Massive Open Online Courses Platform Research Articles

MOOCs as Disruptive Innovation in Higher Education

The advancement of technology in higher education is always perceived as a valuable innovation that create better impact to the society. The advent of the Internet for instance, has magnificently created important features in learning environment globally. Higher education community optimizes the Internet as an essential resource, communication platforms and dynamic tools in their core teaching-learning, research, consultation activities, entertainment and many others. Moreover, innovations such as mobile technology has successfully broadened access to the Internet and related online services and facilities. Higher education institutions as the hub for technology development and innovation have invested in virtual learning environment to support current needs of global population. Related to this fact, e- learning modules and contents are offered across universities, and interested learners in
 public communities are benefited by this opportunity. Educators and experts in higher education institutions are delivering their knowledge, discoveries and expertise via e-learning platforms and other supported technology. Equally important, e-learning has successfully expanded opportunities for lifelong and flexible learning, and offered a solution for practical issues and increasing student numbers. As a matter of fact, e-learning has been proposed as a promising way out for many complex issues such asfunding constraints, increasing demand and access to higher education while improving quality and high impact educational provisions in many countries. While addressing these issues, higher education administrators, educators, researchers and policy makers have developed responses in various frameworks. Initiatives such as Competency-Based Online Programs, development of open source materials, flipped classroom and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have contributed towards reducing cost of higher education as well as increasing access to higher education. MOOCs technology has proven its capability to reach massive audienceof about 30,000 students at a time. Across the globe, MOOCs offer free access to online course lectures, self- paced lessons, readings, problem sets, blogs, discussion boards, peer assessment and even online discussion group platforms for global students (Leon and Price, 2016). In 2017, MOOCs offered more than 9,400 courses with more than 500 MOOC based credentials according to data gathered by Class Central. Excitingly, MOOC platforms have recorded more than 81 million learners to date (Class Central, 2017).

Providing MOOCs: A FUN way to enroll students?

This paper aims at assessing whether universities improve their enrollment in traditional taught in-person programs by providing MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). Focusing on French universities, we look at the impact on enrollment figures of providing MOOC on France Université Numérique (FUN), a MOOC platform. We find that new students intake of universities offering MOOCs rises over 2% the following academic year, all else being equal. Analyzing data related to the characteristics of students enrolled in online and traditional programs as well to media coverage, we see two intertwined explanations for this positive relationship. One relates to the enhanced information available to students when making their enrollment decision; the other lies in the attention-grabbing - and likely persuasive - character of the event created around MOOCs.

Confessions of A MOOCER: An Autoethnographic Inquiry on Online Distance Education

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are dramatically restructuring, reshaping, and redefining the vast landscape of teaching and learning across the globe. With MOOCs’ ubiquity, openness, and accessibility, they have become a new platform for teacher professional development. Utilizing a co-constructed narrative inquiry, this paper aimed to examine aspects of our memories, perspectives, and experiences in successfully completing Teach English Now! a 150-hour online Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) Certificate Course from Arizona State University, United States of America via Coursera (www.coursera.org) as the MOOC platform. Acting as reflective practitioners and as teachers-as-researchers, we unpacked how we traversed the massive information superhighway in our quest for teacher professional development, what it was like to be an online learner, how we saw our role, why we believe what we believe about MOOCs’ potential, and how we think all of these affect our decisions and practices in our classrooms and contexts. Data from our individual journals, individual reflections, and peer discussion revealed how MOOCs’ features such as ‘openness’ and ‘flexibility’ as afforded by ubiquitous technology, sound course design, and strong learning community support have influenced us personally, socially, and professionally, making it a practical platform for teacher professional advancement particularly in developing countries such as the Philippines. Andragogical and pedagogical implications are provided in the light of our MOOC experience.

