Massive Open Online Courses - Science topic

Coursera, Programa especializado: Profesor virtual, Universidad de California Irvin

The "Specialized Program: Virtual Teacher" course provides comprehensive training to design digital educational environments through modules covering intuitive virtual classroom creation, interactive content development with AI tools, adaptive pedagogical methodologies, automated assessment systems with intelligent feedback, and data-driven personalization strategies, culminating in applied projects that empower educators to become architects of innovative learning experiences, seamlessly merging human empathy with technological precision across diverse educational contexts.

The "Virtual Teacher" course seeks to train educators in the design and management of digital learning environments, teaching them to: 1) create interactive virtual classrooms with advanced technological tools (AI, augmented reality), 2) personalize teaching through data analysis and adaptive methodologies, 3) implement automated assessment systems with intelligent feedback, and 4) integrate pedagogical principles into digital platforms, balancing technological innovation with student-centered teaching strategies.

In the "Virtual Teacher" course, two key technological mediums are emphasized:

Positive Elements

Negative Elements

I don't know which research directions in geophysics you are interested in, but if you can tell me your specific directions of interest, I will be happy to provide you with some course resources to help.

Hi Bolanle,

I am interested. Send me more details.

Dear Prof. Guerrero-Proenza!

You raised an important topic to consider. The context your question reveals points to the successful use and development of MOOC - platforms:

1) Zhang, Y., & Sun, R. (2023). LMOOC research 2014 to 2021: What have we done and where are we going next? ReCALL, 1-16. doi:10.1017/S0958344022000246, Available at:

2) A case study: Martín-Monje, E. (2023). Language MOOCs as an Emerging Field of Research: From Theory to Practice. In: Suárez, MdM., El-Henawy, W.M. (eds) Optimizing Online English Language Learning and Teaching. English Language Education, vol 31. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-27825-9_6, Available at:

3) Bijaniaram, R., Tehrani, M., Noori, R. et al. What Does It Take for Organizations to Adopt Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)? A Fuzzy DANP Analysis. J Knowl Econ (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13132-023-01178-z, Available at:

4) Rodrigo Campos, Rodrigo Pereira dos Santos, Jonice Oliveira,

Providing recommendations for communities of learners in MOOCs ecosystems, Expert Systems with Applications, Volume 205, 2022, Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0957417422008375

5) A case study: Monika Hamori, Self-directed learning in massive open online courses and its application at the workplace: Does employer support matter?, Journal of Business Research, Volume 157, 2023, Open access:

(2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13132-023-01178-z, Available at:

6) Hao Huang, Lihjen Jew, Dandan Qi, Take a MOOC and then drop: A systematic review of MOOC engagement pattern and dropout factor,

Heliyon, Volume 9, Issue 4, 2023, Open access:

Yours sincerely, Bulcsu Szekely

I recommend you to search in the UNESCO characterization open source databases.

There are many criteria, the most important of which is the interview and the open book test

Dear Aymane Kricha

You could try: MaxQuant Summer School 2021

Best

Dear Prof. Pushan Kumar Dutta

Try the catalogs with degrees from the Open University in the UK (first option) and also the University of the People.

Best Regards.

Very promising

Good morning

The theory is connectives

Best regards

Thank you so much for your explicative post, I will read the literature you refer to, Prof. Stylianos Mystakidis

For me, 3D virtual space in the virtual world Second Life is totally a new unknown tool, thank you for sharing it.

Best Regards.

Prof. Lucia Rizzo, I agree with Prof. Anders Norberg, myself I have been self-educated into MOOCs thanks to several virtual platforms such as MexicoX and The Open University. I already have a Ph.D. degree and found fascinating this kind of virtual classroom with MOOCs. However, rigorous self-discipline is crucial in order to accomplish the task.

Best Regards.

The big ideas behind micro-credentials by T. Blackman at The Open University & K. Jona at Northeastern University, Sep. 2021.

Two experts in flexible learning programs discuss the evolution and adoption of alternative teaching models and credentials in higher education.

