Innovation of MOOC for future technologists

Hitherto, MOOC has become one of the platforms in teaching and learning. Long life learning and self-learning skills are essential for students’ survival especially in the 4.0 industrial revolution era. Moreover, Problem-based learning (PBL) approach is suitable for the MOOC platform as it offers an innovative technique that engages learners for independent learning and problem solving activities. Hence, MOOC is a tool for PBL implementation. This paper developed MOOC integrated PBL learning (MIPBL) model based on ADDIE’s design model. The model was intended for future technologists in critical and creative thinking classroom. The model is beneficial in inducing creative and active participation from learners which subsequently trigger technical competence and soft skills. Future study should focus on the management implication while executing the MIPBL model in classroom

INNOVATION OF MOOC FOR FUTURE TECHNOLOGISTS

Hitherto, MOOC has become one of the platforms in teaching and learning. Long life learning and self-learning skills are essential for students’ survival especially in the 4.0 industrial revolution era. Moreover, Problem-based learning (PBL) approach is suitable for the MOOC platform as it offers an innovative technique that engages learners for independent learning and problem solving activities. Hence, MOOC is a tool for PBL implementation. This paper developed MOOC integrated PBL learning (MIPBL) model based on ADDIE’s design model. The model was intended for future technologists in critical and creative thinking classroom. The model is beneficial in inducing creative and active participation from learners which subsequently trigger technical competence and soft skills. Future study should focus on the management implication while executing the MIPBL model in classroom

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

Engaged learning in MOOCs: a study using the UK Engagement Survey

This study sets out to answer the question: how can we know what learning is taking place in MOOCs? From this starting point, the study then looks to identify MOOCs’ potential for future use in HE? Using a specially-adapted version of the HEA’s UK Engagement Survey (UKES) 2014, the research team at the University of Southampton asked participants who had completed one of two MOOCs delivered through the FutureLearn platform and designed and run at the university about their experiences as learners and their engagement with their respective MOOC. The results also show that both of the MOOCs were successful in enabling many participants to feel engaged in intellectual endeavours such as forming new understandings, making connections with previous knowledge and experience, and exploring knowledge actively, creatively and critically. In response to the open access approach – in which no one taking part in a MOOC is required to have a minimum level of previous educational achievement - the report shows that persistent learners engaged, regardless of prior educational attainment

LEARNING HOW STUDENTS ARE LEARNING IN PROGRAMMING LAB SESSIONS

Department of Computer Science and EngineeringProgramming lab sessions help students learn to program in a practical way. Although these sessions are typically valuable to students, it is not uncommon for some participants to fall behind throughout the sessions and leave without fully grasping the concepts covered during the session. In my thesis, I will be presenting LabEX, a system for instructors to understand students' progress and learning experience during programming lab sessions. LabEX utilizes statistical techniques that help distinguishing struggling students and understand their degree of struggle. LabEX also helps instructors to provide in-situ feedback to students with its real-time code review. LabEX was evaluated in an entry-level programming course taken by more than two hundred students in UNIST, establishing that it increases the quality of programming lab sessions.ope

Computational Thinking as an Emergent Learning Trajectory of Mathematics

n the 21st century, the skills of computational thinking complement those of traditional math teaching. In order to gain the knowledge required to teach these skills, a cohort of math teachers participated in an in-service training scheme conducted as a massive open online course (MOOC). This paper analyses the success of this training scheme and uses the results of the study to focus on the skills of computational thinking, and to explore how math teachers expect to integrate computing into the K-12 math syllabus. The coursework and feedback from the MOOC course indicate that they readily associate computational thinking with problem solving in math. In addition, some of the teachers are inspired by the new opportunities to be creative in their teaching. However, the set of programming concepts they refer to in their essays is insubstantial and unfocused, so these concepts are consolidated here to form a hypothetical learning trajectory for computational thinking.Peer reviewe

Can New Modes of Digital Learning Help Resolve the Teacher Crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa?

Sub-Saharan Africa, more than any other part of the world, is experiencing a crisis in finding sufficiently qualified teachers to meet the needs of expanding school systems. The professional development support provided to serving teachers is also inadequate in most countries. The most recent data on learner outcomes has revealed a worrying picture of significant under-achievement across the region. This paper argues that the teacher education and training structures of the last century will never be able to meet urgent contemporary needs. Given population growth, especially among the young, large-scale expansion of the teaching force and the associated teacher education systems will be the norm through to the middle years of the century and beyond. In this context the paper argues for a significant policy shift to expand quality teacher education and professional support at scale through a more school-based and digitally supported network model of provision. Examples of current digital programmes within the region are considered as well as the new technologies that are emerging with relevance to teacher education. The paper suggests a three-phase process through which national governments might move in making the necessary changes in policy and practice

The potential of mobile phones to transform teacher professional development

Futures thinking is used by governments to consider long-term strategic approaches and develop policies and practices that are potentially resilient to future uncertainty. English in Action (EIA), arguably the world’s largest English language teacher professional development (TPD) project, used futures thinking to author possible, probable and preferable future scenarios to solve the project’s greatest technological challenge: how to deliver audio-visual TPD materials and hundreds of classroom audio resources to 75,000 teachers by 2017. Authoring future scenarios and engaging in possibility thinking (PT) provided us with a taxonomy of question-posing and question-responding that assisted the project team in being creative. This process informed the successful pilot testing of a mobile phone-based technology kit to deliver TPD resources within an open distance learning (ODL) platform. Taking the risk and having the foresight to trial mobile phones in remote rural areas with teachers and students led to unforeseen innovation. As a result EIA is currently using a mobile phone-based technology kit with 12,500 teachers to improve the English language proficiency of 700,000 students. As the project scales up in its third and final phase, we are using the new technology kit—known as the ‘trainer in your pocket’—to foster a ‘quiet revolution’ in the provision of teacher professional development at scale to an additional 67,500 teachers and 10 million students

Framework to Enhance Teaching and Learning in System Analysis and Unified Modelling Language

Cowling, MA ORCiD: 0000-0003-1444-1563; Munoz Carpio, JC ORCiD: 0000-0003-0251-5510Systems Analysis modelling is considered foundational for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) students, with introductory and advanced units included in nearly all ICT and computer science degrees. Yet despite this, novice systems analysts (learners) find modelling and systems thinking quite difficult to learn and master. This makes the process of teaching the fundamentals frustrating and time intensive. This paper will discuss the foundational problems that learners face when learning Systems Analysis modelling. Through a systematic literature review, a framework will be proposed based on the key problems that novice learners experience. In this proposed framework, a sequence of activities has been developed to facilitate understanding of the requirements, solutions and incremental modelling. An example is provided illustrating how the framework could be used to incorporate visualization and gaming elements into a Systems Analysis classroom; therefore, improving motivation and learning. Through this work, a greater understanding of the approach to teaching modelling within the computer science classroom will be provided, as well as a framework to guide future teaching activities