MOOCs and OER: Developments and Contributions for Open Education and Open Science

Maria-Soledad Ramirez-Montoya

doi:10.1007/978-981-15-4276-3_10

Abstract

The open educational movement has provided opportunities for the advancement of higher education. This chapter is framed in the development of 12 open mass courses (MOOCs) and more than 5000 open educational resources (OER) that were produced in a macro project focused on training for energy sustainability. The MOOCs integrated innovative strategies and emerging technologies (such as gamification, challenges, biometrics, virtual reality, augmented reality, virtual and remote laboratories) and the OER were produced with scalable and accessibility properties (such as reusability, atomicity, interoperability and durability). The question that guides the chapter is: What contributions can arise from formative instances such as MOOCs and OER for open education and open science? The project method was collaborative with multidisciplinary teams of energy, production and educational innovation, who designed and implemented 12 MOOCs through the MexicoX and EdX platforms, where more than 200,000 participants enrolled in the MOOCs. Similarly, the production of more than 5000 OER is available in an open-access repository. The results show contributions to open education in the areas of open innovation, open research and open science. Findings can contribute to academic communities (students, teachers, researchers, administrators), social communities, government, business and decision makers interested in learning environments and open educational practices.

Highlights

Advances in communication and technology have brought new possibilities for open education
The question that guides the chapter is: What contributions can arise from formative instances such as MOOCs and open educational resources (OER) for open education and open science? The method and activities are presented, how the courses were developed and linked results are analyzed open education in the areas of open innovation, open research and open science
The findings can contribute to academic communities, social communities, government, business and decision makers interested in learning environments and open educational practices

Summary

Introduction

Advances in communication and technology have brought new possibilities for open education. The movement toward open education requires educators to expand and update their practice to keep up with new assigned responses (Littlejohn & Hood, 2017) and to expand the perspective of services and innovation that is required to. It is important to recognize that there are still many opportunities in the open educational movement, ethical ideologies are not essential components of this movement, academics are required to develop a sense of cultures of digital participation and literacy, with the integration of technologies (Veletsianos & Kimmons, 2012). The open education movement has had ups and downs due to the initial interest in transparency, openness, lack of reuse of open educational resources, but has increased its interest in open mass courses (MOOCs) (Pirkkalainen, Pawlowski and Pappa, 2017)

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Conclusion