scholarly journals A survey on the pedagogical features of language massive open online courses

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Billy Tak-ming Wong
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Massive Open Online Courses ◽  
Learning Activities ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
Learning Technology ◽  
Discussion Forums ◽  
Massive Open Online ◽  
Content Type

PurposeThis paper examines the pedagogical features of massive open online courses (MOOCs) for language learning–known as language MOOCs. The mainstream pedagogy of MOOCs typically involves the provision of short videos and reading materials for self-study; discussion forums, mostly for peer-to-peer interaction on course content; and machine-graded quizzes for self-assessment. For language learning, which has been conventionally understood as skill development, the pedagogical features of relevant MOOCs have yet to be comprehensively surveyed.Design/methodology/approachThis study surveyed a total of 123 language MOOCs from the major MOOC platforms. The pedagogical features shown in these courses were identified and categorised according to the types of course materials and learning activities as well as the participation of learners and instructors.FindingsEnglish was the most common language taught in the courses. Over 80% of the courses took not more than six hours to complete. Most of these courses followed the typical approach of xMOOC delivery, with video watching, reading and auto-graded assessment being the most common learning activities. Less than half of the courses included discussion as part of learning, and instructors were involved in less than 30% of the discussion.Originality/valueThe findings show that, despite the technological advances in course delivery, current language MOOCs do not differ substantially from conventional distance language learning. Yet, the utilisation of computer-assisted language learning technology and the massive student base of MOOCs for creating a virtual social community are opportunities for developing learners' language proficiency on this learning environment.

Participating by activity or by week in MOOCs

2018 ◽  
Vol 119 (9/10) ◽  
pp. 572-585 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alok Baikadi ◽  
Carrie Demmans Epp ◽  
Christian D. Schunn
Keyword(s):  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Massive Open Online Courses ◽  
Learning Activities ◽  
Massive Open Online ◽  
Full Spectrum ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Activity Form

Purpose The purpose of this study was to provide a new characterization of the extent to which learners complete learning activities in massive open online courses (MOOCs), a central challenge in these contexts. Prior explorations of learner interactions with MOOC materials have often described these interactions through stereotypes, which accounts for neither the full spectrum of potential learner activities nor the ways those patterns differ across course designs. Design/methodology/approach To overcome these shortcomings, the authors apply confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis to learner activities within three MOOCs to test different models of participation across courses and populations found within those courses. Findings Courses varied in the extent to which participation was driven by learning activities vs time/topic or a mixture of both, but this was stable across offerings of the same course. Research limitations/implications The results call for a reconceptualization of how different learning activities within a MOOC are designed to work together, to better allow strong learning outcomes even within one activity form or more strongly encourage participation across activities. Originality/value The authors validate new continuous-patterns rather than a discrete-pattern participation model for MOOC learning.

scholarly journals MOOCs: a differentiation by pedagogy, content and assessment

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Misrah Hamisah Mohamed ◽  
Michael Hammond
Keyword(s):  
Instructional Design ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Peer Assessment ◽  
Massive Open Online Courses ◽  
Discussion Forums ◽  
Massive Open Online ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Course Materials

Purpose Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have often been divided between connectivist MOOCs and extended MOOCs (xMOOCs). Each form of MOOC proposes a distinctive view about knowledge acquisition. However, the breakdown between the two MOOCs is too broad in practice, and a more fine-grained approach is needed. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to describe the organisational features of exemplar MOOCs and their differences. Design/methodology/approach The study observed the ten newly available MOOCs aimed at teachers of English as a second language and included examples from existing providers: NovoEd, Coursera, FutureLearn and Canvas. These MOOCs were analysed and compared using a matrix with three main focuses: pedagogical assumptions, content materials and assessment. Findings The findings revealed that all courses corresponded to the idea of an xMOOC in that they were run on a model of instructional design. However, the course materials varied in respect to media used, use of networking, discussion forums and degree of openness. In terms of assessment, all MOOCs used formative approaches, all had automated responses but only some had summative and peer assessment. Originality/value The study succeeded in showing the variation in courses, thus enabling the range of possibilities open to course designers and providers.

