Design and Early Development of a MOOC on “Sustainability in Everyday Life”: Role of the Teachers

Janssen, Mathias; Claesson, Anna Nyström; Lindqvist, Maria

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-32933-8_11

“…The second MOOC in this study is Sustainability in Everyday Life , also offered by Chalmers University of Technology (Janssen, Nyström Claesson, & Lindqvist, ). The MOOC was on an introductory level and aimed at developing the participant's capacity to grasp the complexities of sustainable development, so as to make better‐informed, more sustainable choices and decisions in everyday life.…”

Section: Study Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Videos as learning objects in MOOCs: A study of specialist and non‐specialist participants' video activity in MOOCs

Stöhr¹,

Stathakarou²,

Mueller³

et al. 2018

Brit J Educational Tech

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Despite the emergence of massive open online courses (MOOCs) and the field of MOOC research, we have a limited understanding of the specific needs of different learner groups and how MOOCs can successfully address those needs. Video lectures and demonstrations are a central learning component of MOOCs. This paper contributes to the research community by examining the use of MOOC videos for two groups of learners. In particular, we explore whether there is an observable difference between specialists' and non-specialists' video-watching activity. We analyse data collected from three MOOCs on the edX platform. Our findings indicate that while age and educational background impacts the level of video activity, there is no significant difference between specialists and non-specialists. We conclude that the MOOC format may be suited to non-specialist groups, allowing them to self-direct their learning and utilise videos as educational resources.

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“…Janssen et al (2016) identified six different roles during the design and early development of their MOOC: owners, teachers, learners, designers, developers, and negotiators. The advice given by Pundak and Dvir (2014) to create an online support center is relevant as a first step to increase the possibility to develop online teaching but also to prepare for and adapt to identity challenges (McNaughton & Billot, 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Lecturers' willingness to teach online courses has been examined in many studies (Pundak & Dvir, 2014), but few studies have taken this perspective when studying MOOCs and open courses (Janssen, Nyström Claesson & Lindqvist, 2016;Lang, Zhang, Li & Sun, 2016;Nascimbeni & Burgos, 2016;Ross et al, 2014;Siemens, Gasevic & Dawson, 2015). A recent review of theses and dissertations has been conducted by Bozkurt, Keskin and de Ward (2016) where similar results were found.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Higher Education Lecturers’ Lived Experience of Going Public in MOOCs

Olsson

¹

2017

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Academics in higher education are used to having their research publications reviewed and openly scrutinized. Teaching in higher education has traditionally been an individual academic's activity that has taken place in a closed classroom. However, the introduction of open education, particularly massive open online courses (MOOCs) has challenged this. In MOOCs, lectures are recorded and made public for thousands of course participants to view. This study investigates, via semi-structured interviews, how 20 lecturers of 10 MOOCs at six Swedish Universities have experienced this. All have joined the projects voluntarily, but a few have done so with some ambivalence. For them, standing in front of the camera, publishing material and, to some extent, losing control of the course content was scary at the beginning of the projects. Overall, the lecturers overcame this and thought that it was a good opportunity to reach many students, as well as a way to keep up with the changing requirements for teaching in higher education.

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“…Janssen et al (2016) identified six different roles during the design and early development of their MOOC: owners, teachers, learners, designers, developers, and negotiators. The advice given by Pundak and Dvir (2014) to create an online support center is relevant as a first step to increase the possibility to develop online teaching but also to prepare for and adapt to identity challenges (McNaughton & Billot, 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Lecturers' willingness to teach online courses has been examined in many studies (Pundak & Dvir, 2014), but few studies have taken this perspective when studying MOOCs and open courses (Janssen, Nyström Claesson & Lindqvist, 2016;Lang, Zhang, Li & Sun, 2016;Nascimbeni & Burgos, 2016;Ross et al, 2014;Siemens, Gasevic & Dawson, 2015). A recent review of theses and dissertations has been conducted by Bozkurt, Keskin and de Ward (2016) where similar results were found.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%