Closing the Loop: Building Synergy for Learning through a Professional Development MOOC about Flipped Teaching

This case study describes how a MOOC, funded through an NSF grant, was used to create and assess faculty professional development. The MOOC, designed and developed using a backward design process, guided participants through an online project-based learning experience that integrated learning about the flipped classroom and about how to flip a classroom as the participants designed flipped teaching materials. The course structure involved an introduction to flipped teaching and learning content, experimented with flipped ideas and concepts, and emphasized reflection and sharing of experiences with peers. Although mentoring faculty in flipped pedagogical design was the primary MOOC goal, the project also provided insights about assessing the MOOC and the personal learning experiences of MOOC participants. MOOC developers concluded that, depending on the purpose of the MOOC, course designers and instructors may need to rethink what they are assessing, and broaden their perspectives regarding how to assess what is important. Closing the assessment loop and monitoring continuous improvement may be alternative strategies for assessing learning, boosting MOOC effectiveness, and documenting conceptual change

Accessibility considerations of Massive Online Open Courses as creditable courses in Engineering Programs

This paper proposal is to include MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) as creditable courses in engineering programs at the National Polytechnic School of Ecuador. In addition to fulfilling a number of requirements related to the content and duration of the courses, one important challenge is that these selected MOOCs should comply with web accessibility requirements specific for the special needs of non-native speakers. Web accessibility is the property of a website to support the same level of effectiveness for people with disabilities as it does for non-disabled people. As an accessible website is designed to meet different user needs, preferences, skills and situations, this flexibility also benefits people without disabilities in certain situations, such as MOOC students who are non-native speakers. Unfortunately, MOOCs raise new challenges on web accessibility. For example, cultural differences and background knowledge have to be taken into account when choosing contents, examples, and learning activities which might be unfamiliar or even offensive to certain cultures. Also, user interfaces requires special adaptations for non-native speakers. We present a preliminary list of web accessibility requirements and highlight the challenges non-native speakers experience when using MOOCs. The goal is to raise awareness about the particular needs of non-native speakers. This understanding will be the base for establishing criteria for a preliminary selection of MOOCs as creditable courses in engineering programs at the National Polytechnic School. These criteria can also be useful for other higher education institutions interested in including MOOCs in their official programs.This research has been partly supported by the projects MESOLAP (TIN2010-14860) and GEODASBI (TIN2012-37493-C03-03) from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness

Revolutionizing Legal Education: Embracing Technology to Equip Students for Success in the Digital Age

The legal profession is changing as law schools embrace technology to prepare students for 21st-century concerns. This study covered legal education's technological initiatives, including online training, blended learning, adaptive learning materials, and online mentorship programs. This study aims to provide a detailed review of legal education's technological innovations and their effects on the legal profession. We examined online education, including synchronous and asynchronous distance learning and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), which provide students flexibility and convenience. Blended learning lets law professors use educational videos and other internet resources to make learning more engaging and effective. Technology is revolutionizing legal education and preparing students for the digital age. Law schools may prepare students for a future where technology will be increasingly crucial by adopting new tools and instructional approaches. The study stressed the necessity for forward-thinking legal education and keeping up with legal business technology

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

Highjacking the MOOC: Reflections on Creating/Teaching an Art History MOOC

This article reflects on the experience of creating and launching a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) at Otis College of Art and Design. The authors will discuss the development process from content, goals and production to curriculum design and pedagogy. Lessons learned and best practices will be shared as well as assessment of the MOOC’s success. Suggestions will be offered for faculty who are interested in adapting and adopting (hijacking) MOOCs in conjunction with credit courses in their own institutions, and addresses the very practical faculty concerns that MOOCs pose

AMCIS 2017 Panel Report: Experiences in Online Education

In this AMCIS 2017 online education panel, five experienced business school professors from differently sized public and private institutions in three different countries (USA, Mexico, and Spain) discussed how online education (i.e., eLearning, technology-mediated knowledge transfer) occurred in their institutions. They presented low-budget and high-budget examples and described what they have found to be best practices in eLearning at both the institution and the instructor level. They also demonstrated that one can accomplish online education in many different ways and with varying budgets, but, as long as one bases it on solid educational principles and mastery of the technology, it can be as effective as (if not more than) traditional face-to-face education. This report builds on their presentations and additional information gathered from the literature

Towards a better learning models through OCWs and MOOCs

echnological advances of XXth century have induced a profound change in society and, therefore, in the high education. Internet supposed a qualitative difference, as information and digital images flooded into homes around the world. The Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) is a medium sized university of Spain that has been involved in the development of digital video content (Polimedia) to support teaching processes for several years. Joint with Polimedia and other learning objects (virtual laboratories, applets, etc.), the UPV promoted the construction of OCWs. Along with the improvement of technology, MOOCs appeared as e-learning material. In this work, we analyze the advantages and drawbacks of OCWs and MOOCs when they are used in our classroom. This experience has led us to incorporate in our methodology the flip teaching