The issue of flipped classroom as an Open Learning methodology is discussed in the following external publication:

Do You Use Flipped Classroom But the Students Don't Read? by C. Zermeño Sep 13, 2021, from the observatory.tec.mx blog.

https://observatory.tec.mx/edu-bits-2/use-flipped-classroom-but-students-dont-read

Sal Mangiafico Did you find any reputed certificates for R or python

Check out openstax: https://openstax.org/details/books/principles-macroeconomics-2e

The technics of MOOCs and also nano MOOCS (NOOCs) will improve more and more, Prof Alaa Aldahdouh.

It takes time, but some platforms are going to be very efficient in delivering MOOC courses.

Interesting.

Dear Razaul Haque Subho, although this is not the answer to your question, the following website has relevant information about gamification and E-learning.

The tec.mx has been using gamification in HighEduc as an E-learning (MOOCs and NOOCs) tool and also as a methodology for several years.

We have recently evaluated online learning platforms (MOOCs) for the year 2020 and 2021.

The analysis is based on solid metrics like google trends and from learner feed-backs in the top review platforms like trustpilot.com, mouthshut.com, indeed.com, bitdegree.org, g2.com, and pcmag.com were taken into consideration. With the analysis, we were able to list the top 12 best online learning platforms for 2020 and 2021

Here is an example of a funded MSc/PhD Asiel. It can be frustrating to find these because many are country resident/area specific. This one suits your needs

John

Murat Artsin Thank you for sharing this article.

Here are three very nice free course.

https://www.udemy.com/course/big-data-internship-program-part-1-foundation/

https://www.udemy.com/course/big-data-and-hadoop-essentials-free-tutorial/

https://www.udemy.com/course/learn-bigdata-hadoop-with-practical/

I have enrolled many MOOC courses and have dropped out some of them.

I have only audited the courses but didn't pay to follow a MOOC. Recently I purchased one MOOC course and currently doing the course.

When I saw your questions, I started thinking about why I dropped them. Some of the following reasons caused for that dropping outs.

1) Contents didn't match with my requirements

2) Didn't like the presentation style

3) Course contents were hard and complex to follow

4) Navigation was not user friendly

5) Couldn't attend due to other workloads

6) It skipped from my mind and deadline has already passed

7) Lost interest

We have to design courses as per the need of the industries.

I teach math at University of Mostar, which developed clear guidelines regarding on-line teaching. We will try to switch most of our traditional teaching in next period to our SUMARUM LMS (Moodle) with support of some other tools, for example Google Meet or Hangouts Meet app (Android)...

Reqarding your Q: How can we avoid simple lectures, interest students and allow them to participate more actively? it is not easy to answer, it depends a lot on teachers experience, as well as on his/her digital literacy...

I have not made any research about on cMOOCS (although I have participated in one 2009) but reviewed some papers about cMOOCs. I have done research though in an alternative local or in-organisation use of xMOOCs which can be interesting in this context. I have made interventions combining the global, asynchronous cloud teaching in xMOOCs with social learning in local, synchronous, co-located study circles. Attached is a paper from 2015, and I have repeated the same model a couple of times. it is simple but works quite well. It resonates also with the time- and process view of "blended learning" I use - that it is the increased options for ICT instrumentation (digital or analogue) that can help in the combined processes of teaching/ learning x (a course or similar), understood as the shifts between synchronous and asynchronous modalities in a teaching / learning process (ideally a Vygotskyan "obuchenie", but in reality seldom such a harmony between teaching and learning). I attach 2 papers if interested. I am thinking of scaling up this "MOOCs in study circles" concept now in the context of a big industrial project in my home town (Battery cell factory to employ 2500-3000 people).

Arifur Rahman - Read the paper by Martinez-Lopez R et al, 2017, titled Online Self-Regulated Learning Questionnaire in a Russian MOOC.

Please click here to get the data you are looking for.

https://theodora.com/wfbcurrent/papua_new_guinea/papua_new_guinea_economy.html

Diferentes informes Horizon presentan a los MOOC como una tecnología que en un horizonte no muy alejado penetrará fuertemente en las instituciones de formación superior.

En estos informes se justifica su relevancia para la educación en tres aspectos fundamentales:

1. Los MOOC van un paso más allá de los contenidos educativos en abierto al hacer libres no solo los materiales, sino también los procesos de interacción, los cuales se convierten en el centro del aprendizaje.