scholarly journals Computer-Assisted Reading and Discovery for Student Generated Text in Massive Open Online Courses

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin Reich ◽  
Dustin Tingley ◽  
Jetson Leder-Luis ◽  
Margaret E. Roberts ◽  
Brandon Stewart
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Topic Model ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Massive Open Online Courses ◽  
Course Evaluations ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
Discussion Forums ◽  
Massive Open Online ◽  
Daunting Challenge

Dealing with the vast quantities of text that students generate in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and other large-scale online learning environments is a daunting challenge. Computational tools are needed to help instructional teams uncover themes and patterns as students write in forums, assignments, and surveys. This paper introduces to the learning analytics community the Structural Topic Model, an approach to language processing that can 1) find syntactic patterns with semantic meaning in unstructured text, 2) identify variation in those patterns across covariates, and 3) uncover archetypal texts that exemplify the documents within a topical pattern. We show examples of computationally aided discovery and reading in three MOOC settings: mapping students’ self-reported motivations, identifying themes in discussion forums, and uncovering patterns of feedback in course evaluations. 

423 Massive Open Online Courses in Anatomy Education: A Systematic Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 108 (Supplement_2) ◽  
Author(s):  
J Cheong ◽  
I Keenan
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Medical Education ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Massive Open Online Courses ◽  
Learning Approaches ◽  
Discussion Forums ◽  
Massive Open Online ◽  
Pubmed Database ◽  
Literature Search Strategy ◽  
Learning Development

Abstract Introduction Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have become increasingly popular for remotely delivering education to global audiences. MOOCs can provide an online platform for participants coming from a variety of professional backgrounds and international locations. Our systematic review investigated current literature surrounding MOOCs, and identified the value of such courses with respect to anatomical and medical education. Method Our literature search strategy involved exploring the PubMed database for the terms ’MOOC + Anatomy’ and ‘MOOC + Medical Education’ identified 290 relevant articles. Following implementation of the PRISMA criteria, 24 articles out of 290 were selected for inclusion in our systematic review. Results Participants completing MOOCs in anatomical and medical education generally showed increased knowledge and skills. We found that MOOC discussion forums encourage participants’ social learning development. MOOCs have shown to address participants’ needs and expectations while supplementing traditional learning approaches. However, the majority of experimental research studies did not include pre-post testing or appropriate controls. Furthermore, high levels of participant attrition, inability to address all learning approaches were identified as limitations with respect to MOOCs. Conclusions Although MOOCs have shown success in providing an excellent platform for learning, it has yet to show definitive improvements when compared to traditional teaching methods.

Decoding and designing massive open online courses (MOOCs)

2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Archana Shrivastava ◽  
Ashish Shrivastava
Keyword(s):  
Factor Analysis ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Product Design ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Massive Open Online Courses ◽  
Purchase Decision ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
Massive Open Online ◽  
Content Type

Purpose This study aims to investigate the attributes of the online programme that are considered and compute their relative importance in the purchase decision. This study aims to identify the most lucrative bundling of these attributes and their levels that can be used by online education companies to craft their product design strategy to attract customers with the most attractive offering. Design/methodology/approach This research paper endeavours to identify the attributes of online education, which customers consider for making a purchase decision. Exploratory factor analysis followed by confirmatory factor analysis was used to identify the key attributes of online education programmes. This paper uses the conjoint analysis technique to identify the most preferred bundling of attributes, which online education companies can package to attract customers. Findings Based on various attributes and their respective levels, it is evident the most lucrative design for attracting customers to buy online education programmes is to provide certification from a reputed international university, which requires an investment to the tune of 3,000–5,000. The duration of four weeks with asynchronous pedagogy and access to course material vial uniform resource locator (URL) is a preferred feature. Access via a mobile application is more preferred over Web access. A phone application is known to be optimised, and most people are using mobile phones to access the internet. Online certification or degrees that are considered as valid employment qualifications were most preferred over other reasons. Originality/value There is a dearth of studies on massive open online courses (MOOCs) from a product design perspective. There is a gap in the context of the features to be included in the MOOCs package so that the customer can find more value in it, and the companies can benefit by expanding their customer base. The research question which this study endeavours to explore is what attributes consumers of MOOCs consider when making a purchase decision. This study will also find the relative importance of these attributes.

