scholarly journals Schism or Communion? A Discussion of the Morality of Online Learning through a Christian/Catholic Lens

2019 ◽  
pp. 249-276

While massive open online courses (MOOCs) garnered plenty of attention at the beginning of the decade, initial findings about their value have been disappointing. In particular, only a narrow range of participants appear to be successful in completing and passing these unmonitored courses: white, educated, affluent males. One prominent Catholic scholar, Jonathan Malesic, went as far as saying that the very nature of MOOCs does not align with Catholic teachings of learning through social interaction, adapting to the needs of the learner, and teaching (i.e., successfully) the masses. Further, by extension, he applied these criticisms to online learning in general. This article examines these criticisms, describes how these problems are present in K-12 online learning, and gives examples of how these issues are mitigated. The article concludes with ideas for using the online learning medium to promote Catholic and Christian values.

2015 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raniah Samir Adham ◽  
Karsten Oster Lundqvist

Abstract Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in the Arab World are still in their infancy. Many Arab countries are now starting to launch their MOOC platforms; however, there are only a few who have actually implemented such systems. This paper will explore online learning, in particular the rise of MOOCs around the world and their impact on the Arab World. The purpose of this paper is to give a true picture of the development of the first MOOC platforms in the Arab World. It will analyse in detail the concept, definitions, background, and types of MOOCs (xMOOCs and cMOOCs), as well as the main MOOCs platform in the Western and Arab worlds, and a timeline of the development of MOOCs. It will then observe the status of MOOCs in the developed world, opportunities in the Middle East, and the influence of Western MOOCs on the Arab world, from many perspectives, e.g. educational, religious, cultural and social.


Author(s):  
Riana Mardina

Revolusi industri 4.0 memacu kemunculan perkuliahan berbasis digital. Perguruan tinggi dapat mengantisipasi revolusi industri 4.0 dengan mengembangkan pendidikan tinggi jarak jauh atau terbuka yang dapat diimplementasikan dalam tiga model, yaitu: pembelajaran sepenuhnya online learning; blended learning, atau dikombinasikan dalam mata kuliah. Model pembelajaran MOOCs (massive open online courses) dapat dijadikan pilihan untuk pendidikan terbuka (open education). Inti utama model pembelajaran MOOCs adalah kolaborasi dan konektivitas. Pustakawan berperan untuk mendukung dan memfasilitasi model pembelajaran MOOCs. Pustakawan embedded adalah bagian komunitas model pembelajaran MOOCs dan harus berkolaborasi,menjalin hubungan erat dengan mahasiswa dan dosen. Pustakawan embedded dan model pembelajaran MOOCs memiliki esensi sama yaitu komunitas dan kolaborasi. Penguasaan teknologi informasi, online learning, literasi informasi sebagai kapasitas untuk menghadirkan pustakawan embedded dalam mencapai keberhasilan model pembelajaran MOOCs.


Author(s):  
Marina Lepp ◽  
Tauno Palts ◽  
Piret Luik ◽  
Kaspar Papli ◽  
Reelika Suviste ◽  
...  

Learning programming has become more and more popular and organizing introductory massive open online courses (MOOCs) on programming can be one way to bring this education to the masses. While programming MOOCs usually use automated assessment to give feedback on the submitted code, the lack of understanding of certain aspects of the tasks and feedback given by the automated assessment system can be one persistent problem for many participants. This paper introduces troubleshooters, which are help systems, structured like decision trees, for giving hints and examples of certain aspects of the course tasks. The goal of this paper is to give an overview of usability (benefits and dangers) of, and the participants’ feedback on, using troubleshooters. Troubleshooters have been used from the year 2016 in two different programming MOOCs for adults in Estonia. These MOOCs are characterized by high completion rates (50–70%), which is unusual for MOOCs. Data is gathered from the learning analytics integrated into the troubleshooters’ environment, letters from the participants, questionnaires, and tasks conducted through the courses. As it was not compulsory to use troubleshooters, the results indicate that only 19.8% of the users did not use troubleshooters at all and 10% of the participants did not find troubleshooters helpful at all. The main difference that appeared is that the number of questions asked from the organizers about the programming tasks during the courses via helpdesk declined about 29%.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 522-527
Author(s):  
Emily Player ◽  
Alice Shiner ◽  
Nick Steel ◽  
Veena Rodrigues

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.


Author(s):  
Oleksandra Poquet ◽  
Vitomir Kovanović ◽  
Pieter De Vries ◽  
Thieme Hennis ◽  
Srećko Joksimović ◽  
...  

The capacity to foster interpersonal interactions in massive open online courses (MOOCs) has frequently been contested, particularly when learner interactions are limited to MOOC forums. The establishment of social presence—a perceived sense of somebody being present and “real”—is among the strategies to tackle the challenges of online learning and could be applied in MOOCs. Thus far, social presence in MOOCs has been under-researched. Studies that previously examined social presence in MOOCs did not account for the peculiar nature of open online learning. In contrast to the existing work, this study seeks to understand how learners perceive social presence, and the different nuances of social presence in diverse MOOC populations. In particular, we compare perceptions of social presence across the groups of learners with different patterns of forum participation in three edX MOOCs. The findings reveal substantial differences in how learners with varying forum activity perceive social presence. Perceptions of social presence also differed in courses with the varying volume of forum interaction and duration. Finally, learners with sustained forum activity generally reported higher social presence scores that included low affectivity and strong group cohesion perceptions. With this in mind, this study is significant because of the insights into brings to the current body of knowledge around social presence in MOOCs. The study’s findings also raise questions about the effectiveness of transferring existing socio-constructivist constructs into the MOOC contexts.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (44) ◽  
pp. 68-80
Author(s):  
Noraina, I Sofia ◽  
Z Ghazali ◽  
Mahazir, I Irwan ◽  
M.H Norfaezah

Online learning systems are viewed as a potentially significant platform for learning and teaching (T&L) process during the Covid-19 pandemic that has spread worldwide since December 2019. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) is one of popular online learning platforms used around the world and has gain attention among lecturers nowadays in higher education institutions (HEIs). Due to its features, many institutions as well as in Malaysia started to develop MOOC as learning and teaching platform especially for Arabic language. However, problems that are often faced by Arabic language lecturers are less confident in producing aspects of multimedia teaching content. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to develop the content model of teaching Arabic in MOOC using Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) technique. A total of 14 elements identified by the agreement of 7 experts for the content model of Arabic MOOC which was generated through ISM software. Based on the findings, there are two most important elements; the element of determine topics, objectives, and learning outcomes for students to understand better the purpose of learning and element of ensure course materials use the appropriate type of writing for students' understanding while this model ends with the element of providing comment space to encouraged interaction among learners and lecturers. It is hoped that the study could be a reference and suggestion to Arabic lecturers in using the MOOC as a teaching platform while increase the effectiveness of MOOC implementation in Malaysian higher education institutions.


Author(s):  
Alfredo Mendoza González ◽  
Francisco Alvarez Rodríguez

The intention of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) is to extend online learning worldwide and to the most users as possible. Nowadays MOOCs have been used not only by undergraduate and hig-school students, but also by the elderly and the children. MOOCs have the potential to change the education in a better way to all people, including off course, the cognitive disabled people. From basic mathematics to specialized technical courses, MOOCs may enhance the opportunity to have better educational programs for cognitive disabled users, nevertheless, there are many things to do, about accessibility to guarantee a delightful user experience. This chapter introduces a new perspective to design inclusive MOOCs' interfaces.


2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 189-216
Author(s):  
Mahmood Ekrami ◽  
Professor Sarmadi ◽  
Leila Vatan Doust ◽  
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