Archive for the ‘MOOCs’ Category

Factors influencing peer learning and performance in MOOC asynchronous online discussion forum

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 […]

New audio-only agMOOC for farmers launched

COL and agMOOC partners, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK) and the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Raichur have launched a massive open online course (MOOC) for rice and cotton farmers in Karnataka, India. Over 4,000 farmers have enrolled in this course which started on 10 August 2018 and will run for 16 weeks. Commonwealth […]

Using Semantic Technologies for Formative Assessment and Scoring in Large Courses and MOOCs

Formative assessment and personalised feedback are commonly recognised as key factors both for improving students’ performance and increasing their motivation and engagement (Gibbs and Simpson, 2005). Currently, in large and massive open online courses (MOOCs), technological solutions to give feedback are often limited to quizzes of different kinds. At present, one of our challenges is […]

Self-assessment in Massive Open Online Courses

Massive Open Online Courses appear to have high attrition rates, involve students in peer-assessment with patriotic bias and promote education for already educated people. This paper suggests a formative assessment model which takes into consideration these issues. Specifically, this paper focuses on the assessment of open-format questions in Massive Open Online Courses. It describes the […]

Bot-teachers in hybrid massive open online courses (MOOCs): A post-humanist experience

Networked technologies have created many learning opportunities and led to new learning models such as massive open online courses (MOOCs). However, MOOCs are an evolving learning model that are even today changing according to learners’ needs. First generation cMOOCs and second generation xMOOCs are now being followed by third generation hybrid MOOCs. In these evolution […]

Open Educational Practices in Australia: A First-phase National Audit of Higher Education

For fifteen years, Australian Higher Education has engaged with the openness agenda primarily through the lens of open-access research. Open educational practice (OEP), by contrast, has not been explicitly supported by federal government initiatives, funding, or policy. This has led to an environment that is disconnected, with isolated examples of good practice that have not […]

Understanding Student Engagement in Large-Scale Open Online Courses: A Machine Learning Facilitated Analysis of Student’s Reflections in 18 Highly Rated MOOCs

Although massive open online courses (MOOCs) have attracted much worldwide attention, scholars still understand little about the specific elements that students find engaging in these large open courses. This study offers a new original contribution by using a machine learning classifier to analyze 24,612 reflective sentences posted by 5,884 students, who participated in one or […]

Stanford’s free online classes expand education opportunities

Aiming to promote life-long learning and share knowledge with the general public, Stanford University has put extensive efforts into providing free online courses to anyone, anywhere. Since 2011, Stanford faculty and the Office of the Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning (VPTL) have created hundreds of online classes in topics ranging from psychology and philosophy […]

Grit and Intention: Why Do Learners Complete MOOCs?

In recent years there has been considerable interest in how many learners complete MOOCs, and what factors during usage can predict completion. Others, however, have argued that many learners never intend to complete MOOCs, and take MOOCs for other reasons. There has been qualitative research into why learners take MOOCs, but the link between learner […]

Teaching Massive, Open, Online, Courses (MOOCs): Tales from the Front Line

Very little research has been conducted about what it is like to teach a MOOC. Given this, a mixed methods study, involving a survey of 186 MOOC instructors and 15 follow-up interviews, was conducted to explore the motivation, experiences, and perceptions of instructors who have taught massive open online courses. Findings indicate that instructors were […]