Challenges while MOOCifying a HE eLearning course on Universal Accessibility

There are some similarities in developing a traditional Higher Education (HE) eLearning course and MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), due to the use of the basis of eLearning instructional design. But in MOOCs, students should be continually influenced by information, social interactions and experiences forcing the faculty to come up with new approaches and ideas to develop a really engaging course. In this paper, the process of MOOCifying an online course on Universal Accessibility is detailed. The needed quality model is based upon the one used for all online degree programs at our university and on a variable metric specially designed for UNED MOOC courses making possible to control how each course was structured, what kind of resources were used and how activities, interaction and assessment were included. The learning activities were completely adapted, along with the content itself and the on-line assessment. For this purpose, the Gardner's Multiple Intelligences Product Grid has been selected

The Quality Reference Framework for MOOC Design

This paper introduces "The Quality Reference Framework (QRF) for the Quality of MOOCs". It was developed by the European Alliance for the Quality of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), called MOOQ that could involve in the QRF finalization more than 10,000 MOOC learners, designers, facilitators and providers. The QRF consists of three dimensions: Phases, Perspectives and Roles. It includes two quality instruments: the QRF Key Quality Criteria for MOOC experts and QRF Quality Checklist for MOOC beginners

Design and Operationalization of Connectivist Activities: an Approach through Business Process Management

International audienceThe work presented in this paper focuses on massive open online course (MOOC) environments, and more specifically on the activity of designing and implementing pedagogical scenarios for a connectivist MOOC (cMOOC). This paper presents a research work, which aims to propose a model and tool to support the design of connectivist MOOC scenarios. The major contribution of this work is a visual authoring tool that is intended for the design and deployment of cMOOC-oriented scenarios. The tool is based on the BPMN notation that we have extended to suit our objectives. The tool was evaluated primarily from the point of view of utility and usability. The findings confirm that the tool can be used to design connectivist pedagogical scenarios and can provide all the necessary elements to operationalize such courses

Personalisation in MOOCs: a critical literature review

The advent and rise of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have brought many issues to the area of educational technology. Researchers in the field have been addressing these issues such as pedagogical quality of MOOCs, high attrition rates, and sustainability of MOOCs. However, MOOCs personalisation has not been subject of the wide discussions around MOOCs. This paper presents a critical literature survey and analysis of the available literature on personalisation in MOOCs to identify the needs, the current states and efforts to personalise learning in MOOCs. The findings illustrate that there is a growing attention to personalisation to improve learners’ individual learning experiences in MOOCs. In order to implement personalised services, personalised learning path, personalised assessment and feedback, personalised forum thread and recommendation service for related learning materials or learning tasks are commonly applied

Comparison of the main alternatives to the integration of external tools in different platforms.

The integration of third-party external tools in Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) and social networks enhances the flexibility and the ease of customisation of successful systems such as Moodle, LAMS and Sakai. However, the integration problem entails a set of technological and political decisions that should be considered by the agents involved in this process [1]. Several authors and organisations have proposed different ways to deal with the integration problem. Some of the most representative approaches are: IMS Learning Tool Interoperability [2] (sometimes called Full LTI), a complex specification to integrate web services in VLEs; Basic LTI [3], a subset of the Full LTI specification that allows a lighter integration of web applications; the Wookie server [4] that enables the integration of W3C widgets and OpenSocial compliant tools in different platforms; and the GLUE! (Group Learning Uniform Environment) REST-based architecture, as an evolution of [5], allowing a loosely-coupled integration of tools developed with multiple technologies. This paper analyses the main features of each of these approaches with the aim of establishing a comparison that may help to decide the adoption of some of them depending on the expected requirements. This analysis includes the number and diversity of tools that can be integrated; the systems in which these tools can be integrated; the degree of coupling involved; the richness in the communication and in the data exchanged between the tool and the system; opportunities for tool configuration; the possibility of using the same groups and roles that are defined in the platform; the development effort that must be assumed by the community of developers supporting each approach; their degree of standardization; and the security issues involved

The effects of whole-class interactive instruction with single display groupware for triangles

Whole-class interactive instruction is an instructional approach in which all of the students in a class create knowledge together in an interactive way, mediated by the teacher. The current mixed-method study compared the effects of a specific implementation of whole-class interactive instruction, Single Display Groupware (SDG), with traditional classical instruction of geometry, for 69 third-grade students. In SDG students work in groups that share one area on a large display screen in front of the class. Each individual student in a group has a mouse and together the students in each group need to perform assignments by using “silent collaboration”. In the current study, the assignment for the students was to identify and create different kinds of triangles. Outcomes of interest were learning gains (quantitative) and effectiveness of “silent collaboration” (qualitative). Learning gains were significantly higher for students in the SDG condition than for students following traditional instruction. An analysis of emerging activity patterns showed that students found natural ways to silently collaborate

Interactive concept cartoons: Exploring an instrument for developing scientific literacy

A goal of K-12 science education is for learners to develop scientific literacy. However, realizing this goal is being complicated by the availability of abundant resources that vary strongly regarding their adherence to the Nature of Science principles, particularly regarding socio-scientific issues, such as, for instance, vaccination. It requires dedicated reasoning skills, often referred to as critical thinking, to assess and value the arguments regarding such issues. To stimulate critical thinking, we investigate the use of interactive concept cartoons. Instead of a single cartoon our instrument provides a sequence of concept cartoons. The cartoons are alternated with a diagram and concepts that learners have to place in the diagram, leading to a systems’ view on the subject matter. The instrument has been presented to teachers for expert review and evaluated in three classrooms (6th grade) of one school (70 learners). In this paper, we present the interactive concept cartoon instrument and report on the study. The results indicate that learners are engaged when working with the instrument and learn relevant knowledge regarding the subject matter and the Nature of Science