Design, Implementation and Evaluation of SPOCs at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid

The Universidad Carlos III de Madrid has been offering several face-to-face remedial courses for new students to review or learn concepts and practical skills that they should know before starting their degree program. During 2012 and 2013, our University adopted MOOC-like technologies to support some of these courses so that a blended learning methodology could be applied in a particular educational context, i.e. by using SPOCs (Small Private Online Courses). This paper gathers a list of issues, challenges and solutions when implementing these SPOCs. Based on these challenges and issues, a design process is proposed for the implementation of SPOCs. In addition, an evaluation is presented of the different use of the offered courses based on indicators such as the number of videos accessed, number of exercises accessed, number of videos completed, number of exercises correctly solved or time spent on the platform.Work partially funded by the RESET project under grant no. TIN2014-53199-C3-1-R (funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness), the REMEDISS project under grant no. IPT-2012-0882-430000 (funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness) and the “eMadrid” project (funded by the Regional Government of Madrid) under grant no. S2013/ICE-2715. Carlos Delgado Kloos wishes to acknowledge support from Fundación CajaMadrid to visit Harvard University and MIT in the academic year 2012-13

SPOCs for Remedial Education: Experiences at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid

The Universidad Carlos III de Madrid has been offering several face-to-face remedial courses for freshmen to review or learn concepts and practical skills that they should know before starting their degree programme. During the last two years, our University has adopted MOOC-like technologies to support some of these courses so that a "fipping the classroom" methodology can be applied to a particular small educational context. This paper gathers a list of issues and challenges encountered when using Khan Academy technologies for small private online courses (SPOCs). These issues and challenges include the absence of a single platform that supports all the requirements, the need for integration of different learning platforms, the complexity of the authoring process, the need for an adaptation of gamifcation during the learning process and the adjustment of the learning analytics functionality. In addition, some lessons learned are presented, as well as specifc actions taken in response, where MOOCs do not replace teachers and classrooms for these remedial courses, but improve their effectiveness.This work was partially funded by the EEE project, “Plan Nacional de I+D+i TIN2011-28308-C03-01” and the “eMadrid: Investigación y desarrollo de tecnologías para el e-learning en la Comunidad de Madrid” project (S2009/TIC-1650)”. The last author wishes to acknowledge support from Fundación CajaMadrid to visit Harvard University and MIT in the academic year 2012-13

From software engineering to courseware engineering

Proceedings of: 2016 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON), 10-13 April 2016, Abu Dhabi, United Arab EmiratesThe appearance of MOOCs has contributed to the use of educational technology in new contexts. As a consequence, many teachers face the challenge of creating educational content (courseware) to be offered in MOOCs. Although some best practices exist, it is true that most of the content is being developed without much thought about adequacy, reusability, maintainability, composability, etc. The main thesis at this paper is that we are facing a "courseware crisis" in the same way as there was a "software crisis" 50 years ago, and that the way out is to identify good engineering discipline to aid in the development of courseware. We need Courseware Engineering in the same way as at those times we needed Software Engineering. Therefore, the challenge is now to define and develop fundamentals, tools, and methods of Courseware Engineering, as an analogy to the fundamentals, tools, and methods that were developed in Software Engineering.The eMadrid Excellence Network is being funded by the Madrid Regional Government (Comunidad de Madrid) with grant No. S2013/ICE-2715. This work also received partial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness Project RESET (TIN2014-53199-C3-1-R) and from the European Erasmus+ projects MOOC-Maker (561533-EPP-1-2015-1-ES-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP) and SHEILA (562080-EPP-1-2015-BE-EPPKA3-PI-FORWARD). The first author would like to acknowledge fruitful discussions with Martin Wirsing and his group from LMU München during his research stay at this university with a scholarship from the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sport

