reliability and internal consistency analysis of that adaptation for the whole sample resulted in a Cronbach alpha score of 0.731. The data obtained enable us to classify the existing MOOCs in Portuguese according to descriptive, formative, and interactive components. These different types correlate with the quality indices, being negative in the first dimension (descriptive) and positive in the second and third ones (formative and interactive).Funded by the call for R&D&i projects named: «Estudio del impacto de las erubricas federada en evaluación de las competencias en el practicum» (Study on the impact of federated eRubrics in the evaluation of the competences in the practicum). Plan Nacional de I+D+i de Excelencia (National R&D&i Excellence Plan) (2014-16) no. EDU2013-41974-

A First Briefing on MOOCs

This memo is addressed to members of our university (and maybe others) who want to know whether they need to know about MOOCs, and what the first things they would need to know are. MOOCS were the academic buzzword of 2012.1 But what is a MOOC. Do we care? Should we? In this short memo we begin with a list of questions, in no particular order, that we have either asked or been asked. The discussion that follows will contain the answers to these, and other, questions, although there may not be a separate section for each question

Open Education as Disruption: Lessons for Open and Distance Learning from Open Educational Practice

This paper reflects on what Open and Distance Learning providers might learn from the Open Educational Resources/Practices (OER/OEP) and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). It is based on experiences working on OER and OEP first at the OU in Scotland (OUiS) and more recently under the auspices of the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) funded Open Educational Practices Scotland (OEPS) programme hosted by OUiS. The paper by exploring the disruptive potential of MOOCs and OER within Higher Education. While it acknowledges lessons for HE it argues the focus on access and scale has obscured other lessons ODL might learn from opening up educational practices. Much of our work has centred on OEP and partnership with organisations outside the formal education sector. As such it has taken the possibilities offered by openness as an invitation to look at the relationship between the formal and the informal. The paper traces OEPS journey as it explores less apparent but no less important lessons around designing and creating open content through partnership in a way that is cost effective and context relevant

Model for democratisation of the contents hosted in MOOCs

Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) have emerged as a new educational tool in higher education, based on gratuity, massiveness and ubiquity. Essentially they suggest an evolution of the Open Learning Movement based on principles of reusing, revising, remixing and redistributing open educational resources (OER). However, in contrast with the content of OERs, content hosed in MOOCs tends to be paywalled and copyrighted, which restricts its reuse. Philosophically, the main problem with MOOCs is the inaccessibility and inadaptability of their resources, challenging democratic open access to knowledge. A number of authors and organisations consider it an ultimate necessity to open up MOOC resources. Therefore in this paper three strategies to open up MOOC contents are proposed: to deposit the materials in repositories of OER (ROER) as individual objects, to archive them in ROER in data packages as learning units or to convert them into OpenCourseWare (OCW) as self-taught courses