Lessons Learned from Teaching Multiple Massive Open Online Courses in Veterinary Education

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are a rapidly expanding avenue of diversification for higher education institutes. MOOC development is varied, individual course teams may have near complete creative control over the content, style, format and aims of their course, or be led by MOOC-specific teams within their institution. A single institute therefore may offer a wide variety of courses from short introductory level discussions to learning outcomes pitched at the postgraduate level. In this study, we examined the performance of four relatively long-running MOOCs offered by Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies at the University of Edinburgh: EdiVet Do You Have What It Takes to Be A Veterinarian; Animal Behaviour and Welfare; Chicken Behaviour and Welfare; and Equine Nutrition. Comparisons were made between the format and style of courses, their learning outcomes, and performance metrics such as completion rate, user satisfaction and benefit to institute. Retention was a challenge for all session-based MOOCs, with Chickens being most successful at retaining 50% of its potential audience until the start of Week 3. The average retention rate across all lectures and sessions was 38.5% (±14.08). All courses showed a notable female learner bias far above the Coursera average of 39% (Range Chickens: 58.1% ±3.1, Equine: 79.3% ¬±1.69). The majority of learners were North American or European (Range, Animals: 64.0±0.6, Equine 84.0%±3.0%). Across all courses, over 25% of learners had already achieved a Master’s degree or higher. A qualitative analysis of 188 learner stories revealed an overwhelmingly positive experience, highlighting the quality of resources, a perceived friendly relationship with the course instructors and referencing perceived barriers to education in face to face models. In conclusion, high quality digital resources embedded in well-designed courses can be a powerful tool to widen access to science education, however the MOOC platform does not necessarily reach a wide global audience, and may still struggle to widen participation in higher education, and alternative platforms are worth considering.

MOOC Platforms: a Review and Comparison

For development courses in the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) requires the support of good technological infrastructure. Some MOOC platforms are part of the institution but some platforms are built by individual teachers or instructors. The objective of this study to reviews about characteristics in MOOC platforms and evaluation of comparison based on previous studies with specific in MOOC platforms. The databases in MOOC studies found in four databases namely Google Scholar, IEEExplore, Elsevier Science Direct, and Emerald. After the databases filtered, 20 papers in MOOC studies that selected and 4 databases related in development Open Learning and Udemy platforms. This study aims to bring the knowledge for the developer or research groups about MOOC platforms and as a consideration to choose which one suitable platforms to create, manage, and deliver courses.

SENS: Network analytics to combine social and cognitive perspectives of collaborative learning

In this paper, we propose a novel approach to the analysis of collaborative learning. The approach posits that different dimensions of collaborative learning emerging from social ties and content analysis of discourse can be modeled as networks. As such, the combination of social network analysis (SNA) and epistemic network analysis (ENA) analysis can detect information about a learner's enactment of what the literature on collaborative learning has described as a role: an ensemble of cognitive and social dimensions that is marked by interacting with the appropriate people about appropriate content. The proposed approach is named social epistemic network signature (SENS) and is defined as a combination of these two complementary network analytic techniques. The proposed SENS approach is examined on data produced in collaborative activities performed in a massive open online course (MOOC) delivered via a major MOOC platform. The results of a study conducted on a data set collected in a MOOC suggest SNA and ENA produce complementary results which can i) explain collaboration processes that shaped the creation of social ties and that were associated with different network roles; ii) describe differences between low and high performing groups of learners; and iii) show how combined properties derived from SNA and ENA predict academic performance.

Semantic Analysis of Learners’ Emotional Tendencies on Online MOOC Education

As a new education product in the information age, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) command momentous public attention for their unexpected rise and flexible application. However, the striking contrast between the high rate of registration and the low rate of completion has put their development into a bottleneck. In this paper, we present a semantic analysis model (SMA) to track the emotional tendencies of learners in order to analyze the acceptance of the courses based on big data from homework completion, comments, forums and other real-time update information on the MOOC platforms. Through emotional quantification and machine learning calculations, graduation probability can be predicted for different stages of learning in real time. Especially for learners with emotional tendencies, customized instruction could be made in order to improve completion and graduation rates. Furthermore, we classified the learners into four categories according to course participation time series and emotional states. In the experiments, we made a comprehensive evaluation of the students’ overall learning status by kinds of learners and emotional tendencies. Our proposed method can effectively recognize learners’ emotional tendencies by semantic analysis, providing an effective solution for MOOC personalized teaching, which can help achieve education for sustainable development.