Boosting interaction with educational technology

Proceeding of: 2017 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON), 25-28 April 2017, Athens, Greece.The MOOC movement has helped faculty in focusing on how to lecture. However, once this is done, it would not make sense not to use this content for on-campus classes. In this paper, we will explain how to harness top content created for MOOCs to improve on-campus classes, where the personal interaction is a key added feature. Interactive practices and on-site interaction, especially in-class interaction, are of particular relevance in the evolution of Higher Education towards a more effective learning.The eMadrid Excellence Network is being funded by the Madrid Regional Government (Comunidad de Madrid) with grant No. S2013/ICE-2715. This work also received partial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, Project RESET (TIN2014-53199-C3-1-R) and fellowship FPDI-2013-17411, and from the European Commission through Erasmus+ projects MOOC-Maker (561533-EPP-1-2015-1-ES-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP) and SHEILA (562080-EPP-1-2015-1-BE-EPPKA3-PI-FORWARD).Publicad

A first approximation to the SPOCs-FC in the context of the Supply Chain Management

This study provides a first overview of how to combine some of the elements of the blended teaching models, such as SPOCs, with new teaching approaches, like the Flipped Classroom, in the domains of the Supply Chain Management education. Its main goal is to raise the learning rate in a heterogeneous students’ group. The proposal takes into account both classic curricular concerns on the teaching of Supply Chain Management, as in Visich and Khumawala (2006), and its pedagogical new trends, like in Wisner (2017)

Una primera aproximación a los SPOCs-FCen el contexto de la Gestión de la Cadena de Suministro

