Proposal for an Integral System for Massive Open Online Courses (ISMOOC)

Abstract

It is impossible to conceive of education without technology in this era of globalization, which make it imperative for Higher Education Institutions to diversify their academic offering and adopt continuous learning models to update the knowledge of their graduates. In response to this new mission, numerous institutions worldwide are adopting MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) as an option for inclusive education, thus satisfy the need for life-long learning, despite a series of doubts about these courses regarding aspects of pedagogy, credibility and lack of feedback, among others, which arise from its massive nature. The aim of this paper is to set out a benchmark for the design and development of a MOOC from the perspective of an integral system, which comprises a set of dimensions (pedagogical, technological, organizational and communicational), structured by levels, alongside a developmental teaching method based on Activity Theory and the principles of connectivism. An evaluation of this system was carried out by means of a quasi-experiment, with the implementation of a MOOC in which 324 students participated with very encouraging results 83.7% of the participants passed the course, which indicated that the usual high desertion rates of MOOC participants were minimized.

Full text

Proposal for an Integral System for massive open online
courses (ISMOOC)
Lourdes Atiaja Atiaja1[0000-0003-0043-1890] and Andrés García Martínez2[0000-0001-7782-8904]
1 Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas ESPE, Sangolquí, Ecuador
lnatiaja@espe.edu.ec
2 University of Havana, La Habana, Cuba
agarcia@cepes.uh.cu
Abstract. It is impossible to conceive of education without technology in this era
of globalization, which make it imperative for Higher Education Institutions to
diversify their academic offering and adopt continuous learning models to update
the knowledge of their graduates. In response to this new mission, numerous in-
stitutions worldwide are adopting MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) as
an option for inclusive education, thus satisfy the need for life-long learning, de-
spite a series of doubts about these courses regarding aspects of pedagogy, cred-
ibility and lack of feedback, among others, which arise from its massive nature.
The aim of this paper is to set out a benchmark for the design and development
of a MOOC from the perspective of an integral system, which comprises a set of
dimensions (pedagogical, technological, organizational and communicational),
structured by levels, alongside a developmental teaching method based on Activ-
ity Theory and the principles of connectivism. An evaluation of this system was
carried out by means of a quasi-experiment: the delivery of a MOOC in which
324 students participated with very encouraging results 83.7% of the participants
passed the course, which indicated that the usual high desertion rates of MOOC
participants were minimized.
Keywords: Massive open online courses, MOOC, inclusive education,
life-long learning, integral system.
1 Introduction
One of the main challenges facing the current education system is how to address
the ongoing training needs of professionals who are aware that undergraduate univer-
sity education is often insufficient to adapt with agility to the labor market.
Nowadays, this is possible as a result of advances in ICT (Information and Commu-
nication Technology), in particular emerging technologies
1
, which have led to new
1
Emerging technologies are those tools, ideas, innovations and resources which will
have an effect in the short-, medium-, and long-term in diverse educational contexts.