A Comparative Study on Various Vocabulary Knowledge Scales for Predicting Vocabulary Pre-Knowledge

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Di Zou ◽  
Haoran Xie ◽  
Yanghui Rao ◽  
Tak-Lam Wong ◽  
Fu Lee Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Massive Open Online Courses ◽  
Learning Resources ◽  
Massive Open Online ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
E Learning ◽  
Knowledge Levels

The world has encountered and witnessed the great popularity of various emerging e-learning resources such as massive open online courses (MOOCs), textbooks and videos with the development of the big data era. It is critical to understand the characteristics of users to assist them to find desired and relevant learning resources in such a large volume of resources. For example, understanding the pre-knowledge on vocabulary of learners is very prominent and useful for language learning systems. The language learning effectiveness can be significantly improved if the pre-knowledge levels of learners on vocabulary can be accurately predicted. In this research, the authors model the vocabulary of learners by extracting their history of learning documents and identify the suitable vocabulary knowledge scales (VKS) for pre-knowledge prediction. The experimental results on real participants verify that the optimal VKS and the proposed predicting model are powerful and effective.

scholarly journals How MOOC-Takers Estimate Learning Success: Retrospective Reflection of Perceived Benefits

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Svetlana Sablina ◽  
Natalia Kapliy ◽  
Alexandr Trusevich ◽  
Sofia Kostikova
Keyword(s):  
Text Analysis ◽  
Career Education ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Course Completion ◽  
Massive Open Online Courses ◽  
Learning Technology ◽  
Perceived Benefits ◽  
Massive Open Online ◽  
Learning Success ◽  
New Learning

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have attracted a great deal of interest in recent years as a new learning technology. Since MOOCs inception, only limited research has been carried out to address how learners perceive success in MOOCs after course completion.  The aim of this study was to investigate the perceived benefits as the measurement of learning success.  Narrative interviews were conducted with 30 Russian-speaking learners who completed at least one MOOC in full.  By employing text analysis of interview transcripts, we revealed the authentic voices of participants and gained deeper understanding of learners' perceived benefits based on retrospective reflection. The findings of the study indicate that after finishing MOOCs, learners have received tangible and intangible benefits that in general justified their expectations.  University-affiliated students, as well as working professionals, recognized the complementarity of MOOCs, but their assessments were limited to educational tracks. We discovered that taking MOOCs often coincided with the time when an individual was planning to change career, education, or life tracks.  The results of the study and their implications are further discussed, together with practical suggestions for MOOC providers.

scholarly journals Massive open online courses for continuing professional development of GPs

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 522-527
Author(s):  
Emily Player ◽  
Alice Shiner ◽  
Nick Steel ◽  
Veena Rodrigues
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Online Learning ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Continuing Professional Development ◽  
Massive Open Online Courses ◽  
Technology Enhanced Learning ◽  
Learning Technology ◽  
Massive Open Online ◽  
Enhanced Learning

Continuing professional development (CPD) is essential for the maintenance and improvement of the knowledge and skills of healthcare professionals. GP registrars are required to evidence CPD in their ePortfolio and likewise, GPs are mandated to accrue and evidence a minimum of 50 hours CPD for their annual appraisal. CPD can be delivered in many ways, with an increasing movement towards online learning. Technology-enhanced learning (TEL) encompasses online learning and is ever changing. This article will discuss a type of TEL known as massive open online courses (MOOCs) and the role of MOOCs in delivering CPD.