[EN] This study provides a first overview of how to combine some of the elements of the blended teaching models, such as SPOCs, with new teaching approaches, like the Flipped Classroom, in the domains of the Supply Chain Management education. Its main goal is to raise the learning rate in a heterogeneous students’ group. The proposal takes into account both classic curricular concerns on the teaching of Supply Chain Management, as in Visich and Khumawala (2006), and its pedagogical new trends, like in Wisner (2017).El presente trabajo ha contado con el apoyo del proyecto ECO2013-46091-Pdel Ministerio de Economía y CompetitividadÁlvarez-Gil, MJ.; Montes-Sancho, MJ.; Tachizawa, EM. (2017). A first approximation to the SPOCs-FC in the context of the Supply Chain Management. Working Papers on Operations Management. 8(SP):151-163. https://doi.org/10.4995/wpom.v8i0.7198SWORD1511638SPArbaugh, J. B., Desai, A., Rau, B., & Sridhar, B. S. (2010). A review of research on online and blended learning in the management disciplines: 1994–2009. Organization Management Journal, 7(1), 39-55. doi:10.1057/omj.2010.5Arenas‐Márquez, F. J., Machuca, J. A. D., & Medina‐López, C. (2012). Interactive learning in operations management higher education. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 32(12), 1395-1426. doi:10.1108/01443571211284160Argente, A.; García-Fornes, A.; Espinosa, A. (2016). Aplicando la metodología Flipped-Teaching en el Grado de Ingeniería Informática: Una experiencia práctica, Actas de las XXII Jenui, pp. 221-228.Bhattacharya, I., & Sharma, K. (2007). India in the knowledge economy – an electronic paradigm. International Journal of Educational Management, 21(6), 543-568. doi:10.1108/09513540710780055Bloom, B. (1956). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Handbook 1: The Cognitive Domain. New York: Longman.Bozkurt, A., Akgun-Ozbek, E., Yilmazel, S., Erdogdu, E., Ucar, H., Guler, E., … Aydin, C. H. (2015). Trends in distance education research: A content analysis of journals 2009-2013. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 16(1). doi:10.19173/irrodl.v16i1.1953Fox, A. (2013). From MOOCs to SPOCs. Communications of the ACM, 56(12), 38-40. doi:10.1145/2535918Hernández, P. (1997). Construyendo el constructivismo: Criterios para su fundamentación y su aplicación instruccional. En M. J. Rodrigo, y J. Arnay, (Comp.): La construcción del conocimiento escolar. Barcelona: Paidós.Estellés Miguel, S., Albarracín Guillem, J. M., & Palmer Gato, M. (2015). Flip Teaching en la Asignatura de Dirección de Producción y Operaciones. Libro de Actas IN-RED 2015 - Congreso Nacional de Innovación Educativa y de Docencia en Red. doi:10.4995/inred2015.2015.1645Frederickson, N., Reed, P., & Clifford, V. (2005). Evaluating Web-supported Learning Versus Lecture-based Teaching: Quantitative and Qualitative Perspectives. Higher Education, 50(4), 645-664. doi:10.1007/s10734-004-6370-0Goffin, K. (1998). Operations management teaching on European MBA programmes. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 18(5), 424-451. doi:10.1108/01443579810206118Halili, S. H., Abdul Razak, R., & Zainuddin, Z. (2014). Enhancing collaborative learning in flipped classroom. Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, Vol. 9, No. 7, pp. 147–149.Khan, B. (2005). Managing E-Learning Strategies. doi:10.4018/978-1-59140-634-1KRAJEWSKI, L. (2009). MOTIVATING STUDENTS IN THE OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT CLASS: CHALLENGES FOR THE PUBLISHING INDUSTRY. Production and Operations Management, 7(2), 188-193. doi:10.1111/j.1937-5956.1998.tb00450.xLage, M. J., Platt, G. J., & Treglia, M. (2000). Inverting the Classroom: A Gateway to Creating an Inclusive Learning Environment. The Journal of Economic Education, 31(1), 30-43. doi:10.1080/00220480009596759Little, C. (2015). The flipped classroom in further education: literature review and case study. Research in Post-Compulsory Education, 20(3), 265-279. doi:10.1080/13596748.2015.1063260Lou, J. (2016). The Enlightenment of SPOC on Teaching Reform of Higher Education in China——Based on the Perspective of Mastery Learning Theory. Science Journal of Education, 4(2), 95. doi:10.11648/j.sjedu.20160402.22Mason, G. S., Shuman, T. R., & Cook, K. E. (2013). Comparing the Effectiveness of an Inverted Classroom to a Traditional Classroom in an Upper-Division Engineering Course. IEEE Transactions on Education, 56(4), 430-435. doi:10.1109/te.2013.2249066Mayes, T.; de Freitas, S. (2013). Technology-enhanced Learning: The Role of Theory. In Rethinking Pedagogy for a Digital Age: Designing for 21st Century Learning, edited by H. Beetham and R. Sharpe, pp. 17–31. Abingdon: Routledge.Mor, Y.; Craft, B.; Hernandez-Leo, D. (2013). The Art and Science of Learning Design: Editorial. Research in Learning Technology, Vol. 21. http://www.researchinlearningtechnology.net/index.php/rlt/article/view/22513Papadapoulos, C.; Roman, A. S. (2010). Implementing an inverted classroom model in engineering statistics: Initial results. Paper presented at the 40th American Society for Engineering Statistics/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, Washington, DC.Pasin, F., & Giroux, H. (2011). The impact of a simulation game on operations management education. Computers & Education, 57(1), 1240-1254. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2010.12.006Prashar, A. (2015). Assessing the Flipped Classroom in Operations Management: A Pilot Study. Journal of Education for Business, 90(3), 126-138. doi:10.1080/08832323.2015.1007904Strayer, J. F. (2012). How learning in an inverted classroom influences cooperation, innovation and task orientation. Learning Environments Research, 15(2), 171-193. doi:10.1007/s10984-012-9108-4Tan, K. H., Tse, Y. K., & Chung, P. L. (2010). A plug and play pathway approach for operations management games development. Computers & Education, 55(1), 109-117. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2009.12.008Visich, J. K., & Khumawala, B. M. (2006). Operations management curricula: literature review and analysis. Journal of Statistics and Management Systems, 9(3), 661-687. doi:10.1080/09720510.2006.10701229Wang Xin-Hong, Wang Jing-Ping, Wen Fu-Ji, Wang Jun,y Tao Jian-Qing (2016). Exploration and Practice of Blended Teaching Model Based Flipped Classroom and SPOC in higher University. Journal of Education and Practice, Vol.7, No.10, pp. 99-104.Xu, W.; Jia, I-Z; Fox, A. & Patterson, D. (2014). From MOOC to SPOC --- Academic Conversation Based on MOOC Practice in University of California Berkeley and Tsinghua University. Modern Distance Education Research, Vol. 4, pp. 13-22.Yazici, H. J. (2004). Student Perceptions of Collaborative Learning in Operations Management Classes. Journal of Education for Business, 80(2), 110-118. doi:10.3200/joeb.80.2.110-118Yazici, H. J. (2006). Simulation modeling of a facility layout in operations management classes. Simulation & Gaming, 37(1), 73-87. doi:10.1177/1046878105282159Zainuddin, Z.; Attaran, M. (2015). Malaysian students' perceptions of flipped classroom: A case study. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, Vol. 53, No. 6, pp. 1-11.Zainuddin, Z., & Halili, S. H. (2016). Flipped Classroom Research and Trends from Different Fields of Study. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 17(3). doi:10.19173/irrodl.v17i3.227

