Auditing the accessibility of MOOCs: a four-component approach

This paper reports the design of a four-component audit to evaluate the accessibility of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). The MOOC accessibility audit was designed as part of a research programme at The Open University (UK) that aimed to assess the current state of accessibility of MOOC platforms and resources, to uncover accessibility barriers, and to derive recommendations on how the barriers could be addressed. The audit is composed of four evaluation components: technical accessibility, user experience (UX), quality and learning design. The audit consists of four processes supported by checklists corresponding to each of the four components implemented via a heuristic evaluation approach, an evaluation technique from Human-Computer Interaction literatur

Quality in MOOCs: Surveying the Terrain

The purpose of this review is to identify quality measures and to highlight some of the tensions surrounding notions of quality, as well as the need for new ways of thinking about and approaching quality in MOOCs. It draws on the literature on both MOOCs and quality in education more generally in order to provide a framework for thinking about quality and the different variables and questions that must be considered when conceptualising quality in MOOCs. The review adopts a relativist approach, positioning quality as a measure for a specific purpose. The review draws upon Biggs’s (1993) 3P model to explore notions and dimensions of quality in relation to MOOCs — presage, process and product variables — which correspond to an input–environment–output model. The review brings together literature examining how quality should be interpreted and assessed in MOOCs at a more general and theoretical level, as well as empirical research studies that explore how these ideas about quality can be operationalised, including the measures and instruments that can be employed. What emerges from the literature are the complexities involved in interpreting and measuring quality in MOOCs and the importance of both context and perspective to discussions of quality

Humanising Text-to-Speech Through Emotional Expression in Online Courses

This paper outlines an innovative approach to evaluate the emotional content of three online courses using the affective computing approach of prosody detection on two different text-to-speech (TTS) voices in conjunction with human raters judging the emotional content of the text. This work intends to establish the potential variation on the emotional delivery of online educational resources through the use of synthetic voice, which automatically articulates text into audio. Preliminary results from this pilot research suggest that about one out of every three sentences (35%) in a MOOC contained emotional text and two existing assistive technology voices had poor emotional alignment when reading this text. Synthetic voices were more likely to be overly negative when considering their expression as compared to the emotional content of the text they are reading, which was most frequently neutral. We also analyzed a synthetic voice for which we configured the emotional expression to align with course text, which showed promising improvements

Elearning, Communication and Open-data: Massive Mobile, Ubiquitous and Open Learning

ABSTRACT: In MOOCs, learning analytics have to be addressed to the various types of learners that participate. This deliverable describes indicators that enable both teachers and learner to monitor the progress and performance as well as identify whether there are learners at risk of dropping out. How these indicators should be computed and displayed to end users by means of dashboards is also explained. Furthermore a proposal based on xAPI statements for storing relevant data and events is provided

ECO D2.5 Learning analytics requirements and metrics report

In MOOCs, learning analytics have to be addressed to the various types of learners that participate. This deliverable describes indicators that enable both teachers and learner to monitor the progress and performance as well as identify whether there are learners at risk of dropping out. How these indicators should be computed and displayed to end users by means of dashboards is also explained. Furthermore a proposal based on xAPI statements for storing relevant data and events is provided.Part of the work carried out has been funded with support from the European Commission, under the ICT Policy Support Programme, as part of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP) in the ECO project under grant agreement n° 21127

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

Improving Online Learning Experience through Enhanced Interactivity: Supporting Students from China to Participate Effectively in MOOCs

A Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) is a course of study made available over the Internet without charge to a very large number of people. MOOCs offer open access to course materials and provide an interactive learning environment. While they attract learners from around the globe, MOOCs are not always designed to accommodate their diverse backgrounds and needs. This project examined the limitations in current MOOCs from the perspective of problems faced by Chinese MOOC users. Based on an environmental scan of MOOCs, analysis of published reports about major MOOCs, and lessons drawn from personal experience as a Chinese student and language tutor in North America, design guidelines for MOOC structure and MOOC interaction interfaces were created. These guidelines will be useful to online education providers and system developers when designing or developing online courses. An orientation guide for new Chinese MOOC users was also prepared in the form of a booklet