scholarly journals E-learning Text Sentiment Classification Using Hierarchical Attention Network (HAN)

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (13) ◽  
pp. 157
Author(s):  
Abdessamad Chanaa ◽  
Nour-eddine El Faddouli
Keyword(s):  
Online Courses ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Massive Open Online Courses ◽  
Analysis Tool ◽  
Classification Models ◽  
Discussion Forums ◽  
Hierarchical Network ◽  
Massive Open Online ◽  
Attention Network ◽  
E Learning

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have recently become a very motivating research field in education. Analyzing MOOCs discussion forums presents important issues since it can create challenges for understanding and appropriately identifying student sentiment behaviours. Using the high effectiveness of deep learning, this study aims to classify forum posts based on their sentiment polarity using two experiments. The first use the three known sentiment labels (positive/negative/neutral) and the second one employs sevens labels. The classification method implemented the Hierarchical Attention Network (HAN) algorithm; it combines the attention mechanism with a hierarchical network that simulates the same hierarchical structure of the document. The analysis of 29604 discussion posts from Stanford University affirms the effectiveness of our model. HAN achieved a classification accuracy of 70.3%, which surpassed the other prediction results using usual text classification models. These results are promising and have implications on the future development of automated sentiment analysis tool on e-learning discussion forum.

scholarly journals LMOOC para la integración de personas desplazadas

2021 ◽  
pp. 463-477
Author(s):  
Mercedes Sanz Gil
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Massive Open Online Courses ◽  
Cultural Barriers ◽  
Massive Open Online ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Displaced People

Uno de los principales retos a los que se enfrentan las personas desplazadas es hacer frente a las barreras lingüísticas y culturales que supone el desconocimiento, en la mayoría de los casos, de la lengua y de la cultura del país de destino. Actualmente, y gracias a las Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación, existen numerosos recursos y aplicaciones que pueden ayudar a paliar dichas carencias, antes o durante el periodo en el que se desarrolla la movilidad. En este artículo presentamos algunos de ellos. En concreto nos centramos en el formato MOOC (Cursos masivos abiertos en línea, por sus siglas en inglés) para el aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras (LMOOC). Analizaremos dos LMOOC de aprendizaje del Español como Lengua Extranjera (ELE) destinado principalmente al colectivo de personas inmigrantes y refugiadas y tres de aprendizaje del Francés como Lengua Extranjera (FLE) destinado principalmente a personas desplazadas por motivos laborales o educativos. One of the main challenges faced by displaced people is dealing with the linguistic and cultural barriers that arise from the lack of knowledge, in most cases, of the language and culture of the destination country. At present, thanks to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), there are numerous resources and applications that can help to alleviate these deficiencies, before, or during the period in which mobility develops. In this article we present some of them. More specifically, this article focuses on the MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) format for foreign language learning (LMOOC). We will analyze two LMOOCs for learning Spanish as a Foreign Language (SFL) aimed mainly at migrants and refugees; and three for learning French as a Foreign Language (FFL) aimed mainly at people displaced for work or educational reasons. L'un des principaux défis auxquels les personnes déplacées sont confrontées est celui de faire face aux barrières linguistiques et culturelles qui découlent du manque de connaissance, dans la plupart des cas, de la langue et de la culture du pays de destination. De nos jours, et grâce aux Technologies de l'Information et de la Communication (TIC), il existe de nombreuses ressources et applications qui peuvent contribuer à pallier ces lacunes, avant, ou pendant la période de mobilité. Dans cet article, nous en présentons quelques-unes. Nous nous concentrons en particulier sur le format MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) pour l'apprentissage des langues étrangères (LMOOC). Nous analyserons deux LMOOC pour l'apprentissage de l'Espagnol comme Langue Étrangère (ELE) destinés principalement à des personnes migrantes et réfugiées et trois pour l'apprentissage du Français comme Langue Étrangère (FLE) destinés principalement aux personnes en déplacement pour des raisons professionnelles ou éducatives.

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