Analyzing the behavior of students regarding learning activities, badges, and academic dishonesty in MOOC environment

Mención Internacional en el título de doctorThe ‘big data’ scene has brought new improvement opportunities to most products and services, including education. Web-based learning has become very widespread over the last decade, which in conjunction with the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) phenomenon, it has enabled the collection of large and rich data samples regarding the interaction of students with these educational online environments. We have detected different areas in the literature that still need improvement and more research studies. Particularly, in the context of MOOCs and Small Private Online Courses (SPOCs), where we focus our data analysis on the platforms Khan Academy, Open edX and Coursera. More specifically, we are going to work towards learning analytics visualization dashboards, carrying out an evaluation of these visual analytics tools. Additionally, we will delve into the activity and behavior of students with regular and optional activities, badges and their online academically dishonest conduct. The analysis of activity and behavior of students is divided first in exploratory analysis providing descriptive and inferential statistics, like correlations and group comparisons, as well as numerous visualizations that facilitate conveying understandable information. Second, we apply clustering analysis to find different profiles of students for different purposes e.g., to analyze potential adaptation of learning experiences and pedagogical implications. Third, we also provide three machine learning models, two of them to predict learning outcomes (learning gains and certificate accomplishment) and one to classify submissions as illicit or not. We also use these models to discuss about the importance of variables. Finally, we discuss our results in terms of the motivation of students, student profiling, instructional design, potential actuators and the evaluation of visual analytics dashboards providing different recommendations to improve future educational experiments.Las novedades en torno al ‘big data’ han traído nuevas oportunidades de mejorar la mayoría de productos y servicios, incluyendo la educación. El aprendizaje mediante tecnologías web se ha extendido mucho durante la última década, que conjuntamente con el fenómeno de los cursos abiertos masivos en línea (MOOCs), ha permitido que se recojan grandes y ricas muestras de datos sobre la interacción de los estudiantes con estos entornos virtuales de aprendizaje. Nosotros hemos detectado diferentes áreas en la literatura que aún necesitan de mejoras y del desarrollo de más estudios, específicamente en el contexto de MOOCs y cursos privados pequeños en línea (SPOCs). En la tesis nos hemos enfocado en el análisis de datos en las plataformas Khan Academy, Open edX y Coursera. Más específicamente, vamos a trabajar en interfaces de visualizaciones de analítica de aprendizaje, llevando a cabo la evaluación de estas herramientas de analítica visual. Además, profundizaremos en la actividad y el comportamiento de los estudiantes con actividades comunes y opcionales, medallas y sus conductas en torno a la deshonestidad académica. Este análisis de actividad y comportamiento comienza primero con análisis exploratorio proporcionando variables descriptivas y de inferencia estadística, como correlaciones y comparaciones entre grupos, así como numerosas visualizaciones que facilitan la transmisión de información inteligible. En segundo lugar aplicaremos técnicas de agrupamiento para encontrar distintos perfiles de estudiantes con diferentes propósitos, como por ejemplo para analizar posibles adaptaciones de experiencias educativas y sus implicaciones pedagógicas. También proporcionamos tres modelos de aprendizaje máquina, dos de ellos que predicen resultados finales de aprendizaje (ganancias de aprendizaje y la consecución de certificados de terminación) y uno para clasificar que ejercicios han sido entregados de forma deshonesta. También usaremos estos tres modelos para analizar la importancia de las variables. Finalmente, discutimos todos los resultados en términos de la motivación de los estudiantes, diferentes perfiles de estudiante, diseño instruccional, posibles sistemas actuadores, así como la evaluación de interfaces de analítica visual, proporcionando recomendaciones que pueden ayudar a mejorar futuras experiencias educacionales.Programa Oficial de Doctorado en Ingeniería TelemáticaPresidente: Davinia Hernández Leo.- Secretario: Luis Sánchez Fernández.- Vocal: Adolfo Ruiz Callej

