Action Confidence as an Indicator of Transformative Change

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-86
Author(s):  
Eva Pomeroy ◽  
Keira Oliver

This article reports on the findings from an interview-based, qualitative study of adult learners in Scotland participating in the MITx u.lab massive open online course in 2015 and 2016. It focuses on interviewees’ accounts of the impact of participating in u.lab on their work and lives. Using grounded theory as an analytical guide, we explore participants’ perceptions of the impact of their engagement in the learning process, which reflects intrapersonal, relational, and systemic learning. Through these accounts, we became particularly interested in participants’ relationship to taking action and the way this changed over the course of their participation in the learning process. We conclude that an embodied change in one’s perception of the nature and purpose of action—something we call “action confidence”—is reflective of transformative learning as it indicates a significant epistemological change for participants.

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mayara Floss ◽  
Carlos Augusto Vieira Ilgenfritz ◽  
Ylana Elias Rodrigues ◽  
Anna Cláudia Dilda ◽  
Ana Paula Borngräber Corrêa ◽  
...  

Introduction: Planetary health (PH) has emerged as a leading field for raising awareness, debating, and finding solutions for the health impacts of human-caused disruptions to Earth's natural systems. PH education addresses essential questions of how humanity inhabits Earth, and how humans affect, and are affected by, natural systems. A pilot massive open online course (MOOC) in PH was created in Brazil in 2020. This MOOC capitalized on the global online pivot, to make the course accessible to a broader audience. This study describes the process of course creation and development and assesses the impact evaluation data and student outcomes of the PH MOOC.Methods: The PH MOOC pilot was launched in Brazilian Portuguese, using the TelessaúdeRS-UFRGS platform on 4/27/2020 and concluded on 7/19/2020 with a total load of 80 h. It was composed of 8 content modules, pre and post-test, 10 topics in a forum discussion, and an optional action plan. This study analyzes the course database, profile of participants, answers to questionnaires, forum interaction, and action plans submitted.Results: Two thousand seven hundred seventy-seven participants enrolled in the course, of which 1,237 (44.54%) gave informed consent for this study. Of the 1,237 participants who agreed to participate in the research, 614 (49.8%) completed the course, and 569 (92.67%) were accredited by TelessaúdeRS-UFRGS. The majority of the participants were concerned with climate change, trained in the health area, and worked in primary health care in places that lacked ongoing sustainability programs. Two hundred forty-one action plans were submitted, major topics identified were food and nutrition, infectious diseases, and garbage and recycling.Discussion: The use of the PH lens and open perspective of the course centered the need to communicate planetary health topics to individuals. The local plans reflected the motto of “think global and act local.” Brazil presents a context of an unprecedented social, political, and environmental crisis, with massive deforestation, extensive fires, and biomass burning altering the biomes, on top of an ongoing necropolitical infodemic and COVID-19 pandemic. In the face of these multiple challenges, this MOOC offers a timely resource for health professionals and communities, encouraging them to address planetary challenges as fundamental health determinants.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Charles Strehlow ◽  
Kelly Zhang Aluri ◽  
Jamie Sewan Johnston ◽  
Charles G Prober ◽  
Peter Corrigan Acker ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND The COVID-19 pandemic created an urgent global need for healthcare worker (HCW) training. Initial COVID-19-related online courses focused primarily on training public health workers and physicians caring for patients in intensive care units (ICUs). However, in resource-constrained settings, nurses and general practitioners are responsible for providing most COVID-19 patient medical care, typically lacking the training and equipment necessary to manage complex, critically ill patients. In these environments, early recognition and interventions to prevent patient deterioration are essential to optimizing outcomes. We developed a massive open online course (MOOC) for HCWs in resource-constrained settings aimed at training bedside providers caring for patients with COVID-19. OBJECTIVE This study evaluates the impact of this MOOC by assessing HCW course engagement, knowledge, confidence in caring for COVID-19 patients, and user experience. METHODS From May thru June of 2020, the course was rapidly developed by a team of physicians, educators, medical illustrators, and education technology staff, and was subsequently launched on two online platforms in July 2020. The approximately 4-hour course comprises 6 video-based modules with accompanying handouts. Student knowledge was assessed using pre- and post-module quizzes and a final exam, while demographics and user experience were evaluated by pre- and post-course surveys and data collected through the platforms. RESULTS From July 17th to September 24th, 30,859 students enrolled, 18,818 started, and 7,101 completed the course. Most participants worked in healthcare (86%) and resided in lower middle- (36%) or upper middle- (21%) income countries. Higher course completion rates were observed among learners who were from upper middle-income (aOR 1.152 [95% CI 1.019-1.303]) and lower middle-income countries (aOR 1.229 [95% CI 1.104-1.368]). Significant knowledge gains were observed from pre-module (mean 56% [SD 17%]) to post-module quizzes (80% [SD 15%], P<.001), and from pre-module quizzes to the final exam (78% [SD 17%], P<.001). After course completion, participants reported increased self-efficacy regarding the course objectives, with a 0.63 mean increase on a 4-point scale (95% CI [0.60,0.66]). Overall, there was high satisfaction with the course experience, with 93% of participants reporting they would recommend the course to others. CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrates the potential of MOOCs to rapidly provide access to emerging medical knowledge during a public health crisis, particularly for HCWs in high- and middle-income countries. Further research is required to understand the impact of such online courses on patient care and how to better reach learners in low-income countries.


