Abstract
Social support and face-to-face learning may enhance outcomes for students who face barriers in accessing Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). In this study, we investigated how self-identified volunteer leaders guide and foster interactions among small groups of students who face technical and conceptual barriers in accessing MOOC content. Several months prior to the start of the MOOC (Environmental Education: Trans-disciplinary Approaches to Addressing Wicked Problems), we asked for volunteers among the registered students to lead groups for participants whose primary language was other than English and where limited Internet access, culture, or other barriers curtailed access to and understanding of course materials and pedagogy. Based on a survey and open-ended interviews (n=10), we found that group leaders were instrumental in overcoming barriers related to language, content, cultural ways of learning, access, and time. They also fostered cooperative learning strategies, which helped students acquire course content, and encouraged collaborative group projects leading to their groups adopting some features of online knowledge communities. We propose the term social learning MOOC (slMOOC) to capture a growing trend of incorporating collaborative learning strategies in xMOOCs.
Highlights
Social support and face-to-face learning may enhance outcomes for students who face barriers in accessing Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)
Reflecting the significant number of xMOOCs that incorporate students learning from each other (Margaryan et al, 2015) but do not approach the more radical self-directed pedagogy of cMOOCs, we propose the term social learning MOOC or slMOOC to capture this pedagogical approach
In a study of 76 MOOCs, Margaryan et al (2015) found that nearly half of xMOOCs and most cMOOCs required participants to learn from each other, whereas 10% of xMOOCs and 42% of cMOOCs required learners to contribute to the collective knowledge
Summary
Social support and face-to-face learning may enhance outcomes for students who face barriers in accessing Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Recognizing that online courses can create learning communities similar to those found in face-to-face courses, Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (2003) proposed the Community of Inquiry framework as a tool to understand content acquisition and social interactions Researchers applying this framework use discussion board posts and other student text to determine the extent of cognitive and social “presences” and the degree and quality of instructor “presence” during an online course. The large scale of MOOCs can enable interactions and the co-creation of knowledge among diverse learners globally (Stewart, 2013)
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