2
modes of learning that are more accessible to the population, such as MOOCs (Massive
Open Online Courses), an inclusive diversity-based training option, which have grown
in recent years as a way to access free courses, including programs offered by several
prestigious universities from around the world.
MOOCs are the result of technology applied to education. They are online courses
which allow a massive, open participation, free or at a low cost. The components of
these courses are generally as follows: a set of class videos recorded by a teacher, links
to support material, automated assessment, discussion forums and peer evaluations,
which offer greater access to flexible, ubiquitous education [1].
The most important aspect of this learning modality may be that it has appeared at a
time when education, and in particular, university education, is under pressure to make
changes to address the demands of a knowledge society, offering education for all and
lifelong learning, which currently form part of Sustainable Development Goal No. 4
Agenda 2030 set out by CEPAL (Economic Commission for Latin America and the
Caribbean), in which countries are urged to guarantee inclusive, fair and quality educa-
tion, and to promote life-long learning opportunities [4].
Many prestigious educational institutions worldwide, in their quest to tackle the is-
sue of permanent training have adopted this education modality, despite questions from
the outset regarding the pedagogical quality, ethics and sustainability of these courses,
among other issues. With the aim of not only satisfying demand, but also of achieving
the reconnection of professional graduates who seek to return to the university where
they began their higher education, this flexible, ubiquitous and inclusive mode of learn-
ing enables professionals to train without having to leave either their job or their studies.
In these circumstances, it is important to provide higher education institutions with
a benchmark for the design and development of MOOCs, in which all the necessary
elements for the production of this type of course are included and balanced. Hence, a
proposal has been drawn up for an integral system for MOOCs, in which pedagogical,
technological, organizational and communicational components are combined, orga-
nized into interconnected levels alongside a developmental teaching methodology,
based on Activity Theory and the principles of connectivism.
2 MOOC Systems
The teaching-learning process involves the active participation of a range of actors
and components, and more so nowadays in this knowledge society in which people talk
of digital learning, online courses and the flipped classroom, ect. The technological
component has become a mediational tool in education which obliges higher education
intuitions to reassess learning methods and adapt ICT appropriately in educational pro-
cesses, that is to say, it implies an understanding of the activity of learning as a purely
cooperative system [9].

3
Although many authors highlight that an interactive platform and instructional de-
sign are all that are required to produce MOOC courses, the authors of this paper con-
sider that to develop these courses it is indispensable to consider the MOOC as a system
with a structure, an environment or context, whose parts or components are inter-re-
lated, creating a new quality in the object.
For this reason, a connecting element of synergy should be incorporated into the
system. In the MOOC system, synergy (from the Greek: syn meaning simultaneity, and
ergon meaning work) is the integration of components which constitute a new object.
It is the act of coordinating two or more of the parts or elements of a system, the effect
of which is greater than the sum of the individual effects, enhancing the qualities of
each part. In the case of the MOOC system, synergy can be seen between its four di-
mensions: pedagogical technological, organizational and communicational.
In a system there are three basic functional elements: entry, process, and exit or
product. Entry refers to the information received by the system, the resources, and the
energy with which the system works initially; the process is the manner in which the
system operates in an environment; and the exit is the result or product of the process
carried out within the system.
Additionally, there are four components of the system:
• Entities: These are all the participants in a system i.e. all those related to a
system
• Attributes: These are the structural properties and features of the parts or com-
ponents of a system.
• Relationships: These are the associations between entities or their attributes
• Environment: This is the environment in which the system operates
Based on the above, the MOOC System will be comprised of a set of components,
principles and dimensions, mindful of the massive nature, in order to achieve improved
quality and learning outcomes through the MOOC system.
The features of the MOOC System are as follows:
• Openness and optimization. Allows free access to the courses and educa-
tional material and is related to the use of open-source educational resources
in order to reduce costs.
• Massive and scalable: Enables large scale enrollment of participants, without neg-
atively affecting quality
• Functional. Allows the structuring of courses in a logical, systematic and orga-
nized fashion, aimed at achieving learning outcomes, with interactive material and
assessment strategies which guarantee learning.

