Analysing the Impact of Built-In and External Social Tools in a MOOC on Educational Technologies

Proocedings of: 8th European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning: Scaling Up Learning for Sustained Impact (EC-TEL 2013). Paphos, Cyprus, September 17-21, 2013MOOCs have been a disruptive educational trend in the last months. Some MOOCs just replicate traditional teaching pedagogies, adding multimedia elements like video lectures. Others go beyond, trying to engage the massive number of participants by promoting discussions and relying on their contributions to the course. MOOC platforms usually provide some built-in social tools for this purpose, although instructors or participants may suggest others to foster discussions and crowdsourcing. This paper analyses the impact of two built-in (Q&A and forum) and three external social tools (Facebook, Twitter and MentorMob) in a MOOC on educational technologies. Most of the participants agreed on the importance of social tools to be in touch with their partners and share information related to the course, the forum being the one preferred. Furthermore, the lessons learned from the enactment of this MOOC employing social tools are summarized so that others may benefit from them.This work has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness Project TIN2011-28308-C03-01, the Regional Government of Madrid project S2009/TIC-1650, and the postdoctoral fellowship Alianza 4 Universidades.Publicad

Enfoque metodológico y marco tecnológico para producir un Curso Masivo Abierto Online (MOOC) en empaques biodegradables

This article shows the different stages used for the design and production of a MOOC for biodegradable packing, the planning tools and methodologies used for the development of the themes and contents. Likewise, is shown the technological framework used making a surveillance technology to identify which stage the MOOC e-learning tech is and the search of terms related to biodegradable packing to identify potential topics. Finally, the software architecture for SELENE is explained and how is deployed in open edX platform.Este artículo muestra las diferentes etapas utilizadas para el diseño y producción de un MOOC para el embalaje biodegradable, las herramientas de planificación y metodologías utilizadas para el desarrollo de los temas y contenidos. Del mismo modo, se muestra el marco tecnológico utilizado realizando la vigilancia necesaria para identificar en qué etapa está la tecnología de e-learning MOOC y la búsqueda de términos relacionados con “biodegradable packing” para identificar temas potenciales. Por último, se explica la arquitectura de software para SELENE y cómo se implementa en la plataforma open edX

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

Digital resilience in higher education

Higher education institutions face a number of opportunities and challenges as the result of the digital revolution. The institutions perform a number of scholarship functions which can be affected by new technologies, and the desire is to retain these functions where appropriate, whilst the form they take may change. Much of the reaction to technological change comes from those with a vested interest in either wholesale change or maintaining the status quo. Taking the resilience metaphor from ecology, the authors propose a framework for analysing an institution’s ability to adapt to digital challenges. This framework is examined at two institutions (the UK Open University and Canada’s Athabasca University) using two current digital challenges, namely Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and Open Access publishing

Extending MOOC ecosystems using web services and software architectures

[EN]This paper present a research project that tries to extend the MOOC ecosystems by integrating external tools like social networks. This integration is developed by using a software architecture that mediate between the different systems and platforms establishing communication workflows and analyzing the information retrieved. This kind of system is applied in a real case, and it allows teachers and managers of the MOOC platform to get enhanced information and insights about users interaction with contents and MOOC tools, as well as some metrics impossible to retrieve or calculate manually in this kind of eLearning platforms with high amounts of users

What Can You Do with Educational Technology that is Getting More Human?

Proceeding of: Tenth IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON 2019), 9-11 April, 2019, Dubai, UAE.Technology is advancing at an ever-increasing speed. The backend capabilities and the frontend means of interaction are revolutionizing all kinds of applications. In this paper, we analyze how the technological breakthroughs seem to make educational interactions look smarter and more human. After defining Education 4.0 following the Industry 4.0 idea, we identify the key breakthroughs of the last decade in educational technology, basically revolving around the concept cloud computing, and imagine a new wave of educational technologies supported by machine learning that allows defining educational scenarios where computers interact and react more and more like humans.The authors would like to primarily acknowledge the support of the eMadrid Network, which is funded by the Madrid Regional Government (Comunidad de Madrid) with grant No. S2018/TCS-4307. This work has also received partial support from FEDER/Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades-Agencia Estatal de Investigación through Project RESET (TIN2014-53199-C3-1-R) and Project Smartlet (TIN2017-85179-C3-1-R). Partial support has also been received from the European Commission through Erasmus+ projects, in particular, projects COMPASS (Composing Lifelong Learning Oppor-tunity Pathways through Standards-based Services, 2015-1-EL01-KA203-014033), COMPETEN-SEA (Capacity to Organize Massive Public Educational Opportunities in Universities in Southeast Asia, 574212-EPP-1-2016-1-NL-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP), LALA (Building Capacity to use Learning Analytics to Improve Higher Education in Latin America, 586120-EPP-1-2017-1-ES-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP), and InnovaT (Innovative Teaching across Continents: Universities from Europe, Chile, and Peru on an Expedition, 598758-EPP-1-2018-1-AT-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP). UNESCO Chair "Scalable Digital Education for All" at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid is also gratefully acknowledged.Publicad