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

Innovating pedagogy 2022 : exploring new forms of teaching, learning and assessment, to guide educators and policy makers

Comprend des références bibliographiques et webographiquesOpen University Innovation Report 10"We are proud to present our 10th anniversary report in our annual series exploring new forms of teaching, learning and assessment! The reports are intended for teachers, trainers, policy makers, education consultants, academics, students, researchers, instructional designers, educational software developers and all who are interested in pedagogical innovation and future learning scenarios.This tenth report, produced by researchers in the Open University’s Institute of Educational Technology in collaboration with colleagues from the Open University of Catalonia, looks back on the past 10 years and proposes another set of promising innovations that have not yet had a significant influence on education but deserve attention."-- provided by Agnes Kukulska-Hulm

A pedagogically-informed model of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCS) for Mauritian higher education

The purpose of this research was to determine how MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) can be introduced and implemented in Higher Education institutions in Mauritius. The study explored the perspectives of students, teachers and educational leaders using an exploratory case study approach, and involved the implementation of short MOOC-based courses in three areas of higher education in Mauritius. While much of the existing literature on MOOCs has used quantitative data to explore patterns of enrolment and retention, this study explicitly focused on student experience, and used Garrison, Anderson and Archer’s (2000) Community of Inquiry (COI) model to explore patterns of ‘presence’ and pedagogical preferences and needs of learners. In order to explore how these preferences, together with other contextual factors might affect the adoption of MOOCs in Mauritius, Venkatesh and Davis’s (2000) Technology Acceptance Model2 (TAM2) was used. The COI and TAM2 models were used both as analytical frameworks, but also to develop a new composite model that also can function as a boundary object (Bowker and Star, 1999; Fox, 2011) enabling different stakeholders to understand each other’s needs and expectations and communicate better with each other. For Mauritian learners, teaching presence in online environments is of critical importance: this is reflected in different scenarios of MOOC implementation identified, and in a proposed staged model for MOOC adoption across the HE sector in Mauritius. This involves further pilots and preliminary research (stage 1), integration of MOOCs into practice (stage 2), customisation and development of MOOCs (stage 3) and a MOOC for Mauritius (stage 4), with each stage informing the implementation of subsequent stages as part of a broad action research framework. The original contributions made by the research to the knowledge base of its possible audiences include: providing models of practice for teachers and educational leaders; informing the educational leaders and policy makers about how MOOCs can be successfully implemented in Mauritius; providing detailed case studies on MOOCs to the academic audience interested in MOOCs specifically; and proposing a new composite, pedagogically-informed, technology acceptance model to those academics who are interested in online pedagogy and technology acceptance. The results of this PhD research can also inform the introduction and effective implementation of MOOCs in other less-economically developed countries

Smart Universities

Institutions of learning at all levels are challenged by a fast and accelerating pace of change in the development of communications technology. Conferences around the world address the issue. Research journals in a wide range of scholarly fields are placing the challenge of understanding "Education's Digital Future" on their agenda. The World Learning Summit and LINQ Conference 2017 proceedings take this as a point of origin. Noting how the future also has a past: Emergent uses of communications technologies in learning are of course neither new nor unfamiliar. What may be less familiar is the notion of "disruption", found in many of the conferences and journal entries currently. Is the disruption of education and learning as transformative as in the case of the film industry, the music industry, journalism, and health? If so, clearly the challenge of understanding future learning and education goes to the core of institutions and organizations as much as pedagogy and practice in the classroom. One approach to the pursuit of a critical debate is the concept of Smart Universities – educational institutions that adopt to the realities of digital online media in an encompassing manner: How can we as smarter universities and societies build sustainable learning eco systems for coming generations, where technologies serve learning and not the other way around? Perhaps that is the key question of our time, reflecting concerns and challenges in a variety of scholarly fields and disciplines? These proceedings present the results from an engaging event that took place from 7th to 9th of June 2017 in Kristiansand, Norway

Influence of employer support for professional development on MOOCs enrolment and completion: Results from a cross-course survey

Although the potential of open education and MOOCs for professional development is usually recognized, it has not yet been explored extensively. How far employers support non-formal learning is still an open question. This paper presents the findings of a survey-based study which focuses on the influence of employer support for (general) professional development on employees’ use of MOOCs. Findings show that employers are usually unaware that their employees are participating in MOOCs. In addition, employer support for general professional development is positively associated with employees completing MOOCs and obtaining certificates for them. However, the relationship between employer support and MOOC enrollment is less clear: workers who have more support from their employers tend to enroll in either a low or a high number of MOOCs. Finally, the promotion of a minimum of ICT skills by employers is shown to be an effective way of encouraging employee participation in the open education ecosystem.JRC.J.3-Information Societ

Gamification and Advanced Technology to Enhance Motivation in Education

This book, entitled “Gamification and Advanced Technology to Enhance Motivation in Education”, contains an editorial and a collection of ten research articles that highlight the use of gamification and other advanced technologies as powerful tools for motivation during learning. Motivation is the driving force behind many human activities, especially learning. Motivated students are ready to make a significant mental effort and use deeper and more effective learning strategies. Numerous studies indicate that playing promotes learning, since when fun pervades the learning process, motivation increases and tension is reduced. Therefore, games can be very powerful tools in the improvement of learning processes from three different and complementary perspectives: as tools for teaching content or skills, as an object of the learning project itself and as a philosophy to be taken into account when designing the training process. Each contributions presented in this book falls into one of these categories; that is to say, they all deal with the use of games or related technologies, and they all study how playing enhances motivation in education

MOOCs for Development? A Study of Indian Learners and their Experiences in Massive Open Online Courses

The study outlined in this thesis provides an account of the demographics, motivations and experiences of Indian learners in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) comparing the UK-based platform FutureLearn and the Indian platform NPTEL (The National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning). A sequential mixed-methods approach was adopted. A web-based survey (n=2373) was used to collect demographical data and evidence of respondents’ perceptions about their motivations for taking a MOOC, their learning experiences, and any challenges they may have faced while taking a MOOC. The survey phase was followed by 30 semi-structured interviews with learners from both platforms, adding a rich level of qualitative data to the study, revealing the varied experiences and backgrounds of MOOC learners from India. Analysis of the collected data suggests that learners from India tend to be male, younger, more likely to be in formal education, and more educated than participants featured in many existing studies on MOOC learner demographics. Further, the current study outlined several demographic and motivational differences between learners on FutureLearn and NPTEL, likely to be attributable to the distinct objectives of the two platforms. A more in-depth exploration of learners’ experiences suggested that a diverse group of people, particularly on the FutureLearn platform, are using MOOCs to learn more about areas of personal interest, and, in some cases, using FutureLearn resources to assist in their teaching practice. Conversely, learners on the NPTEL platform, who tended to experience more technical challenges such as connectivity issues, were using MOOCs as a supplement to their formal studies, to make up for some of the systemic lack of quality education in many Indian universities. This thesis suggests that educational technology, in the form of MOOCs, might not necessarily be widening participation in education in a Global South context like India. However, it offers a unique insight into the experiences of learners from India, and provides practical recommendations on how best to serve the needs of the varied Indian learners that make use of MOOCs