MOOCs Gone Wild

MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) have been around since 2008, when 2,300 students took part in a course called “Connectivism and Connective Knowledge” organized by University of Manitoba, Canada. The year 2012 was widely recognized as “The year of the MOOC”, because several MOOC initiatives gained a world-wide popularity. Nowadays, many experts consider MOOCs a “revolution in education”. However, other experts think is too soon to make such a claim since MOOCs still have to prove they are here to stay. With the spread of MOOCs, different providers have appeared, such as Coursera, Udacity and edX. In addition, some popular LMS (Learning Management Systems), such as Moodle or Sakai, have also been used to provide MOOCs. Besides, a new breed of LMS has appeared in recent months with the aim of providing specific tools to create MOOCs: OpenMOOC and Google CourseBuilder being two of them. The growing interest of MOOCs has led to the emergence of different forms of use. In some cases, such as xMOOCs, the initial concept has been distorted. In other cases, such as SPOCs (Small Private Online Courses), it has become possible to use MOOCs in alternative contexts which they were originally created. The aim of this paper is to clarify the enormous confusion that currently exists around the MOOCs. On one hand, in this paper we present different MOOC taxonomies that currently exist. On the other hand, we present several barriers for deploying MOOCs promises: language, cost, internet access, and web accessibility.This work has been partially supported by the Prometeo Project by SENESCYT, Ecuadorian Government

Adaptive Content Presentation Extension for Open edX. Enhancing MOOCs Accessibility for Users with Disabilities

In this paper, we propose a three-layer architecture to extend the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) platform Open edX to enhance course content accessibility for users with disabilities. Because of their open nature and global scope, MOOCs are a great opportunity for people with disabilities that might not be able to engage in learning otherwise. The goal of the proposed extension is to enhance MOOCs’ accessibility by adapting course content to student needs, preferences, skills and situations. In this approach, the user does not need to know what adaptations should be applied to the MOOC to make it more accessible for them. The user only needs to keep updated their accessibility preferences in their user profile. The extension automatically applies all the necessary adaptations as commanded by the adaptive engine and provides the presentation layer with the content best suited for the user

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

Web Accessibility Requirements for Massive Open Online Courses

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities stresses that persons with disabilities should be able to participate fully in all aspects of life, including education. Nevertheless, statistics shows than a low percentage of persons with disabilities complete higher education. MOOCs, being online courses available to a very large number of people, have a great potential to satisfy the learning needs of millions of people. When designing a MOOC, it is important to consider the diversity of abilities of all potential learners. Genuine universality and openness can only be achieved if all kind of users can access and use MOOCs to engage in learning regardless their abilities. This paper proposes two categories of web accessibility requirements: for personal and for non-personal disabilities. Each category is characterized and a preliminary list of web accessibility requirements for each one is presented. Both MOOC's platforms and contents must meet web accessibility requirements. If contents are accessible but not the platform, or vice versa, the MOOC is not accessible.This work is partially funded by the Prometheus project of the National Secretary of Higher Education, Science and Technology (SENESCYT), Government of Ecuador

Retos de accesibilidad en Geo-MOOCs

El presente trabajo describe algunos de los retos que existen para lograr que cursos en línea sobre Sistemas de Información Geográfica (SIG) que se ofrecen mediante plataformas de Cursos en Línea Masivos y Abiertos (MOOCs) sean inclusivos. Es decir, accesibles para personas con diversas discapacidades. A estos cursos, se los conoce con el nombre genérico de Geo-MOOCs. En accesibilidad web no interesan las condiciones específicas de las personas sino el impacto que dichas condiciones tienen en su habilidad para usar la web. En este contexto, se proponen las siguientes categorías de discapacidades: visuales, motoras y del habla, cognitivas y psicosociales. Además, se debe tomar en consideración que las discapacidades pueden ser permanentes, temporales o situacionales. Existen varias estrategias para lograr que un MOOC sea de alta accesibilidad. Una opción es evitar ciertos tipos de funcionalidades y contenidos que no son accesibles a personas con discapacidades. Esta no es una buena solución, pues conlleva una reducción general de características que se ofrecen a los usuarios. Otra propuesta es desarrollar una versión genérica del MOOC y varias versiones alternativas para distintos tipos de discapacidades. Este camino tampoco es adecuado, pues el desarrollo y soporte de múltiples versiones es costoso y en muchos casos no viable. Además, no resuelve el problema de la segregación a usuarios. Por tanto, se requiere proveer métodos alternativos para llevar a cabo las distintas funcionalidades y para acceder a contenidos en formatos accesibles acorde a cada tipo de discapacidad. Para esto, se requiere profundizar en los requerimientos de accesibilidad y tecnologías asistidas. Con esto, se pretende definir mecanismos para solventar los retos asociados a la implantación de dichos requerimientos en Geo-MOOCs