2. El potencial de los MOOC se basa en que utilizan la red como estructura al tiempo que adoptan una concepción abierta del aprendizaje.

3. Los MOOC amplían el acceso a la formación al ofrecer oportunidades de aprendizaje con independencia de la afiliación a una institución en particular (Horizon, 2018)

I attempted the survey, but the question organization was a bit off putting!

Hi!

if there is Internet connection available, MOOCs are very useful on a rural level, since they are very accessible and do not suffer so much place-and time issues. Another good characteristic is that they usually do not have entry requirements - all learners are welcome to try. A drawback is of course that untraditional students do not find the right MOOC they need so easily (they haven’t even heard of MOOCs), and learners that are not so experienced with flexible studies often do not finalize flexible Actually, only a tiny percentage of all MOOC students - and many of them are experienced students - finalize their MOOC courses at all.

I have done some design studies and interventions concerning MOOCs in rural areas at learning centres and in organisations, adressing these problems, rather successfully. I just recruited a local group on a course of interest, made all register with the MOOC provider and start and offered a weekly local discussion meeting at evening time, one hour. No teacher. People had fun and completed the course. See attached articel ”Using MOOCs at learning centres in Northern Sweden”. I have done this at other occasions as well. It is a very sueful structure to combine something global and asynchronous with the local and synchronous (and even co-located). I also think that the co-located meeting at the learning centre could be replaced by synchronous video meetings If needed.

Dear Tobias Wille

Check these articles, it may help you

Anshari, M., Alas, Y., Hj Mohd Yunus, N., Pg Hj Sabtu, N. & Sheikh Abdul Hamid, M. (2016). Online Learning: trends, issues and challenges in the Big Data Era. Journal of e-Learning and Knowledge Society, 12(1),. Italian e-Learning Association. Retrieved August 6, 2019 from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/171433/.

Karen Kear, Allan Jones, Georgina Holden & Mark Curcher (2016) Social technologies for online learning: theoretical and contextual issues, Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning, 31:1, 42-53, DOI: 10.1080/02680513.2016.1140570

Hi!

A MOOC course is an online course, but not all online courses are MOOCs, and not all online course platforms are suitable for developing and running a MOOC. (Here I mean ”xMOOC” as the kind of MOOCs that Coursera Edx, Udacity etc use, not cMOOCs - Connectivist MOOCs).

The big issue is scalability for many students simultaneously. If it is enough that the course can handle 30 or 100 ordinary university students, you can choose any platform -probably it is chosen for you already,. But if you want to offer free-of-charge or very low-priced very accessible courses to any number of students across the globe, you need a MOOC Platform. One alternative is to discuss with a MOOC provider that helps many universities. See a good list here https://www.classcentral.com/providers. Another option is to develop and offer the MOOC course in another way. One tool for doing that is OpenEdX. ( See https://open.edx.org). The LMS Canvas has also an option for developing MOOCs- and also a course in how to do that, see https://www.canvas.net/browse/itsligo/courses/moocs-on-a-budget .

I hope this has brought some more clarity on your question.

Our university is using Moodle for learning at scale (biggest class so far is around 500 students), but to convert that classroom to a MOOC, our LMS Expert has informed us that we need 2 different Moodle platforms to ensure best user experience. While Moodle is a robust platform, the course instructor expertise in managing a large course online, is an important factor to consider.

Good morning

Every time you finish a MOOC there is a questionarie about.

Ingrid

Hi Ravi! You are discussing the handicraft level of MOOC design and production, anbd yes, an good xMOOC is not produced by the snap of fingers. But it is understandable and solvable "HOW" questions. The bigger and more complex issue, as I see it, is to develop policy and understanding of how to use and implement or at least relate and understand these MOOCs in relation to the normal activity in a university.

No, I'm sorry

Dear \ Sathish Kumar

I think you should be insert item about collaboration skills ( peer review - peer assessment) in MOOCs” system

Ingrid Del Valle García Carreño Mohamed Samunn Samaa Shohieb Hadi Minaeipour Tahmina Afrose

I made a short description and a diagram of my research idea. Comments are welcome. You can find the link here:

Hello

You can read it:

Thank you so much Alaa Yahia, I quite agree with you. I I downloaded useful MIT lecture notes yesterday. Regards!