4
• Interactive. Allows the development and integration of interactive educational
materials and facilitates the connection between the actors in the teaching-learning
process.
• Flexible. Facilitates the diversity of methods and resources used and allows adap-
tation to the characteristics and needs of the students so that they can access the
courses when required.
• Feedback and control. It includes monitoring tools for follow-up and checking
students’ progress, and tools to enable communication
• Standardized: It guarantees the functioning of content and other elements created
independently (standard file format -SCORM) and allows courses created by third
parties to be used and self-created courses to be exported.
3 Pedagogical and technological basis for the design of a
MOOC System.
From its origins, the teaching philosophy of MOOCs brought with entailed changes
in the traditional didactic model. The participants are those who generate knowledge
and learning by means of the interaction, collaboration, participation and creation of
networks between learners and teachers, the creation of content and contributions to
forums and debates which comprise the teaching-learning process. [20]
According to the first extended classification of MOOCS, different theories of learn-
ing can be identified: xMOOCs have a behaviorist tendency, with the emphasis on in-
dividual learning rather than learning with peers [5], cMOOCs have a constructivist
tendency and are designed under the principles of connectivism, in which learning takes
place through networks organized by the participants themselves, who create blogs or
wikis regarding their own interpretations of the course materials (texts, videos, lectures,
among others), at the same time making comments or contributing to the work of others
to enhance their learning experience. iMOOCs are a combination of xMOOC and
cMOOCs [10], and lean towards constructivist learning.
According to the works consulted, and from the personal experience of the authors
of this paper of participating in MOOCs, one of the main problems of these course was
considered to be the high incidence of desertion. This is fundamentally due to lack of
motivation, lack of support and feedback and poor teaching quality, among others, and
highlights the need for the MOOC system proposed here to be based on pedagogical
and psycho-pedagogical theories which motivate, and lead to improved communication
and interaction between the various actors in the teaching-learning process.
As a result, the MOOC System has incorporated a didactic methodology based on
the idea of developmental teaching, benchmarked by the concept of the Zone of Proxi-
mal Development (ZPD)
2
.
2
this is the difference between two evolving levels in the individual’s abilities: the
real ability to complete a task and the potential ability to complete a task with help.

5
The developmental nature of the teaching would suggest that the learning-teaching
process should be organized not by the student’s current level but rather taking into
account potential for future development, that is to say, ZPD. It should be able to offer
students the levels of support required to bring about the development of adequate mo-
tive toward the activity of learning, ensuring that the learner owns the learning process
(learning to learn) and stimulating students’ creativity, independence and reflection.
Other theories and pedagogical trends have been included within the concept of de-
velopmental teaching and form the pedagogical foundation of the MOOC System.
These are as follows:
a) Activity Theory
The inclusion of Activity Theory in the MOOC system is based on the learning
which takes place from understanding the activity itself, completing the task and the
expected results. Thus, learning activities for the MOOC participants should be orga-
nized with reference to the functional components of this theory: orientation, execution,
adjustment and correction or feedback
b) Connectivism
Connectivism maintains that knowledge is disseminated by means of a network of
connections, and as such learning consists in the capacity to build and move across
these networks. It is no longer possible to personally experience and acquire the learn-
ing necessary to act, it is essential now to acquire competence from the formation of
connections [16].
Learning networks may be then viewed as structures which are created in order to
continuously acquire, experiment with, create and connect new knowledge. Connectiv-
ism implies putting emphasis on the individual as the subject of learning, but as part of
a network. The ability to establish connections between different fields, ideas and con-
cepts is an essential competency for a student.
Nodes are external entities which can be used to form a network. Nodes may be
people, organizations, libraries, websites, books, magazines, databases or any other in-
formation source.
The starting point is the individual, whose personal knowledge is comprised of a
network, which feeds into organizations and institutions, which in turn provide feed-
back to the network, providing new learning for the individuals, enabling them to re-
main updated in their field by means of the connections which have been formed. This
is precisely what is required in a MOOC System.
c) Collaborative learning