Process for Development and Management of MOOC

Los cursos en línea masivos y abiertos son cursos en los que no se exige ningún requisito para que los estudiantes puedan inscribirse y que tienen la capacidad para atender a cientos de miles de estudiantes de forma simultánea. Los MOOC son complejos de desarrollar y gestionar debido a su naturaleza dual: por un lado son un producto educativo y por otro lado son un producto de software alojado en una plataforma web. En este trabajo, los autores proponen un proceso para el desarrollo y gestión de MOOC que permita a los educadores enfocarse en la enseñanza, en la interacción con sus estudiantes y en otros elementos indispensables para el aprendizaje. El proceso propuesto está basado en el ciclo Planificar-Hacer-Verificar-Actuar y la norma ISO/IEC TR 29110-5-1-2:2011 Lifecycle profiles for Very Small Entities - Part 5-1-2: Management and Engineering Guide. El proceso propuesto abarca tres fases: desarrollo, gestión y mejora del MOOC.Massive Open Online Courses are online courses in which there is no requirements for students to enroll and that have the capacity to serve hundreds of thousands of students simultaneously. MOOC are complex to develop and manage due to their dual nature: on the one hand they are an educational product and on the other hand they are a software product hosted in a web platform. In this work, the authors propose a process for the development and management of MOOC that allows educators to focus on teaching, interaction with their students and other elements indispensable for learning. The proposed process is based on the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle and the ISO/IEC standard TR 29110-5-1-2: 2011 Preview Software engineering - Lifecycle profiles for Very Small Entities - Part 5-1-2: Management and Engineering guide. The proposed process includes three phases: development, management and improvement of the MOOC

Research challenges in accessible MOOCs: a systematic literature review 2008–2016

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have a prominent role in achieving universal e-education, i.e., education offered via the Internet to diverse learners around the world independently of their motivations, backgrounds, capacities, and limitations. Regrettably, current MOOCs platforms and contents are not accessible enough for all learners. This study presents the results of a systematic literature review on the combined field of accessible MOOCs that covers from the years 2008 to 2016. We followed a four-staged method than included a within-study and between-study literature analysis, and a descriptive synthesis. A total of 40 relevant studies was identified and mapped to eight research dimensions that form a lifecycle: problem characterization; needs identification; use of industry guidelines, specifications and standards; accessibility requirements specification; architectures; design strategies; verification of accessibility requirements compliance; and validation of user needs satisfaction. The results presented in this study give a head start to researchers interested in pursuing the combined field of accessible MOOCs, providers of MOOCs platforms and contents, as well as decision-makers of educational institutions that offer e-education can also benefit

A Process for Self-Training of Engineering Educators Using e-Learning

This article proposes an e-learning process for engineering educators involving a self-training approach. To develop the process, the researchers considered a set of entries to allow enrolled educators to engage in and successfully complete a training program without a lead instructor using an e-learning platform. In addition, the proposed process establishes a set of outputs that are the expected results and achievements that educators would be expected to obtain. In this study, educators play a double role: self-tutors and learners. As a case study, a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) is used as a self-training program; the topic of the program is web accessibility. The use of this MOOC was proposed to a group of engineering educators. The case study shows how engineering educators can contribute to learning in society about web accessibility and its benefit to people, especially people with disabilities. Finally, the researchers present the advantages of using the proposed e-learning process, as well as its limitations

Enterprise file synchronization and sharing services for educational environments in case of disaster

Cloud computing is an emerging solution that responds to the concept of Smart University; it aims at offering an intelligent environment of business continuity for the actors of an educational center. This research offers a recovery plan of educational services in case of disaster, through an action research, which analyzed free software for cloud computing, focusing on Enterprise File Synchronization and Sharing (EFSS). To achieve this, the implementation was placed in a local scenario (Linux Apache, MySQL, PHP, LAMP), and stress tests were performed on three applications: Nextcloud, Seafile and Pydio. Nextcloud had more consistent and better results than the other two applications; however, it lacks a system that allows synchronizing two Nextcloud instances. To solve this, we developed a routine aimed at providing an environment that monitors the hot site where the application is hosted and, from time to time, synchronize the instance to avoid data loss during disaster events. Afterwards, we configured a second application on a cold site that is alert to a possible service breakdown, so it can respond and sent immediate alerts. Finally, the usability of the routine was evaluated, and the disaster recovery plan for the EFSS was assembled, to offer a continuity of the educational services that are running in these environments

Reactive Flash Sintering of High Entropy (Mn0.2Co0.2Ni0.2Cu 0.2X 0.2)Fe2O4 (X=Fe, Mg) Spinel Oxides

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