MO.

I agree with Ali in that this is a difficult question. Not sure your definition of Hybrid but in my corporate world it's called blended learning: a combination of digital learning and face to face (F2F) learning. The key to this kind of approach is to present base content to get help the learner to an awareness and/or comprehension level in the digital part (usually eLearning aka online learning) of it and then in the classroom to focus on application of the learning - aka hands on learning. You can also supplement it with other types of digital learning like social networks, user generated content, etc.

Online (or generally in my world eLearning) means that all the content is online (which by definition is also a MOOC). There is no face to face component. We do a lot of online learning in corporate but generally speaking it is at an awareness or comprehension level. To take it to the application level takes more time and money so that is reserved for more hire risk/high reward topics. The advantage is that we can get a lot of people through the content and they can come away with some standardized basic knowledge of the topic plus its an anywhere, anytime option. It can also be an any device option as needed.

Another way to consider online is to look at virtual delivery (WebEx, GoToMeeting, etc,). It is digital but time based (as are MOOCs to a degree)

MOOCs are basically structured events with multiple components (reading, video, links to other content, discussion questions, quizzes, assignments that can be submitted online, etc.) and follow a sort of traditional higher education format. The content is chunked by weeks and spread out over time. The learner can take the content anytime during that week and can take past content, but can't work ahead. And, depending on the structure and resources, there can be a human component included in the form of virtual discussions with the trainer/teacher or human evaluation of an assignment that's been submitted, or individual responses from the trainer/teacher to discussion questions, etc.

Hybrid Pros

Better learning experience if structured properly

Reduction in travel costs (generally the F2F component can be taken from a week to a few days so travel costs are reduced)

Better use of learner time by focusing on application in the classroom - right media for right content

As with any online learning anywhere, anytime, any device for the digital part.

Below is not a definitive list and represents only my experience with these options.

Hybrid Cons

Getting learners to consume the pre-work before coming to class can be difficult.

Not all content lends itself to this approach

Resisting the urge to review/go over the pre-work in the F2F session

Not available on demand, at the point of need (important in corporate as learning is most impactful when the learner can access it at the point of need)

Online Pros

Nowdays, pretty easy to create (but depends on tools available and skill of resources using them) and pretty inexpensive to add media like audio, video, images, etc which enhance the learning experience

Anywhere, anytime, any device

Learner experience can be good if designed well

Quizzes can be given, tracked and scored, content accesses can be tracked, etc. In other words, it can be easy to get consumption metrics (who took it, how many took it, what did they see, etc.)

Online Cons

Not all content is good for this type of delivery - thinking brain surgery specifically (hee, hee)

The learning experience can also be dismal - meaning the content is all words or poorly structured or the learner is forced lock step through the content or is just plain confusing and there's no way to ask a question.

There is a need to have a system to deliver the content, in my world called a Learning Management System or LMS, and someone needs to know how to create content that can be delivered through this system as well as how to use the system

MOOC Pros

Each "week" consists of microlearning content (reading, videos, podcasts, etc.) and mini-activities (assignments, discussion questions, quizzes, etc.) that can be consumed anytime, anywhere, any device for the period of time the contnet is available.

Can help learner get to application of learning (assignments, discussions) vs. just awareness/comprehension level

The learning experience can be good because no item it too long and there is a great variety of types of content.

There can be a human component included although it is usually provided digitally.

For many learners, the time-based structure of the program is very helpful to keep them on track.

Can be easy to create as the content elements usually exist or can be easily created.

Can be made available to hundreds, thousands, or hundreds of thousands of students.

Usually presented free or for a nominal cost.

MOOC Cons

Not all content is a good fit for this type of delivery

Easy to add too many or irrelevant components which can make the learning experience difficult - need to carefully structure components to match learning objectives

Need system specific to the delivery of this type of program. Not all LMSs can handle type of content delivery

There can be human involvement and yes, it takes time for these resources to be meaningfully involved

A majority of learners that start (especially free programs) do not complete the program

Too many people may make the human involvement (trainer, teacher, grad assistant, other support) VERY time consuming.

Hope all the above gives you food for thought.