Transformation of higher education sector through massive open online courses in Saudi Arabia

Higher education needs to respond to ever changing demands and expectations of present and future potential students. In order to amplify access to educational materials for students who endeavor to learn, various methodologies are used with the help of technology. Education is redefined and democratized by enabling anyone to learn from the world’s experts by a click of a mouse. Higher education institutions are venturing to gain better understanding of the phenomenon of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and its paradigm shift towards open global education. This study endeavors to study how MOOCs can be seamlessly integrated into the present scenario of traditional and learning environment. The commercialization with marketing of MOOCs in KSA’s higher education sector is also discussed. Finally, this study recommends adaptive home grown organic introduction of blended learning with the MOOC platform. With the advent of internet technology, students are now able to access diversified and latest courses which are participatory, collaborative with digital skills, well distributed, engaging and self-paced. This concept enables them to attain lifelong learning and brings scalability at a virtual zero cost to the students. The overall impact of technology on the learning management system will be explored. An attempt is made to introduce and accelerate learning and teaching strategies and tools to enhance student employability with their present usage of technology. The objective of the study is to comprehend the readiness level of learners by incorporating open learning platform, build an innovation model, which involves stakeholders with a holistic perspective that will enable a congenial learning management system, how the deanship of information technology and distance learning change course from a support-based deanship to a strategic-based deanship.

Student success prediction in MOOCs

Predictive models of student success in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are a critical component of effective content personalization and adaptive interventions. In this article we review the state of the art in predictive models of student success in MOOCs and present a categorization of MOOC research according to the predictors (features), prediction (outcomes), and underlying theoretical model. We critically survey work across each category, providing data on the raw data source, feature engineering, statistical model, evaluation method, prediction architecture, and other aspects of these experiments. Such a review is particularly useful given the rapid expansion of predictive modeling research in MOOCs since the emergence of major MOOC platforms in 2012. This survey reveals several key methodological gaps, which include extensive filtering of experimental subpopulations, ineffective student model evaluation, and the use of experimental data which would be unavailable for real-world student success prediction and intervention, which is the ultimate goal of such models. Finally, we highlight opportunities for future research, which include temporal modeling, research bridging predictive and explanatory student models, work which contributes to learning theory, and evaluating long-term learner success in MOOCs.

Design of a Personalized Massive Open Online Course Platform

Focusing on the massive open online course (MOOC) platform, the purpose of this study is to realize personalized adaptive learning according to the needs and abilities of each learner. To this end, the author created a personalized adaptive learning behaviour analysis model, and designed a personalized MOOC platform based on the model. Through the analysis of learning behaviours on the MOOC platform, the model digs deep into the pattern of learning behaviours, and lays the basis for personalized intervention in the learning process. The comparison ex-periments show that our prediction method is more accurate than the other predic-tion algorithms. This research sheds new light on the design of learner-specific MOOC platform.

Mental effort detection using EEG data in E-learning contexts

E-learning becomes an alternative learning mode since the prevalence of the Internet. Especially, the advance of MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) technology enables a course to enroll tens of thousands of online learners. How to improve learners' online learning experiences on MOOC platforms becomes a crucial task for platform providers. In this research, based on Cognitive Load Theory, we built a system to capture and tag a user's mental states while s/he is watching online videos with a commercial EEG device, and used different normalization schemes and time window lengths to process EEG signals recorded from the EEG device. Finally, we adopted different supervised learning algorithms to train and test the classifiers, and then evaluated their classification performance. The results show that the proposed approach can effectively process EEG data to train classifiers, which achieve high accuracy, precision and recall rates compared with those of previous studies. This system can effectively facilitate users' self-awareness of mental efforts in online learning contexts to enable the automatic feedback in synchronous and asynchronous learning contexts, especially taking MOOCs as an example.

