Massive Online Open Course Assisted Mechatronics Learning

Massive open online courses (MOOCs), also known as kind of free and accessible online education environment, have been deeply appeals to people and broadly covered in different medium. Nowadays, it seems MOOCs are everywhere. Originally, MOOCs are designed to offer learning content to the participants who do not have an adequate educational infrastructure, or where cost has become a barrier to educational access. However, as the MOOCs become more popular, an important question need to be asked: how do traditional face-to-face learning students benefit from MOOC environments as well? This chapter introduces MOOCs as an assistant platform to rebuild the course structure in order to tie education more closely to work. The major advantage of this hybrid teaching and learning model is that it is flexible as it allows students to work through materials at their own pace and at a time that is most convenient to them. Although the successful integration of such different teaching and learning modalities is a big challenge, the presented case study and the preliminary experimental results demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed hybrid methodology.

Toward Mobile Assisted Language MOOCs

MOOCs are presented in this article as a fundamental change in the access to education in the world. While not necessarily a completely new invention, the technological context was ripe for them to take off and become established as an important step forward in providing open education for a large number of people. It is argued that MOOCs, if correctly structured and managed, can harness the best of both formal and informal learning, to help students develop their receptive, productive and interactive language competences. It is, therefore, possible to talk about Language MOOCs, or LMOOCs, as a sub-field within MOOC research and practice. Activities that revolve around collaboration and peer review, resting upon basic linguistic notions of the target language, while arguably not as fruitful or enjoyable as direct interaction with native speakers, can still greatly motivate students to experiment with new language and become more proactive than they would in other learning environments. Furthermore, while focussing on the mistakes of other students, they are implicitly reviewing and refining their own comprehension and production. If mobile assisted language learning, or MALL, is talked about as the application of mobile technology to language learning, then given the potential of such technology to increase both the access of students to LMOOCs and also provide them with complementary tools for the courses, we can begin to talk about Mobile Assisted LMOOCs, or MALMOOCs. In this chapter, the nature of LMOOCs is discussed together with the potential role of mobile devices, argued to be the digital equivalent of the Swiss army knife, offering a rich and flexible way of interacting with the real world based upon the array of sensors present and the apps that can be installed on them.

Using Visualization to Understand Transformations in Learning and Design in MOOCs

MOOCs have captured the attention of large numbers of learners (and a few venture capitalists). Clearly something exciting and different is happening which is transforming how people learn, what people learn, as well as how learning events are designed and valued. This chapter attempts to understand these transformations, using a visualization tool (Footprints of Emergence) which enables learners, teachers, designers and researchers to reflect on, articulate, and learn from these reflections. The tool enables all of them to map the emergent and transformational aspects of learning in large groups, such as MOOCs. It requires the person engaging with the learning process to be honest and courageous – because they are engaging not only with their learning, but also with themselves and their own identities – personal, social, cultural and professional. Epistemic and ontological shifts in transformative learning are difficult, even scary and unsettling. We demonstrate how the Footprints of Emergence described here can help people to navigate through the uncertainty and unpredictability with some degree of reassurance.

Learning Objects in MOOC

Massive Online Open Courses (MOOC) are still in their infancy on the surface they look like the necessary silver bullet to provide alternate pathways to education. However, when completion rates and retention figures were published in 2013 the whole concept of the MOOC came under criticism. This criticism has grown largely as a result of the uncertainty and lack of detail about what a MOOC actually is; yet there appears to be a global drive behind MOOC. The ubiquitous presence of technology may be seen as a change agent and there is arguably sufficient demand for a new delivery model to provide education to a modern market. MOOC could fulfil this requirement for an alternate model. Central to the success of MOOC is the availability of high quality learning objects or Open Educational resources (OERs). This chapter provides a background to learning objects and MOOC and looks at good practices in the design, development and management of learning objects in MOOC.