I think MOOCs may be an excellent community service. While Wikipedia offers an brief overview of a topic, with sources for follow up, MOOCs offer the same self-service access to education. I would be interested to read studies about the longer term retention of the issues, and if the need for which people chose them turned out to be met by the MOOC. My impression is that they are an underutilized resource but there is little formal research to prove that, or to prove their value in various situations.

We are looking into the related are of engagement and discussion forums in my office. There is much literature on MOOCs and other formats, and sometimes, it is hard to separate motivation in general from tech-driven motivation. Many providers think they have the answer, but time, volition, personality, and ease of navigating the course shell factor in. I see this as a work in progress, much like prescribing the "right" meds for diet(s).

Dear V. Clement, If you only use ERIC for your references, results will only focus on Education. Go to IEEE for papers on Electrical Engineers, ACM for papers on Computer Scientists, National Library of Medicine for papers on Dentists and Medical doctors etc. Also use the search term "Continuing Professional Development" with Google Scholar Instant search.

There are three sources that focused on the interactions of ubiquitous mobile computing on learning outcomes.

- Pernas, Ana Marilza, Diaz, Alicia, Motz, Regina (2012) Enriching adaptation in e‐learning systems through a situation‐aware ontology network in Interactive Technology and Smart Education. 9, 2, 60-73

- Bates, Anthony (2015) Teaching in a Digital Age. Vancouver, Canada: Tony Bates Associates Ltd https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/chapter/5-2-what-is-a-learning-environment/

- Kerres, M. (2007). Microlearning as a challenge for instructional design. In T. Hug and M. Linder (Eds.), Didactics of Microlearning. Muenster, Germany: Waxmann. 98-109. Retrieved from http://mediendidaktik.uni-due.de/sites/default/files/Microlearning-kerres_0.pdf

Hi,

I would like to recommend courseria App on mobile just install it and type "Bioinformatic " you will find many courses from notable universities around the world.

Hi!

Do you want to design a) a globally accessible MOOC för potentially a lot of simultaneously interacting students or do you want to b) design something MOOC-like for a smaller set of students?

If a) there are open-source CMSs that are specially designed for MOOCs as well, as for example OpenEdx. https://open.edx.org/ When working in such a platform, you can probably get help from the community to design a MOOC on this designated MOOC platform.

The main resistance that has come about against the implementation of these educational technological platforms in Mexico has been led by teachers‘ syndicate. For example, the Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (CNTE) has argued that these technologies are not only unsuited butcurrently unnecessary in the context of rural communities, which to a great extent lack the infrastructure to support them (electricity, network connectivity, phone lines, etc). It is paradoxical to support the use of these technologies because they have implied the weakening of teachers’ labor rights. Take the case of the major education reform passed by President Enrique Peña Nieto in 2013, which requires rural teachers to train themselves and be regularly evaluated on their application of these technologies in rural schools. We are talking here about schools who lack basic infrastructure.

In short, resistance from the CNTE has foregrounded the historical gap between the bourgeois and the proletarian-rural worlds within Mexico.

No, certainly not. Two counter-arguments:

As long as the triangle T-L-A is not conceptually closed, MOOC will be paralyzed and powerless.

ED technologist are not brave enough. They start from the easiest, safest side: the learner. But we need also:

Many times more fascinating would be a massive open on-line market (MOOM) where professional human teachers, learners and assessors would find each other in a single nucleus in such a way, that their interaction would be optimal. This is currently neither the case in traditional HE nor in future MOOC (as conceived by its proponents).

Thank brother @Shirazi

Polytechnic of Porto (P. Porto), is a Higher Education Portuguese institution providing undergraduate and graduate studies, with more than 20 000 students, teachers and researchers, which has a solid history of online education and innovation through the use of technology, has been particularly interested and focused on Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) developments. Inside this huge academic community there is a continuous concern with the definition of strategies related to new ways of teaching and learning, to develop students’ competences and promote students’ academic success and future professional skills. Since the last four years, the e-IPP project – e-Learning Unit from P. Porto, is developing several Mathematics MOOCs, in order to improve the teaching-learning relationship in Higher Education courses.