6
Collaborative learning is a carefully designed system of interactions which organizes
and leads to reciprocal influence between group members [11]. It is developed through
a gradual process in which each of the members feels committed to the learning of the
others, which creates a competition-free positive interdependence between them, which
is acquired through the use of group work. It is characterized by the interaction of mem-
bers and the contribution of everyone in generating knowledge, where authority is
shared and responsibility accepted, respecting the point of view of others to jointly
bring about new knowledge.
It is important to incorporate the collaborative learning strategy in the MOOC Sys-
tem, since this type of learning leads to deeper learning, critical thinking, shared under-
standing and longer-term recall of the learned material.
With regard to the technological foundations of the MOOCs, production of the
MOOC is carried out by means of learning management systems or interactive plat-
forms, whereby content is disseminated to hundreds, if not thousands of students, with
synchronous and asynchronous communication between the actors in the teaching-
learning process, tutoring, carrying out of tasks and learning activities, feedback, and
peer and automatic assessment.
A number of authors have pointed out that in technological terms MOOCs are
housed on a range of diverse platforms with different origins and focuses, which has
led to terms such as xMOOCs and cMOOCs as two of the main types [3-7, 17] and a
hybrid model of the foregoing, giving three basic categories [12-14,20].
As a rule, to establish a teaching-learning platform for MOOCs the platform must
include the following basic features: accessible, standardized, persuadable (functional,
usable, ubiquitous and interactive), flexible and scalable. In a MOOC system use of an
open-source LMS it is recommend as it permits personalization and creation of an iden-
tity, and facilitates the integration of other communication tools, such as learning ana-
lytics and augmented reality.
4 Design of a massive open online courses Integral System
(ISMOOC)
The term "integral" can be seen as pointing to four: a model or framework, a meth-
odology, a community, and/or a set of abilities or capabilities [13]. Hence, the authors
of this research use the term integral and define the integral system of massive open
online courses (ISMOOC) as the set of components organized by levels which interact
with each other to produce the learning outcome in the student and their feelings with
respect to these outcomes and the learning process developed. It is supported by the
concept of developmental learning and draws on Activity Theory and connectivism,

7
considering in the process the pedagogical, technological, organizational and commu-
nicational dimensions of the System, the results or products of which provide feedback
to the system.
The design of an ISMOOC must be in line with the developmental level of the in-
dividuals who are to use it. If the real abilities of the student on entering the system are
not considered, it will be rejected, since the designed activities will be outside the Zone
of Proximal Development. This justifies the need for a diagnostic test to determine the
students’ level of development and what could potentially be developed in their learn-
ing with the help of others and the support of teaching means, in particular those related
to ICT and emerging technologies. Thus, the diagnosis of knowledge, abilities, values
and motivation of the students, teachers and other actors in the teaching-learning pro-
cess is fundamental to the proper design of the ISMOOC. The findings of these diag-
nostic tests complement each other, because it must be appreciated that all the partici-
pants will communicate and work in virtual learning environments and will influence
each other’s learning.
The foundations, premises and principles encompassed in the design of the ISMOOC
become the guiding component and should combine all the entry components of the
system.
4.1 Levels of ISMOOC
The ISMOCC is organized into three levels:
Entry level. Comprised of actors in the teaching-learning process (students, teach-
ers, directors, authorities, administrative personnel and other actors in the context who
may influence the education of graduates and teachers); the demands of the Institution,
national bodies, and the companies who will employ the graduates; the requirements of
the teaching-learning process; and the diagnostic test carried out, all combined with the
foundations of the System, the premises, principles and methodology to develop the
courses.
Process Level. Established by the MOOC System dimensions: pedagogical, techno-
logical, organizational and communicational. At this level the strategies used by the
students to learn and the methodology used by the teachers to develop the teaching-
learning process are key.
Product or exit level. Resulting from the learning achieved by students participating
in the MOOC, their level of satisfaction, and degree of agreement of the experts with
the MOOC system, where quality and quantity of learning will depend on the focus
adopted. This level must respond additionally to the features and idiosyncrasies of the
subject to be studied in the MOOC. The result of the product should provide feedback
to the system.