Analysis of the status quo of new nurse standardized training and its influencing factors in MOOC era

Objective To investigate the current situation of standardized training and its influencing factors in the introduction of massive open online course (MOOC) teaching methods to newly recruited nurses. Methods From July to October 2017, a questionnaire survey was conducted on 176 nurses in a ClassⅢ Grade A hospital in Hu'nan Province. The survey contents included general information, status of new nurses' participation of the standardization training of MOOC and the satisfaction of it. Results The total score of the trainee nurses attending the standardized training of MOOC was (68.85±9.65) , and score of satisfaction was (64.42±9.60) . The result of multivariate analysis indicated that nurses' education degree, the length of work and the educator's professional title were the main influencing factors of new nurses' satisfaction with MOOC standardization training (P<0.05) . Conclusions The current status and satisfaction of the newly enrolled nurses in MOOC training are at a moderate level. It is suggested that based on the influencing factors, hospitals should perfect the MOOC platform, adjust new nurses scheduling system, strengthen the construction of teachers team, so that the new nurses can integrate more quickly into clinical practice. Key words: Inservice training; Massive open online course; Standardization training; New nurses; Satisfaction; Influencing factors

Domain content querying using ontology-based context-awareness in information systems

Ubiquitous computing technologies have been applied in several areas. However, it still presents a number of challenges, both for the full implementation of technologies and for the integration with existing information systems. One of the main mismatches evidenced by recent works is how context-awareness, a widely used capability in ubiquitous computing and actual information systems with relational databases may be integrated to allow ubiquitous and traditional systems to query relational data sources without the necessity to modify the schema of the database. This paper presents an integration model relating context and domain information allowing relational data to be retrieved in context without the necessity to change the originally used relational queries. A set of linking rules and algorithms are formalized in a model and this model is implemented in a prototype. The evaluation of the model is performed by applying it in a case study in a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platform. The evaluation of the model by the application of it in a case study in a MOOC platform demonstrated the possibility to use an ontology frequently used in ubiquitous middleware as an extra filtering layer for information systems without the necessity to recreate queries or make a re-engineering in the relational database schema. The results of the queries after the application of the model showed an average decrease of 21% in returned tuples, which was evaluated as a significant reduce in tuple results.

The Use of Avatars in Gender Segregated Online Learning Within MOOCs in Saudi Arabia - A Rwaq Case Study

&lt;p class="3"&gt;In Saudi Arabia, gender-segregation is a known issue within higher education that often deprives female tutors from providing online learning and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). As well, students may not be getting the benefit of their experience and teaching. The purpose of this study is to develop an Avatar tool to represent a female tutor in a MOOC course with the aim of alleviating the issues of a gender-segregated society in online learning. This project will undertake and analyse a case study concerning the experience of females teaching a MOOC course on “Rwaq” the first Saudi Arabian platform, which was launched in September 2013. The literature on gender-segregation and education technology is reviewed. As an example, gender-segregated in higher education and online learning in Saudi Arabia, Virtual Learning Environments (VLE), Avatar technology in higher education, and finally the adoption of an Avatar tool in MOOCs platforms in SA are examined. One of the objectives of the study is to develop a social interaction environment with learners in online learning within MOOCs. The ultimate objective of this study is to examine if this Avatar tool could alleviate issues of gender-segregation for female lecturers in online learning courses within MOOCs in higher education in Saudi Arabia.&lt;/p&gt;