“Mathematics without STRESS” (or in its original version – in Portuguese – Matemática 100 STRESS) was the first MOOC launched by P. Porto, for incoming HE students to prepare them for post-high-school courses using mathematics. This MOOC consists of three different Courses: Probability and Combinatorics, Introduction to Differential Calculus and Trigonometry and Complex Numbers.

Our main goals with this “M100S – platform” are to create a useful tool that may well:

- Help pre-university students to prepare for the National Mathematics Exam – building carefully all the contents with this objective in mind;

- Allow the public in general to refresh or gain some training in the contents developed, for each item;

- Give a friendly way of managing each one’s learning commitment;

- Harmonize the different Mathematics backgrounds of the students – fill in the gap between high school and higher education.

These particular courses were chosen also by a combination of other factors:

- Previous team experience with e-learning systems, for instance, granted by MatActiva Project and Learning Management Systems (LMS) use in our own courses;

- Importance of developing a new teaching model and learn by doing methodology;

- Promote the use of new technologies in the learning-teaching process as it may be used as a flipped-classroom basic tool.

It has been a very demanding challenge but quite rewarding ....

I would call non-formal education itself a key point. Also education is getting more personal, individual, intelligent. We now return from the classroom system brought about by the industrialisation back to the Plato's Academy. Although the teacher is a platform, that interacts with the learner as an active participant of the educational process. There's a concept of three-agent or three-subject educational platforms:

Full data analysis, AI, Learning Analytics and Psychometry - are all the key points behind the concept, and the future of education.

I agree with Fernando, it depends on the teacher’s conception. If you consider that transmissive techniques are convenient according to the learning objectives and the target audience, then you might consider Coursera or edX as efficient solutions.

I have designed two MOOCs with edX and, from my point of view, it’s difficult to create engaging activities since it is video-based. Creating with Moodle was more interesting because I used the Test Mode to develop many Socratic dialogues which are more engaging activities for learners. In these dialogues, it was easy to embed case studies, audio clip, video clips, questions, feedbacks, etc. thus creating a quite interesting environment. Such an approach could be difficult to implement with Coursera and edX.

Regards,

Françoise

Dear Rey Segundo Guerrero-Proenza

You ask the following: What are those theories, or set of ideas, you think would be considered an emerging pedagogy?

As I see it, one of these pedagogies is a constructivist approach to education and pedagogy.  Even though this type of pedagogy relies at the heart of the Suiss psychologist Jean Piaget's views on education or the process of teaching/learning, the constructivist pedagogy is now very much in vogue.

A key idea in a constructivist approach to education is that teachers are more mentors and organizers of learning experiences and situations than simple transmitters of ready made and established truths. When teachers are mentors and organizers of learning experiences and situations, not mere transmitters of established truths, students come up to understand, reinvent, and reconstruct, not to simply memorize, what they learn qua learners.

The idea that sudents are highly responsible for what they learn is another key idea in a constructivist approach to pedagogy and education.

A constructivist approach also espouses the idea that students learn more by doing than listening to.

More to the point, a constructivist approach to pedagogy and education makes use of the active methods. Contrary to the traditional and conservative methods, the active methods aim to give rise to creative and innovative, not to conformist, students.

Another central idea in a constructivist approach to education is the idea that teachers should master what they teach but also be well versed in the details of the individual's psychological development. If the former is not the case, teachers are no teachers at all. If the latter is not the case teachers risk teaching to their students material that is much above or below their cognitive capacities. For exemple, it would be a pure waste of time to try to teach the proportionality concept to a 6/7-year-old child, In the same vein, no learning takes place when a teacher "teaches" to his/her students material they already know.

To my understanding, these are central points in a constructivist approach to pedagogy, eduaction and development.

I hope I has got your question and that this helps.

Best regards,

Orlando

We can collaborate by adopting the ( Ambidexterity strategies and digital leadership)

Best regards

anything that prioritises 'professional training' maybe disruptive since it risks prioritising the short term desires of external organisations over the academic content of Uni teaching, a process that has already gone too far in the UK with the emphasis on compulsory transferable skill elements within a modular course structure

for students it could be even more disruptive since it risks even more of a course's content being shifted online, which is fine if the material can be easily accessible, unfortunately this is often not the case, particularly where students with disabilities are concerned

I have enrolled in various courses in research via MOOC's. It is interesting, flexible and self-paced. It stirs up fruitful global academic discussions among colleagues from different parts of the world. Yet, it requires dedication and hard work otherwise one may run at a loss, trial or lag behind in the academic training.