8
4.2 The dimensions of the MOOC System are as follows:
• Pedagogical Dimension
This dimension emphasizes course planning, taking into account the teaching meth-
odology and the massive nature of the courses, student diversity and the dynamic, in-
teractive nature of this type of course, that is to say, considering the principles of
communication, diversity -thus, adaptation -and support materials highlighted by [2],
as well as the possible reasons for participant demotivation and desertion of courses
such as: Lack of time, lack of support, feelings of isolation, lack of prior knowledge
and study skills, unchallenging course design and failure to understand course content
[19]. However, a strategy of copying should not be adopted, as many universities have
done, particularly in Europe, where the methodological and didactic structure is a
“Spanish version” of the Anglo-Saxon methodological and teaching structure and qual-
ity is neglected [8].
It is thus necessary to have a specific methodological strategy which motivates stu-
dents, and enhances and facilitates a learning network [18], in order that courses are
completed. Learning should be student-centered and the learning process should arise
from social interaction, in a concrete socio-historical environment, based on individual
or group experience of the participants, contributing to their personal development.
• Technological Dimension
In this dimension, the technological tools to be used in the learning management
system (LMS) and the production of teaching material are defined. As far as possible,
the use of open-source educational materials is recommended to achieve coherence
with one of the features of MOOCs.
• Organizational Dimension
This dimension refers to the formation of a multidisciplinary team of professionals
(educators and technical personnel), who participate in the different activities of anal-
ysis, design, development and execution of the course. The technical personnel will be
those responsible for defining and selecting the set of technological tools to be used for
the implementation of the system and the design of the content and activities of the
course, whereas teaching personnel will be entrusted with planning the course, design-
ing teaching materials, and providing follow-up tutoring and feedback to participants.
The teaching personnel and the technical team will work in a coordinated fashion in
order to achieve balance and a coherent and logical relationship between content and
design of the course activities
• Communicational dimension
This dimension is indispensable since learning is a series of methods, paradigms and
learning styles, based on transparent communication. Education is a process in which
the communication around interaction and exchange of ideas, knowledge and experi-
ence must flow, and in which communicational tools are used. This dimension includes

9
a series of resources and acts of social interaction which occur between students and
teacher. Communication is produced using Web 2.0 tools such as forums, chats, intra-
net, email, videoconferencing or audio-conferencing, wikis and blogs. Each of these
possesses a particular dynamic to facilitate communication, thus it is necessary to plan
when and how to use each of them during the teaching-learning process. The educa-
tional institution should establish different communication channels so that those par-
ticipating in the MOOC activities have a range of alternatives at their disposal.
4.3 Principles of the MOOC system
• Principle of the social nature of learning via a MOOC.
It is fundamental to understand learning in a social and cultural context, related to
the concept of activity and integrating social, affective, intellectual, practical, and
ethical aspects, among others. Collaborative learning facilitates the construction of
knowledge from the “collective intelligence” produced, and leads to the exchange of
knowledge and experience, in which the participants teach and learn from each other
and develop a positive interdependence [6]. In addition, cooperative learning em-
phasizes the need for other people in order to understand what is learnt and thus
exploit learning potentiality, fostering comprehensive development and enhancing
feedback and motivation through constant interaction [15].
• Principle of the integral nature of the MOOC System. This integrates the main
features of MOOCs, SPOCs (Small Private Online Courses) and NOOCs (Nano
MOOCs), which are all free, open, online courses promoting democratization of
knowledge. One difference between these courses is the number of units; in the case
of NOOCs there is only one unit which permits the development of a specific com-
petency, whereas SPOCs and MOOCs contain several units. Thus, these courses can
easily be integrated as a system since they possess the same features: they are struc-
tured by module, each of which includes several open-source teaching resources
(videos, downloadable documents, activities, online assessment, forums, and chats,
among others). They vary only with regard to the number of modules, duration and
the fact that these courses may or may not have tutor support. However, their con-
struction requires the same components, structure and levels established in an
ISMOOC.
• Principle of unity of activity-communication- digital technology in a MOOC.
The inclusion of digital technology, communication and the identification of con-
nections constitute learning activities to be carried out by students, but with freedom
to choose methods, environments, digital tools, connections to networks and even
learning tasks in some cases. Although it may be true that nowadays we find numer-
ous MOOC platforms configured into course format, as a complement diverse free
technological tools for the design of content or communication may be used. This is
even more the case for open-source platforms where there is freedom to choose tools
for the design of content and communication. These tools can easily be found on the
World Wide Web.