OpenCases: case studies on openness in education

OpenCases is a study which is part of the OpenEdu Project. It is a qualitative study consisting of a review of literature on open education and nine in-depth case studies of higher education institutions, a consortium of universities, a private organisation and a national initiative. It analysed the rationale and enabling conditions for involvement in open education, open education activities, strategies, impact, challenges and prospects. The main outcome of this study is evidence that a large number of OER have reached a large group of learners. However, completion rates of MOOCs are low. Accreditation is not formalised and in general its impact on employability is not measure

Online review courses as preparation for first term remedial exams

[EN] At Universidad Carlos III de Madrid we have developed a review course (R-Course) with a SPOC structure intended for students who failed the first term regular exams. The purpose of the course is to help students prepare for the remedial exams at the same time they study the second term courses. The R-Course is implemented in an Open-EDX platform that holds digital documents, both theory and solved exercise videos, platform integrated exercises, and forums. The content of the course is divided in videos of less than 10 minutes in length, allowing students to include the R-Course in any schedule and making it compatible with the second term courses. Interactive platform integrated exercises have been devised under different types of methodologies to increase the motivation of the students, and the platform forums give students and tutors a space to discuss and interact for a well-rounded academic experience.The authors wish to acknowledge the financial and structural support from Universidad Carlos III the Madrid, in particular from the UTEID (Unidad de Tecnología Educativa e Innovación Docente) and the encouragement from professors Carlos Delgado-Kloos and Luis Raúl Sánchez Fernández.Domínguez-Reyes, R.; Meléndez, J.; Hernández-Pérez, A. (2015). Online review courses as preparation for first term remedial exams. Multidisciplinary Journal for Education, Social and Technological Sciences. 2(2):139-152. doi:10.4995/muse.2015.3687.SWORD1391522

Re-Defining, Analyzing and Predicting Persistence Using Student Events in Online Learning

This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart LearningIn education, several studies have tried to track student persistence (i.e., students' ability to keep on working on the assigned tasks) using di fferent definitions and self-reported data. However, self-reported metrics may be limited, and currently, online courses allow collecting many low-level events to analyze student behaviors based on logs and using learning analytics. These analyses can be used to provide personalized and adaptative feedback in Smart Learning Environments. In this line, this work proposes the analysis and measurement of two types of persistence based on students' interactions in online courses: (1) local persistence (based on the attempts used to solve an exercise when the student answers it incorrectly), and (2) global persistence (based on overall course activity/completion). Results show that there are different students' profiles based on local persistence, although medium local persistence stands out. Moreover, local persistence is highly a ffected by course context and it can vary throughout the course. Furthermore, local persistence does not necessarily relate to global persistence or engagement with videos, although it is related to students' average grade. Finally, predictive analysis shows that local persistence is not a strong predictor of global persistence and performance, although it can add some value to the predictive models.This work was partially funded by FEDER/Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades - Agencia Estatal de Investigación/project Smartlet (TIN2017-85179-C3-1-R), and by the Madrid Regional Government, through the project e-Madrid-CM (S2018/TCS-4307). The latter is also co-financed by the Structural Funds (FSE and FEDER). This work received also partial support by Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, under an FPU fellowship (FPU016/00526)