MOOCs – A Challenge or an Opportunity

This article discusses whether universities should create some MOOCs themselves or use the existing ones constructively in their teaching – thus meeting the potential challenges head-on and turning these into opportunities. After presenting various definitions the writer goes on to discuss whether MOOCs are a challenge or an opportunity for universities. The answer to this question depends on the strategies adopted by the individual university. Therefore, a strategy for embedding MOOCs in current courses is presented. It seems that we are moving towards teaching and learning in networks rather than following the centuries-old linear thinking. Lecturers will agree with their students what their individual learning goals are – so there will be much more focus on goals or aims (learning outcomes), and a system will then be set up in which the individual student is motivated to seek and identify his or her own personal learning path towards that goal – also called adaptive learning. And MOOCs can be an integral part of this.

Assessment Activities in Massive Open On-Line Courses

This chapter analyzes the different implications of the new MOOC paradigm in assessment activities, emphasizing the differences with respect to other non MOOC educational technology environments and giving an insight about the redesign of assessment activities for MOOCs. The chapter also compares the different assessment activities that are available in some of the most used MOOC platforms at present. In addition, the process of design of MOOC assessment activities is analyzed. Specific examples are given about how to design and create different types of assessment activities. The Genghis authoring tool as a solution for the creation of some types of exercises in the Khan Academy platform is presented. Finally, there is an analysis of the learning analytics features related to assessment activities that are present in MOOCs. Moreover, some guidelines are provided about how to interpret and take advantage of this information.

Requirements Capture Analysis for MOOCS in Higher Education

One of the attention grabbing headlines in the last two years has been of hundreds of thousands of students enrolling on MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) that are being offered by some of the world's top Universities. Large numbers of students are starting these courses, and significant numbers – though only a small proportion of the cohorts – are apparently able to pass these courses. There is considerable momentum behind this movement and it is clearly here to stay in some form. This chapter includes a reflection on how MOOCS can become main stream and considers the requirements that such systems should meet, for students as well as for Higher Education (tertiary) institutions. The chapter considers requirements for students of Open and Free Access and the need for high quality materials. Furthermore, it considers how Computer science approaches for requirements capture can be used to identify features for MOOC and shows how these platforms can fit into blended learning.

MOOCs Business Models

MOOCs have grabbed the headlines and rightfully become the focal point of the disruption under way in higher education. The environment in which MOOCs and other forms of online education operate is changing virtually every day. The viral nature of MOOCs has been apparent through the rapid growth of providers, participating (significant) institutions, faculty members involved in providing courses, students enrolled, and other measures. And MOOCs are starting to exhibit the second trend desired by their startup investors: MOOCs don't seem to be going away. More courses are being added, more faculty members and students are becoming involved. While MOOCs have captured the interest of many, the business models and return on investment are still evolving. The aim of this chapter is to present an analysis of various business models being used by various MOOCs providers along with some future monetization strategies for MOOC providers.

Redemption through MOOCs?

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have received considerable publicity over the last few years. Since they offer costless learning experiences, many have seen them as a way of reducing the costs of higher education. A commonly suggested approach is that learners should be able to take a range of MOOCs and use their certificates of completion to assemble a portfolio that reflects their learning accomplishments, with separate educational market-providers offering services such as advisement, assessment, and accreditation of the portfolio content. It is speculated that this fracturing, or disaggregation, of the current higher educating system would allow learners greater choice and reduce the costs of obtaining accredited degrees. This chapter explores the opportunities and challenges presented by MOOCs and the economic and educational implications of a proposed disaggregation of the higher education system. The analysis suggests that disaggregation would not necessarily reduced costs, but that it would inevitably destroy much of the unpaid-for-value that resides for graduates in the current aggregated system of higher education.

Learning Theories Supporting Massive Open Online Courses

Learning theories lay at the core of every educational paradigm; especially applicable to MOOCs are the ones that originate in constructivism. Connectivism is a de facto learning theory that is framing the growing enthusiasm surrounding the design and the worldwide dissemination of MOOCs. This chapter shows how connectivism has become the digital age's natural successor to the stream of learning theories that preceded it, despite its questionable ability to fulfill the totality of pre-digital requirements drafted for learning theories. As a disruptive phenomenon, several obstacles to materializing the promise of inclusiveness and equality in access to learning that is signified by MOOCs remain, including learner autonomy, presence (cognitive, social and teacher's) and critical literacies, as well as recognition, validation and accreditation. Finally, fostering the widespread development of the set of educators' skills essential to fully implement connectivism is needed in order to fully reap the potential benefits of MOOCs.