2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danish Mishra ◽  
Steve Cayzer ◽  
Tracey Madden

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of interactions between learners in a massive open online course (MOOC), particularly role of the tutors in such interactions. For educators concerned with sustainability literacy, the authors are necessarily both affected by, and effectors of, digital pedagogies. The call for papers for this special issue challenged the authors to consider whether digital pedagogies are “supportive of sustainability or perpetuators of unsustainability”. As might be expected, this question is not a simple binary choice and the authors have chosen to address it indirectly, by considering the nature of interaction in a global, digitally connected community of learners. In particular, the changing role of tutors in these communities, and the possible implications of this change on sustainable literacy, are examined. Design/methodology/approach The authors focus on the “Sustainability for Professionals” massive open online course (MOOC) delivered by the University of Bath on the FutureLearn platform which hosts the “Inside Cancer” MOOC, also from Bath. “Sustainability for Professionals” is pedagogically connectivist, with “Inside Cancer” being more traditional and instructor led. The authors used social network analysis (SNA) for the research. It is a key tool to understand interactions in an online environment and allows quantitative comparison between different networks and thus between courses. In the context of digital pedagogy, the authors used a number of relevant SNA metrics to carry out analysis of MOOC network structures. Findings It was found that MOOCs are different in their network structure but tend to adapt to the subject matter. Digital pedagogies for sustainability result in a qualitative as well as quantitative change in learning where course design affects the learning process and gatekeepers are critical for information flow. These gatekeepers are distinct from tutors in the network. In such a network, tutors’ role is limited to course delivery and verifying, depending on course content, the information within the network. The analysis shows that network learning is dependent on course design and content, and gatekeepers exercise influence over the information within the network. Originality/value This study has implications for sustainability literacy. The authors examined the extent to which patterns of interaction in the network affect the learning process, and how this can help participants engage with the concept of sustainability. They used SNA to explore the nature of interaction between learners in a MOOC, particularly the role of the tutors in mediating such interactions. They also found that tutors can and do take a central role in early runs of the MOOC; however, with the subsequent runs, the removal of tutor nodes has little effect, suggesting that different modes of learning driven by participants are possible in a MOOC community.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohd Erfy Ismail ◽  
Pipit Utami ◽  
Irwan Mahazir Ismail ◽  
Norhasyimah Hamzah ◽  
Hairuddin Harun