10
• Principle of the relationship between developmental teaching, Activity Theory
and connective learning in the MOOC System. The developmental nature of
teaching, mediated through didactic material and the tools and technologies which
support this process and guide, orient, enhance and enable participant control and
assessment, emphasizes the need to create learning situations which not only guar-
antee students’ assimilation of the contents of the subject, but also satisfy their
interests and expectations, as well as leveraging their experience in the subject as
a path to real affective engagement in the learning process. This fosters the crea-
tion of conditions focused on the integral development of the students and the as-
similation of the content taught at the pace of the individual. It emphasizes learning
as a social activity: that participants learn from each other through the activity be-
ing carried out while communicating with others via interactions, connections,
learning networks or learning communities.
• Principle of the relationship between pedagogical, technological, organiza-
tional and communicational dimensions in a MOOC System. This is the har-
monious combination of work carried out by the multidisciplinary team such as the
selection and configuration of the technological tools based on the planning of the
course in line with the specified teaching methodology. The process of incorporat-
ing emerging technologies should be carried out bearing in mind the need to con-
figure new student-centered learning environments, but at the same time, teachers
should be familiar with the resources and the tools which allow the creation of
situations in which students are able to demonstrate what they have learnt and pro-
vide the teacher with data on progress and achievements. This is done within a
developmental teaching-learning process, which starts from a diagnostic test and
from this a Zone of Proximal Development will be calculated for each student. In
the MOOC System, technology is a means to support student interaction with di-
dactic materials, with the teacher, with the rest of the students in the training pro-
cess and with the context. The organizational and communicational dimensions are
concerned with institutional management as well as guiding criteria for the use of
ICT and emerging technologies, and associated communicational processes.
5 Findings and analysis
To validate the ISMOOC proposal the MOOC “Emerging technologies for Higher
Education” (TEPIES) was delivered to graduates and teachers from the Universidad de
las Fuerzas Armadas ESPE. The course had a duration of seven weeks, divided into
five modules and required 40 hours of study.
In order to implement the MOOC- TEPIES, a multidisciplinary team consisting of
technical and teaching personnel was set up, comprised of four teachers with a Masters
level degree (two in Educational Sciences and two in Information Technology). Addi-
tionally, an invitation was sent to colleagues at other universities, as a result of which
three teachers from OpenInstitute joined (one has a PhD in Computer Science, one a

11
Masters in Educational Technology and one a Masters in Multimedia design). The tech-
nical personnel who contributed to the development of the course were from the Cath-
olic University of Cuenca, Ecuador, completing the technical-pedagogical multidisci-
plinary and interinstitutional team.
The commitment, creativity, collaboration and know-how of the technical-pedagog-
ical team were key factors in the design and development of the MOOC. The team was
made up of one academic coordinator, one pedagogical advisor, educator-tutors, one
platform administrator and one multimedia resource designer. Each of the members had
a specific role and following the implementation of the course all of them acted as tu-
tors. Work meetings were generally held via mail or videoconferences.
After the team was set up, work began on the technological dimension. This mainly
involved the selection of technological tools, with the proviso that these be open-source
educational resources. The benchmark for the selection of LMS were the features es-
tablished for the MOOC system and on this basis, Moodle was selected, particularly
due to its range of tools, ease of installation and experience in its use.
The H5P tool was selected for the design of the learning objects of each of the mod-
ules. This is an open-source technology, completely free of charge, which is licensed
by MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). It enables Content Management Sys-
tems (CMS) and Learning Management Systems (LMS) to create more interactive and
enriched content and has a learning objective approach which was of particular interest.
In addition, the tools Prezi, Youtube y powntown were used to create presentations
and video tutorials; the bigbluebotton tool was integrated into Moodle for scheduled
videoconferences; AdobePhotoshop was used to personalize images; and for commu-
nication the platform’s own tools were used (email, chats, blogs, wikis), as was Face-
book.
The teaching methodology was then drawn up based on the pedagogical benchmarks
analyzed previously, and the course activities and tasks were designed. Each of the
modules included forums, deliverables from group work, online assessments and a
scheduled videoconference. A learning path was designed to provide a clearer overview
of the course in relation to the contents, activities and tasks to be completed by partici-
pants.
Initially, the participants were informed of the goals and guidelines of the course and
were familiarized with the platform. In addition, a diagnostic questionnaire was sent
out with the aim of gathering details of the participants (gender, age, nationality, prov-
ince, knowledge of technological tool in the field of education, among others). Further-
more, a forum was opened online so that students could share experiences and expec-
tations of the course with peers and tutors. On the basis of the results of the survey,
some adjustments had to be made to the content, and more video tutorials on how to
use the technological tools to be used on the course were incorporated since over 69%
of participants had no experience in the use of technological tools for the design of
teaching materials, which was one of the outcomes of the MOOC. In addition, some