What Research Says About MOOCs – An Explorative Content Analysis

&lt;p class="3"&gt;Since the first offering of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) in 2008, the body of literature on this new phenomenon of open learning has grown tremendously. In this regard, this article intends to identify and map patterns in research on MOOCs by reviewing 362 empirical articles published in peer-reviewed journals from 2008 to 2015. For the purposes of this study, a text-mining tool was used to analyse the content of the published research journal articles and to reveal the major themes and concepts covered in the publications. The findings reveal that the MOOC literature generally focuses on four lines of research: (a) the potential and challenges of MOOCs for universities; (b) MOOC platforms; (c) learners and content in MOOCs; and (d) the quality of MOOCs and instructional design issues. Prospective researchers may use these results to gain an overview of this emerging field, as well as to explore potential research directions.&lt;/p&gt;

Beyond the \u201cc\u201d and the \u201cx\u201d: Learning with algorithms in massive open online courses (MOOCs)

This article examines how algorithms are shaping student learning in massive open online courses (MOOCs). Following the dramatic rise of MOOC platform organisations in 2012, over 4,500 MOOCs have been offered to date, in increasingly diverse languages, and with a growing requirement for fees. However, discussions of learning in MOOCs remain polarised around the “xMOOC” and “cMOOC” designations. In this narrative, the more recent extended or platform MOOC (“xMOOC”) adopts a broadcast pedagogy, assuming a direct transmission of information to its largely passive audience (i.e. a teacher-centred approach), while the slightly older connectivist model (“cMOOC”) offers only a simplistic reversal of the hierarchy, posing students as highly motivated, self-directed and collaborative learners (i.e. a learner-centred approach). The online nature of both models generates data (e.g. on how many times a particular resource was viewed, or the ways in which participants communicated with each other) which MOOC providers use for analysis, albeit only after these data have been selectively processed. Central to many learning analytics approaches is the desire to predict students’ future behaviour. Educators need to be aware that MOOC learning is not just about teachers and students, but that it also involves algorithms: instructions which perform automated calculations on data. Education is becoming embroiled in an “algorithmic culture” that defines educational roles, forecasts attainment, and influences pedagogy. Established theories of learning appear wholly inadequate in addressing the agential role of algorithms in the educational domain of the MOOC. This article identifies and examines four key areas where algorithms influence the activities of the MOOC: (1) data capture and discrimination; (2) calculated learners; (3) feedback and entanglement; and (4) learning with algorithms. The article concludes with a call for further research in these areas to surface a critical discourse around the use of algorithms in MOOC education and beyond.

Enhancing the Efficiency of Massive Online Learning by Integrating Intelligent Analysis into MOOCs with an Application to Education of Sustainability

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) is an innovative method in modern education, especially important for autonomous study and the sharing of global excellent education resources. However, it is not easy to implement the teaching process according to the specific characters of students by MOOCs because the number of participants is huge and the teacher cannot identify the characters of students through a face to face interaction. As a new subject combined with different areas, such as economics, sociology, environment, and even engineering, the education of sustainability-related courses requires elaborate consideration of individualized teaching for students from diverse backgrounds and with different learning styles. Although the major MOOC platforms or learning management systems (LMSs) have tried lots of efforts in the design of course system and the contents of the courses for sustainability education, the achievements are still unsatisfied, at least the issue of how to effectively take into account the individual characteristics of participants remains unsolved. A hybrid Neural Network (NN) model is proposed in this paper which integrates a Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) and with a Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU) based Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN) in an effort to detect individual learning style dynamically. The model was trained by learners’ behavior data and applied to predicting their learning styles. With identified learning style for each learner, the power of MOOC platform can be greatly enhanced by being able to offer the capabilities of recommending specific learning path and the relevant contents individually according to their characters. The efficiency of learning can thus be significantly improved. The proposed model was applied to the online study of sustainability-related course based on a MOOC platform with more than 9,400,000 learners. The results revealed that the learners could effectively increase their learning efficiency and quality for the courses when the learning styles are identified, and proper recommendations are made by using our method.