Nowadays, innovation for teaching aids is an important requirement to ensure the teaching and learning process can run smoothly. Coinciding with the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025 (Ministry of Education) through the ninth surge of Global Online Learning, the development of the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) was built. The ADDIE model has been adapted for this development. The study aims to develop an appropriate interactive learning for Food and Beverage Presentation subjects based on the Vocational College (VC) syllabus. In research development, researchers use Richey and Klein research recommendations, using Alpha and Beta tests in the evaluation phase of the study. The population of the study involved 155 Catering students at Muar Vocational College and the sample of the study were 60 of third and fourth-year Diploma students. The sampling method used is the purposive sampling and the instrument used in the form of the questionnaire. Data collected were collected and analyzed descriptively using Statistical Packages for Social Science (SPSS) version 23.0. Based on the analysis, the reliability value of the instrument is 0.997 and shows that the reliability of the instrument is at a high level. The findings show that the use of MOOC can increase computer literacy (3.75), interest (3.78) and student learning styles (3.75) and make the learning process more interesting. In addition, the findings show that the use of the MOOC application can help students in improving the performance and achievement of students in learning and thus can be an alternative to diversifying the teaching and learning process in VC.


Author(s):  
Briony Swire-Thompson ◽  
John Cook ◽  
Lucy H. Butler ◽  
Jasmyne A. Sanderson ◽  
Stephan Lewandowsky ◽  
...  

AbstractGiven that being misinformed can have negative ramifications, finding optimal corrective techniques has become a key focus of research. In recent years, several divergent correction formats have been proposed as superior based on distinct theoretical frameworks. However, these correction formats have not been compared in controlled settings, so the suggested superiority of each format remains speculative. Across four experiments, the current paper investigated how altering the format of corrections influences people’s subsequent reliance on misinformation. We examined whether myth-first, fact-first, fact-only, or myth-only correction formats were most effective, using a range of different materials and participant pools. Experiments 1 and 2 focused on climate change misconceptions; participants were Qualtrics online panel members and students taking part in a massive open online course, respectively. Experiments 3 and 4 used misconceptions from a diverse set of topics, with Amazon Mechanical Turk crowdworkers and university student participants. We found that the impact of a correction on beliefs and inferential reasoning was largely independent of the specific format used. The clearest evidence for any potential relative superiority emerged in Experiment 4, which found that the myth-first format was more effective at myth correction than the fact-first format after a delayed retention interval. However, in general it appeared that as long as the key ingredients of a correction were presented, format did not make a considerable difference. This suggests that simply providing corrective information, regardless of format, is far more important than how the correction is presented.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. e000700
Author(s):  
Pierre Fremont ◽  
Kathryn Schneider ◽  
Anne Laroche ◽  
Carolyn Emery ◽  
Keith Yeates

ObjectivesA massive open online course (MOOC) has the potential to help address the public health burden of concussion across all levels of sport and leisure activities. The main objectives of this study were to document the volume of participation and to estimate the impact of a MOOC on concussion protocol implementation.MethodsBetween April 2016 and October 2018, four editions of a French-language MOOC on concussion were presented. Each of the six modules contains a section presenting the main learning content and a section proposing a reflective process to support the implementation of a concussion protocol in the participant’s environment. The proportion of registrants who achieved successful completion of the course was the main outcome. Surveys were also used to document the types of participants and their intent to implement or update a protocol.ResultsThirty per cent of 8368 registrants successfully completed the course. Of the 3061 participants who completed a survey about their background, 58.8% were healthcare professionals, 16.3% were sport or school stakeholders, and 10.1% were parents or persons who sustained a concussion. Of the 1471 participants who completed a survey about their intent to implement or update a concussion protocol in their environment, 39.4% answered positively.ConclusionThis study describes the first use of a MOOC to address the issue of concussion. The experience of a French-language MOOC shows promising results supporting the use of this innovative educational strategy as part of the solution to the public health issue of concussion.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Briony Swire-Thompson ◽  
John Cook ◽  
Lucy Butler ◽  
Jasmyne Sanderson ◽  
Stephan Lewandowsky ◽  
...  

