Posted in 2018
Social Presence in MOOCs
This article is published in the international journal IRRODL Vol 19, No 3 (2018).
Abstract
The capacity to foster interpersonal interactions in massive open online courses (MOOCs) has frequently been contested, particularly when learner interactions are limited to MOOC forums. The establishment of social presence—a perceived sense of somebody being present and “real”—is among the strategies to tackle the challenges of online learning and could be applied in MOOCs. Thus far, social presence in MOOCs has been under-researched. Studies that previously examined social presence in MOOCs did not account for the peculiar nature of open online learning. In contrast to the existing work, this study seeks to understand how learners perceive social presence, and the different nuances of social presence in diverse MOOC populations. In particular, we compare perceptions of social presence across the groups of learners with different patterns of forum participation in three edX MOOCs. The findings reveal substantial differences in how learners with varying forum activity perceive social presence. Perceptions of social presence also differed in courses with the varying volume of forum interaction and duration. Finally, learners with sustained forum activity generally reported higher social presence scores that included low affectivity and strong group cohesion perceptions. With this in mind, this study is significant because of the insights into brings to the current body of knowledge around social presence in MOOCs. The study’s findings also raise questions about the effectiveness of transferring existing socio-constructivist constructs into the MOOC contexts.
Keywords
social presence, MOOCs, forum participation
Reference
Poquet, O., Kovanović, V., de Vries, P., Hennis, T., Joksimović, S., Gašević, D., & Dawson, S. (2018). Social Presence in Massive Open Online Courses. The International Review Of Research In Open And Distributed Learning, 19(3). doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v19i3.3370
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Activating learning at scale: A review of innovations in online learning strategies
The Article “Activating learning at scale: A review of innovations in online learning strategies” was published in the journal Computer & Education.
Higlights
- A systematic review on scalable learning strategies was conducted.
- Results synthesize 126 studies including 132,428 participants.
- Large-scale experiments yield a far lower rate of positive results.
- Cooperative, gamified, and interactive learning strategies are the most effective.
Abstract
Making advantage of the vast history of theoretical and empirical findings in the learning literature we have inherited, this research offers a synthesis of prior findings in the domain of empirically evaluated active learning strategies in digital learning environments. The primary concern of the present study is to evaluate these findings with an eye towards scalable learning. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have emerged as the new way to reach the masses with educational materials, but so far they have failed to maintain learners’ attention over the long term. Even though we now understand how effective active learning principles are for learners, the current landscape of MOOC pedagogy too often allows for passivity — leading to the unsatisfactory performance experienced by many MOOC learners today. As a starting point to this research we took John Hattie’s seminal work from 2008 on learning strategies used to facilitate active learning. We considered research published between 2009 and 2017 that presents empirical evaluations of these learning strategies. Through our systematic search we found 126 papers meeting our criteria and categorized them according to Hattie’s learning strategies. We found large-scale experiments to be the most challenging environment for experimentation due to their size, heterogeneity of participants, and platform restrictions, and we identified the three most promising strategies for effectively leveraging learning at scale as Cooperative Learning, Simulations & Gaming, and Interactive Multimedia.
Keywords
Teaching/learning strategies, Adult learning, Evaluation of CAL systems, Interactive learning environments, Multimedia/hypermedia systems
Reference
Dan Davis, Guanliang Chen, Claudia Hauff, Geert-Jan Houben (2018) Activating learning at scale: A review of innovations in online learning strategies, Computers & Education, Volume 125, 2018, Pages 327-344, ISSN 0360-1315, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2018.05.019.
A Paradigm Shift in Teaching Aerospace Engineering: From Campus Learners to Professional Learners
Article “A Paradigm Shift in Teaching Aerospace Engineering: From Campus Learners to Professional Learners – a Case Study on Online Courses in Smart Structures and Air Safety Investigation” presented at 2018 AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting 8–12 January 2018 in Kissimmee, Florida.
Abstract
In this paper, the transition from teaching on-campus to an online audience consisting of working professionals in an Aerospace Engineering context is described. The differences in the learner’s needs and the transition in teaching methods and style that is required from teaching staff is discussed. This is illustrated by two case studies: for Smart Structures and for Air Safety Investigation. Recommendations on how universities can contribute to Life Long Learning are given.
Keywords
aerospace engineering, online education, pedagogical model, mooc, lifelong learning, professional education
Reference
Saunders, G., Rans, C., Schuurman, M., De Breuker, R., & van Staalduinen, J-P. (2018). A Paradigm Shift in Teaching Aerospace Engineering: From Campus Learners to Professional Learners – a Case Study on Online Courses in Smart Structures and Air Safety Investigation. In 2018 AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting 8–12 January 2018, Kissimmee, Florida. [AIAA 2018-0810] AIAA. DOI: 10.2514/6.2018-0810
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Exploring communities of inquiry in MOOCs
Article published in journal Computers & Education Volume 119, April 2018, Pages 44–58.
Abstract
This study presents an evaluation of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) survey instrument developed by Arbaugh et al. (2008) within the context of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). The study reports the results of a reliability analysis and exploratory factor analysis of the CoI survey instrument using the data of 1487 students from five MOOC courses. The findings confirmed the reliability and validity of the CoI survey instrument for the assessment of the key dimensions of the CoI model: teaching presence, social presence, and cognitive presence. Although the CoI survey instrument captured the same latent constructs within the MOOC context as in the Garrison’s three-factor model (Garrison et al., 1999), analyses suggested a six-factor model with additional three factors as a better fit to the data. These additional factors were 1) course organization and design (a sub-component of teaching presence), 2) group affectivity (a sub-component of social presence), and 3) resolution phase of inquiry learning (a sub-component of cognitive presence). The emergence of these additional factors revealed that the discrepancies between the dynamics of the traditional online courses and MOOCs affect the student perceptions of the three CoI presences. Based on the results of our analysis, we provide an update to the famous CoI model which captures the distinctive characteristics of the CoI model within the MOOC setting. The results of the study and their implications are further discussed.
Keywords
Community of inquiry model, Massive open online courses, Online learning, Exploratory factor analysis
Reference
Vitomir Kovanović, Srećko Joksimović, Oleksandra Poquet, Thieme Hennis, Iva Čukić, Pieter de Vries, Marek Hatala, Shane Dawson, George Siemens, Dragan Gašević (2018) Exploring communities of inquiry in Massive Open Online Courses, Computers & Education, Volume 119, April 2018, Pages 44-58, ISSN 0360-1315, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2017.11.010.