Curriculum Analysis Based on Chinese University MOOC Platform

With the rapid development of network technology, it is inevitable that educational resources will be online and open. Since the first year of the 2012 US massive open online courses (MOOC), many countries have been committed to quality MOOC courses. As one of the three major university MOOC platforms, the Chinese university MOOC platform has been attracting the excellent courses of famous universities in mainland China and Taiwan after four years of development since its opening in 2014. This paper uses the literature method, data statistics method, content analysis method and other research methods to analyze the colleges and universities, course types, courses and contents, teaching methods, number of students selected, etc. of the Chinese university MOOC platform, and summarizes the characteristics of free resource sharing, micro-course design, learning behavior control, and interaction. It points out that there are fewer special courses in the famous schools, the repetition of courses, the lack of practical courses, the fragmentation of knowledge points, the single form of micro-courses, and the lack of depth and breadth of discussion. The article puts forward some suggestions for the school of MOOC curriculum development, the teachers who started the course, and the MOOC platform of the Chinese university. Suggestions for schools are: optimizing MOOC courses, improving course quality, strengthening practical curriculum development, multi-school collaboration and other proposals; the recommendations for MOOC course teachers are: reorganizing knowledge systems, strengthening practical applications, and improving picture quality big data analysis of students' learning behaviors and other suggestions; suggestions for Chinese university MOOC platform are: expanding platform functions, coordinating curriculum construction, big data sharing, etc. Article is intended to cause schools, teachers, and the importance of MOOC platform management curriculum development, improve the quality of MOOC courses to stimulate learner motivation through MOOC course of study, enhance the comprehensive literacy learners, play high-quality MOOC courses promote fairness in education.

Research on Key Development Technologies for SPOC Platform

As the derivation and innovation of MOOC (Massive Open Online Course), the development of SPOC (Small Private Online Course) platform which is based on MOOC idea can be better applied to the blended teaching of various courses in local universities in post-MOOC era. Based on the analysis of the current application of SPOC platform, from the view of technology in implementation, we explore the key technologies of identification on face recognition based on emotion calculation,course creating, editing and sharing, analysis of online learning behaviour and exercising or examining on subjective items for developing of a SPOC platform. Finally, further researches on how to construct on the targeted and distinctive mobile learning resources and smart education mode which is based on SPOC, how to provide formative assessment data and consciousness assessment data for learners accurately and function of data statistics and motivational observation that could be completed by teachers, how to cut some non-essential auxiliary functions of an existed MOOC platform for a certain local user group to form a flexible and usable SPOC platform with good expansibility are expected in the paper.

ОРГАНІЗАЦІЯ ТА ПРОВЕДЕННЯ СЕМІНАРІВ НА ПЛАТФОРМІ MOODLE

This article is dedicated to the problem of finding new teaching methods and activities for a student. Nowadays this issue is topical because traditional lectures, practices, and seminars need refreshing by implementing the innovative technology. The seminar is defined as a kind of practical class at university which implies independent research work. Students fulfill given tasks visually representing the material in the form of a summary, report, message, etc. The author’s idea comes from an item that teacher should take in consideration two vectors of skill development in the process of seminar modeling. They are specific skills in the special-topic sphere (math skills, etc.) and general independent researchers’ skills. The aim of our research is to create a procedure of conducting a modern seminar based on the platform Moodle. Moodle has been chosen as an open-source learning platform for MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) with a significantly enormous potential. The element named ‘Workshop’ can be created on this platform by setting some parameters by teachers. The most important thing is that an author takes into consideration a teacher’s goals and gives an efficient algorithm to adjust necessary parameters to particular goals. This procedure includes 4 phases, such as a setup phase, submission phase, assessment phase and grading evaluation. The main part of this article contains a lot of tips how to provide every phase with instructions, forms, criteria. The author doesn’t deal with using of other active Moodle-elements which ones are planned to be researched later.