Given that being misinformed can have negative ramifications, finding optimal corrective techniques has become a key focus of research. In recent years, several divergent correction formats have been proposed as superior corrective methods based on distinct theoretical frameworks. However, these correction formats have not been compared in controlled settings, so the suggested superiority of each format remains speculative. Across four experiments, the current paper investigated how altering the format of corrections influences peoples’ subsequent reliance on misinformation. We examined whether myth-first, fact-first, fact-only, or myth-only correction formats were most effective, using a range of different materials and participant pools. Experiments 1 and 2 focused on climate change misconceptions; participants were Qualtrics online panel members and students taking part in a massive open online course, respectively. Experiments 3 and 4 used misconceptions from a diverse set of topics, with Amazon Mechanical Turk crowdworkers and university student participants. We found that the impact of a correction on beliefs and inferential reasoning was largely independent of the specific format used. The clearest evidence for any potential relative superiority emerged in Experiment 4, which found that with a delayed retention interval, the myth-first format was more effective at myth correction than the fact-first format. However, in general it appeared that as long as the key ingredients of a correction were presented, format did not appear to make a considerable difference. This suggests that simply providing corrective information, regardless of format, is far more important than how the correction is presented.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Meinert ◽  
Abrar Alturkistani ◽  
David Brindley ◽  
Glenn Wells ◽  
Josip Car

BACKGROUND Increasing number of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are being used to train learners at scale in various healthcare related skills. However, many challenges in course delivery require further understanding, for example, factors exploring the reasons for high MOOC dropout rates, recorded low social interaction between learners and the lack of understanding of the impact of a course facilitators’ presence in course engagement. There is a need to generate further evidence to explore these detriments to MOOC course delivery to enable enhanced course learning design. OBJECTIVE This protocol aims to describe the design of a study evaluating learners knowledge, skills and attitudes in a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) about data science for healthcare. METHODS This study will use two evaluation models: 1) The RE-AIM framework and the 2) Kirkpatrick model drawing data from pre and post-course surveys and post-MOOC semi-structured interviews. The primary goal of the evaluation is to appraise participants' knowledge, skills, and attitude after taking the MOOC. RESULTS A summary of the research findings will be reported through a peer-reviewed journal and will be presented at an international conference. CONCLUSIONS The proposed multi-method evaluation of the MOOC was determined based on the MOOC’s aims and objectives and the methodological approaches used to evaluate this type of a course. The MOOC evaluation will help appraise the effectiveness of the MOOC in delivering its intended objectives. CLINICALTRIAL Ethics approval for this study was obtained from Imperial College London through the Education Ethics Review Process (EERP) (EERP1617-030).


2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 76-89
Author(s):  
A.B. Singh ◽  
I. Engeness

This study examines how course instructors facilitate students’ learning in the Pedagogical Information and Communication Technology (ICTPED) Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) aiming to develop professional digital competence in pre-service and in-service teachers in Norway. It also provides an insight into how students’ agentic engagement in learning may affect the course instructors’ guidance. Students’ online meetings with the course instructors and students were observed and recorded. The meetings aimed to develop students’ understanding of the examination assignment. The data (4.5 hours video recordings) analyzed by the method of interaction analysis revealed that the instructors performed four pedagogical functions: (1) setting up the learning process, (2) reifying students’ ideas;(3) assisting students in developing their conceptual understanding; and (4) summarizing and structuring students’ understanding about target concepts. These pedagogical functions evolved out of mutual collaboration of the instructors and students. The students’ agentic engagement in learning was visible when they took the initiative to explicitly share their ideas related to their examination assignment. Instructors’ agency in guiding came into play when addressing students’ ideas and questions emerged during the interaction process. Students’ agentic engagement in learning shaped the course instructors’ pedagogical functions and enhanced their agency. In doing so, the dialectical interplay between the students’ and course instructors’ agency comes to the fore as an essential aspect of learning and teaching in online environments.


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