Few lecturers use this mode of teaching and learning in my institution. While assisting one lecturer in assessing the impacts during my Ph.D. studies in my university, there were great feedbacks from the students especially the postgraduate students who had to read taught courses but were saddled with work and family responsibilities.They appreciated the flexibility associated with the MOOC's and the academic forum discussions that aided them in discovering knowledge and the self-paced learning approach.

Thanks

Dickson Adom

I'd like to offer my Asynchronous Debates as an innovative collaborative activity online.  It was selected from worldwide submissions for inclusion into the new companion text for the awarding winning text by Jose Bowen: http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1118110358.html

Hi!

I find this one useful, as many other articles from IRRODL:

Gasevic, D., Kovanovic, V., Joksimovic, S., & Siemens, G. (2014). Where is research on massive open online courses headed? A data analysis of the MOOC Research Initiative. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 15(5).

An interesting angle I am interested in is the new level of access MOOCs offer to students, combined with the scalability in their copurse design, and both of them in context of globalisation of teaching - in a similar way as, and following, how research has been globalised, However, "globalisation" has connotations of being somewhat deterministic - I like and apply Marginson and Rhoades' "glonacal" theory instead, leaving place for many interacting forces on local, national and global level. I have used it in the following article on a MOOC experiment in IRRODL. 

I agree with a Romer Castillo 

Most of the MOOC application replied on the stable internet access, it was designed to retrieve, interact and digest in that way. I wonder if we consider the infrastructure limitation, this may closer to the traditional e-learning research with a medium that people can bring home and launch standalone.

This idea sounds a little bit old fashion, but it may provide an insight to re-invent the MOOC for internet limited region, or even more, a more localize style MOOC, when I read this news: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/23/cuba-offline-internet-weekly-packet-external-hard-drives

This is the most vitality news to see how people interact with the information technology, in their own way. Sorry, not provide too many useful research resources, hope this helps to gain you some new ideas. :)

Sincerely, I share some links to papers on MOOC and impact.

Revista comunicar. Vol 44 spanish  English

Curso o MOOCs , sus características fundamentales de calidad

I hope will be helpful.

Ulyana,

Maybe you are interested in taking a MOOC about Instructional Design in elearning. The link is https://www.udemy.com/instructional-design-for-elearning/

I took it a few months ago and I liked the information (not so the instructional designed used in the course). However, I think it can give you a lot of information, especially now that you are starting in this "crazy" world of the Instructional Designers.

The instructional design of a MOOC is very specific, and if you have taken some MOOCs you will realize that most of them use videos, readings, forums, quizzes and assignments. It varies from provider to provider but those are the basic instructional components.

I have a blog about MOOCs. The blog is MOOCstream: http://moocstream.blogspot.com by the way.... I haven't been able to updated for a few months but U think ti can help you.

I also have a scoopit with a lot of information about MOOCs: http://www.scoop.it/t/moocstream

you can filter it by topics and I'm sure you are going to narrow down the information and find what you need. I'm also working in my thesis about MOOCs, more specifically how Latinos learn in a MOOC environment.

If you would like to chat with me, maybe I can give you tips for your new adventure. Let me know and decide how to connect

Good Luck!

Ramón Talavera

I've posted several blog entries about this over the last couple of years.  See the following:

In the entries you'll find links to some of the literature on the use of MOOCs in the K-12 environment, as well as links to some K-12-focused MOOCs.

Learning in a Flash, available at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266477068_Learning_in_a_Flash, may be of tangential interest. The article recognizes that text is no longer the primary means of learning transfer and argues that character-based simulation—in which animated characters provide a social context to motivate learners—can improve cognition and recall and bodes well for high-impact e-learning. (So, the article is not about Massive Open Online Courses per se but about e-learning and the value that flash animations, which could be made part of MOOCS, might bring that.)

Hi Raymond,

i agree with you, tht is why i said 

"Singh shares some features of MOOCs and online courses, although an online course, could be enhanced through collaborative work and many other tasks, they are different from MOOCs in many aspects"

please tell us more about  online courses features, Singh does not mention. So we can learn more about this topic.

