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Koukis, N., & Jimoyiannis, A. (2019). Investigating Participants’ Collaborative Patterns in a MOOC for Teacher Professional Development. In R. Ørngreen, M. Buhl & B. Meyer (Eds.), Proceedings of the 16th European Conference on e-Learning, ECEL 2019 (pp. 303-312). Aalborg University, Copenhagen: Academic Conferences and Publishing International.
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This paper reports on a teacher professional development MOOC, designed to prepare Greek language teachers in secondary education schools towards designing and implementing collaborative writing activities in their classroom. Using a hybrid mode, a new design framework for MOOCs is proposed, organised along three dimensions of teachers' learning activities: a) individual engagement, b) peer interaction and mutual support, and c) collaborative creation of educational artefacts. The pedagogical principles that determine the particular framework were authentic learning, case-study approach, peer-supported, collaborative and self-regulated learning. A mixed method of research data analysis was used regarding teachers' engagement and their learning presence in the collaborative learning activities. The analysis showed that the present MOOC achieved high completion rate (57.6%). In addition, the results provided supportive evidence that the design framework was effective towards promoting teachers' active engagement, peer interaction and support, as well as development of learning design abilities to integrate collaborative writing with Google Docs in their classroom.
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... Research conducted within this regard shows that MOOCs are seen as a useful learning model (Koukis & Jimoyiannis, 2019a) and participants are satisfied with MOOC studies (Castaño-Muñoz et al., 2018). Studies also conclude that the participants describe the learning process as rewarding and positive (Kim et al., 2023;Yıldırım, 2022), and the level of learning is high in professional development MOOCs (Donitsa-Schmidt et al., 2022;Koukis & Jimoyiannis, 2019b). ...
Teachers today should think of novel ways to use innovative educational advancements and create new ways of using digital initiatives such as artificial intelligence, massive open online courses, sophisticated learning management systems, and open educational resources to deliver meaningful learning experiences. On top of the pressures triggered by technological developments, worldwide crises have forced educators to reevaluate the techno-pedagogical skills they must master. Therefore, it is even more important than ever for teachers to receive ongoing and sustained professional development. This chapter, therefore, concentrates on the competencies teachers are required to develop in the digital age in the light of shifting societal and technological paradigms as well as worldwide crises with a specific focus on foreign/second language learning and teaching. The chapter also maps the core elements for effective teacher professional development and explores the role and potential of MOOCs as scalable means for sustainable and continuous teacher professional development.
Background: The Eastern Cape Department of Education (ECDoE) is still experiencing skills shortages among its educators which poses critical challenges in performing their duties of improving learner performance in the province. Shortages of skills development programmes in the Eastern Cape has resulted in poor performance of both educators and learners in most schools. Although the ECDoE has clearly espoused its strategic objectives regarding training and development of educators, it is worrying that only a limited number of educators have received capacity development in critical performance areas.Aim: The aim of this study is to explore the relationship between educator performance and the strategic plan priorities of the ECDoE.Setting: Buffalo City Education District in Eastern Cape Province.Methods: The study adopted a quantitative research strategy and uses a survey questionnaire to collect information from respondents. The sample size was made up of two hundred and seventy (270) participants. The survey questionnaire used a Likert scale ranging from one (1) (strongly agree) to five (5) (strongly disagree). The reliability of the survey questionnaires was determined by calculating the Pearson’s coefficient, and internal consistency was measured using Cronbach’s alpha scale.Results: The study established that remediating the lack of training opportunities for educators was the direct objective of the ECDoE strategic plan priorities.Conclusion: The article concludes that the ECDoE needs to carry out a skills and capacity audit, based on strategic plan needs analysis. The designing of human capital skills development and training programmes should be informed by the ECDoE’s strategic plan and Integrated Quality Management System that align with educators’ key performance areas.
The use of massive open online courses (MOOCs) for teacher professional development (TDP) has increased in the past decades. This study explored the key factors that influenced teachers’ online course completion as a significant indicator of their success in a TPD MOOC. Six key influencing factors (self-efficacy, interaction with curriculum content and peers, satisfaction, overall course score, and TPACK self-assessment) were identified from the perspectives of general influencing factors and teacher specific influencing factors. Employing a learning model that was constructed as a hypothesis path model based on literature review, we analysed these influencing factors’ effects on participants’ online learning completion. Results showed that participants’ TPACK self-assessment and overall course score had a strong direct effect on their course completion, while their interaction with course content and peers had a significant indirect effect on their course completion. This study also discussed the features of teachers’ learning in TPD MOOCs based on the results. Suggestions to promote the success of TPD MOOCs from the aspects of curriculum, learners, and community were put forward. Implications and prospects for research and practice are discussed.
his paper aims to report on a study concerning a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) designed to support Greek language teachers in secondary education schools towards implementing collaborative writing activities with Google Docs in their classroom. Data recorded from a post-survey was used to investigate teachers’ views and perceptions about MOOC design features, their personal achievements and the overall outcomes for their professional work and development.
The results provided supportive evidence that successful MOOCs for teacher professional development are determined by four key design features: a) connecting course content and teacher learning practices to the educational reality of the classroom, b) defining concrete learning objectives of the course, c) promoting teachers’ collaborative learning, and d) creating a learning community among peers.