12
modifications were made to the content in response to the participants’ interest in learn-
ing specific subject matter related to the MOOC TEPIES.
Throughout the course the active participation of the students was seen, as was em-
pathy between tutors and participants, due to ongoing support and feedback from the
tutors. There was bi-directional communication, vertical and horizontal, between the
different actors in the MOOC via chats, mail and discussion forums.
With regard to the participation in the forums, more than simple responses were
made, and tutors mediated interventions, motivating, congratulating and responding to
these new expectations. In the tasks and deliverable products, participants’ creativity
and imagination were observed, which was due to the fact that the activities were set
within a real-life context and students had to put their knowledge into practice in every
module.
One of the group activities consisted in creating a wiki page about podcasts in edu-
cation. The work submitted by each of the groups was of very high quality thanks to
the intervention of tutors who noticed that the students in some groups were not partic-
ipating. They thus contacted them via chat and email on the platform to motivate them
and offer further explanation of the task to be completed. The scheduled videoconfer-
ence was 45 minutes long (15 set aside for question and answer session), and 202 stu-
dents managed to connect. For those who were not able to attend, a video of the con-
ference was uploaded. According to the questionnaires, the participants did not experi-
ence any problems whatsoever.
In each of the activities in the course, support and feedback from tutors was perma-
nent, which led to the building of academic confidence between participants and tutors,
thanks to the level of motivation generated during the MOOC.
An analysis of the results showed that of 324 participants, 268 successfully com-
pleted and passed the MOOC, equivalent to 83.71%. In order to measure participants’
level of satisfaction with the course a Likert scale survey was carried out. Overall, the
findings of the survey indicate that over 72% of the participants rated their level of
satisfaction (with organization, ease of access to content, motivation, timely feedback,
among others) as excellent.
Overall, the success of the course was the result of the balanced interaction of each
of the components of the ISMOOC, in addition to the excellent organization, coordina-
tion, tutor support and feedback, and the technical personnel responsible for platform
support.
6 Conclusions
MOOCs have become an option for inclusive, flexible education which Higher Ed-
ucation Institutions are adopting in order to address the issue of continuous learning

13
and updating the knowledge of professionals, who after graduating wish to continue
training in the institution in which they studied.
The retrospective and prospective vision of MOOCs makes it necessary to reassess
these courses from a pedagogical, technological, organizational and communicational
perspective in order to reduce the high level of desertion, which has been one of the
main challenges for MOOCs from the outset.
The best way in which to view a successful MOOC learning model is as a whole or
as a system.
One of the key features of the ISMOOC is undoubtedly the developmental teaching
methodology in which facilitators and participants play an active and dynamic role.
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