Thank you in advance for your next contribution

Because the content would be culturally relevant and sensitive. See the attached that shows what happens when you have U.S. centric curriculum for international students.

Best regards,

Debra

I think taking this guidelines http://elg.ac.nz/the-guidelines/teacher-pespective there are some that MOOCs take, but differ in one very important aspect: 

E-learning is rigid, they say what you must learn and now, MOOCs are amazingly more flexible with some schedule. I think the other difference is the level of metacognition you need to be successful with courses

Hi Ankur.

As on date, you can explore the MOOC s for your knowledge enhancement, so that it will help you in future. (some courses in new areas and some course to improve your core domain knowledge).

Further, MOOC certificate may not have that much value in India, but knowledge surely has.

If you are planning to go abroad for higher studies (PhD) or may be employment, then certificates will matter along with the knowledge.

Hello please take a look on my profile.

Kind regards

NP

Julia:

MOOCs are in the category of Flexible Learning Environments and informed by theories for the digital age. The attached gives an idea of what to expect in flexible learning environments which I hope would be helpful to your question.

Many thanks,

Debra

Thank you for your answer. I have received not enough answers to build a coherent SWOT analysis about MOOC. This was a research action: was it possible to build this kind of analysis in this environment? I see that we continue needing the cooperation of closer colleagues. Thanks again.

We had the real experience of having a blind students at our Computer Science Course, in UFPR, Curitiba, Brazil. I had the opportunity of acting as a mediator of the TRIAL to make things accessible for him, since we learnt he would be our students just a week before.

The main problem (almost unsolvable) was the appropriation of inherently visual concepts. Geometric and 3D solids concepts could be acquired by him by menas of a device that joinned Geoplane (a wooden base with equi-distant nails and elastic ribbons) with Macano (a pre-LEGO and pre-RASTI building toy based on metal battens with equi-distants holes on them that could be fitted together building 3D objects) capacities.

But we were shocked when getting consciousness of the high level in which we, sighted professor to sighted students, were (are) focused in referential visual expressions, such as "Look here!" "This is the correct solution". Because of this visual dependency of class presentations, our student, Lucas Radaelli (a professional now-a-days) seldom attended to the classes. This is a problem rather difficult to solve over a given presentation, since it involves the teacher's language used in the one-way "communication".

As a learner completed three MOOCs, I think that a self-regulating learning habit is essential for individuals to complete any task, whether job at work or courses for academic accomplishment or personal interests. Learners have different orientations for MOOCs. Certificate earners can persist to go through various tasks and learn through the activities. However, not every learner has a plan to finish a course, particularly when it is free. This is why some organizations will require participants to pay a course, but they can redeem the payment if they have completed it. Perhaps, this may boost the completion rate. Nevertheless, recognition by employers may encourage employees making extra time and efforts to learn through a job-related course. Second, recognition by institute is equally important. MIT announced that 'Learners worldwide with access to edX can take any of the first semester’s worth of courses online. Those who do well in each course, and then score well on a subsequent comprehensive proctored examination, can earn an MITx MicroMaster’s, and their performance will significantly enhance their chances of being accepted to the full master’s program, which they can then complete in a single semester on campus.' on October 7, 2015. Moreover, if institutions have a policy on having a certification with distinction of online learning through MOOCs as a requirement for graduation, it will increase the level of motivation for completion for individuals, whether they are under full-time employment, unemployed, having formal or informal education.

Personally, I enjoy MOOCs because they extend my scope of view through reflective on practices and learning through actions and inquiry. Hope this may give us thoughts on the purpose of learning through MOOCs.

BEST regards,

Paula

Michael Gaebel provides an overview on the history of MOOCs and their applications in two freely available publications:

Michael Gaebel. (2013, January). MOOCs – Massive Open Online Courses. European University Association. Retrieved from http://www.eua.be/Libraries/Publication/EUA_Occasional_papers_MOOCs.sflb.ashx

Michael Gaebel. (2014, January). MOOCs. Massive Open Online Courses. Jan. 2014. European University Association. Retrieved from http://www.eua.be/Libraries/Publication/MOOCs_Update_January_2014.sflb.ashx