Research on the use of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) for teacher professional development (TPD) and the characteristics of their participants is scarce. This article presents a case of a MOOC initiative supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education aiming at teachers’ professional development on the use of ICT for teaching and learning. The analysis is focused on (a) the sociodemographic and school characteristics of the teachers participating in MOOCs; (b) their experience and beliefs about lifelong learning; and (c) the relevance of MOOCs for their work. By contrasting the characteristics of the participants in this initiative with the characteristics of the whole population of teachers in Spain, and a sample of Spanish participants in MOOCs not aimed at TPD, the article sheds light on the specificities of the teachers who use this way of TPD. The results have implications for the design of programmes aimed to develop MOOCs for TPD.
Most studies on traditional asynchronous online discussion suggest that facilitating dialogue, that is, commenting forum activities, result in better learning and performance. However, due to open entry and diverse learner backgrounds, learner behaviour in massive open online courses (MOOCs) may be different. Viewing forum messages, which involves fewer mental and physical actions as well as less cognitive processing, rather than posting forum massages, might better match the learner's study purpose. In this study, we investigated the effects of three common types of online MOOC discussion forum activities (viewing, voting and commenting) on student peer learning (peer reviews) and performance (quiz scores). We used stepwise regression models to analyse two data samples of a humanity and art MOOC provided by a private university in the United States for exploring factors influencing peer learning and performance. The results indicate that peer learning and performance were primarily predicted by viewing, and to a lesser extent by commenting. The three plausible explanations for the findings are the learner's study purpose, weaker instructor-learner ties, and voluntary forum participation. We suggest ways to encourage viewing messages in forums and present limitations and further directions.
In this research paper, the authors analyse the collected data output during a 36 week cMOOC. Six-week data streams from blogs, Twitter, a Facebook group, and video conferences were tracked from the daily newsletter and the MOOCs' hashtag (#change11). This data was analysed using content analysis and social network analysis within an interpretative research paradigm. The content analysis was used to examine the technology learners used to support their learning while the social network analysis focused on the participant in different spaces and their participation patterns in connectivist learning.
The findings from this research include: 1) A variety of technologies were used by learners to support their learning in this course; 2) Four types of participation patterns were reveled, including unconnected floaters, connected lurkers, connected participants, and active contributors. The participation of learners displays the participation inequality typical of social media, but the ratio of active contributors is much higher than xMOOCs; 3) There were five basic structures of social networks formed in the learning; and 4) The interaction around topics and topic generation supports the idea of learning as network creation after the analysis of participation patterns that are based on some deep interactive topic. The aim of this study is to gain insight into the behaviors of learners in a cMOOC in an open and distributed online environment, so that future MOOCs designers and facilitators can understand, design and facilitate more effective MOOCs for learners.
Since Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) started to become part of the scene of Higher Education (HE), many institutions have joined the race of MOOC creation. However, producing MOOCs has shown to be a cumbersome and expensive activity for HE institutions. For this reason, many universities have started to explore and experiment with hybrid initiatives in which locally produced and third-party MOOCs are reused and integrated into traditional courses. Most of the hybrid initiatives described in the literature so far focus on flipped classroom experiences, although there are some other possibilities for integrating MOOCs in the curriculum. Moreover, few studies have reported on the institutional support required for implementing hybrid initiatives, and their benefits from a curriculum perspective. In order to shed some light on the opportunities that arise from the reuse of MOOCs, this paper presents H-MOOC, a framework that describes hybrid MOOC-based initiatives as a continuum of two factors: (1) institutional support to reuse an existing MOOC, and (2) curricular content alignment between the MOOC and the program, or the course hybridized. In addition, H-MOOC proposes indicators to measure the impact of these initiatives at both educational and institutional levels. Examples of actual hybrid initiatives and a set of guiding questions are presented to show how to apply the H-MOOC framework in different contexts.
Why do over 90% of the learners in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) never finish the course? There is a need for further studies focusing on the learners’ experiences of participating in MOOCs and factors that influence the decision to complete or drop out of the course. To deepen our understanding of why learners complete or drop out of MOOCs, we report on a qualitative case study based on in-depth interviews with 34 learners with different degrees of course completion for two MOOCs. A qualitative analysis of the interviews led to the identification of four main factors influencing dropout: (1) the learner’s perception of the course content, (2) the learner’s perception of the course design, (3) the learner’s social situation and characteristics, and (4) the learner’s ability to find and manage time effectively. How the learners conceptualized a MOOC had a strong impact on how they engaged with the contents. We discuss the implications of our results for MOOC practice in terms of time, openness and accessibility and provide recommendations for future research.
of paper accepted for IRRODL
MOOCs have been advanced as a mechanism for increasing access to higher education for underserved populations. However, we still know little about the socio-demographics of MOOC participants in general and even less about underserved MOOC participants in particular. In order to broaden our understanding of MOOC participants, including those who stand to benefit the most from free college coursework, this study relies on a sample of 2634 U.S. MOOC users who participated in at least 398 different MOOCs offered by 129 different universities and 22 different providers. This study replicates findings that suggest MOOC participants are already educationally advantaged while also contributing new findings on the underrepresentation of some racial/ethnic minorities in MOOCs. In addition, data indicate that while underserved users were more likely to take MOOCs for educational advancement, they were also less likely to complete MOOCs. Such findings further challenge the democratizing power of MOOCs as currently conceived.