MOOCs Lack Interactivity and Collaborativeness: Evaluating MOOC Platforms

Abstract

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have considered to be a potential to disseminate engineering education at scale. However, the pedagogical requirement demanded engineering student to equip with specific skillsets such as communication, interactivity, and collaboration. Yet, MOOCs are skeptical of facilitating those skills. Generally, MOOCs evaluated against accessibility and usability. These evaluations may not perceive whether the platform designs in MOOCs support to much-needed interactions and collaboration required in engineering education. We evaluated 6 MOOC platform designs under the lens of collaboration and types of interactions which occur as learner to learner, learner to instructor, learner to platform and learner to content. Evaluation criteria were derived us-ing previous frameworks and evaluations were conducted using 10 participants. Based on each criterion a matrix was formed with a weight to compare results. We found overall collaboration opportunities in platforms are significantly less than the opportunities to interact. Based on the findings we provide 5 design recommendations and provide a future direction for MOOC platform designs which en-ables facilitation to engineering education through MOOCs.

Transitioning to Online Learning during COVID-19 Pandemic: Case Study of a Pre-University Centre in Malaysia

“…Thus, interactivity is regarded as a vital element for an impactful online learning experience [29]. Moreover, teamwork also plays a huge role to increase positivity in learning experiences [30]. Teaching science and mathematics (STEM)-related subjects is hard through traditional face-toface means [31], let alone learning new concepts online.…”

Evaluation of a Design Thinking MOOC: A Preliminary Investigation

“…1) Independent Reviewer: The evaluation tools used by the independent reviewer is similar to the first set of tools proposed by Gamage [2]. Please see Fig.…”

“…The second set of tool has ten criteria, namely, interaction, collaboration, motivation, network of opportunities and future directions, pedagogy, content, assessment, usability, technology, and support for learners. The findings were MOOC platforms lack interactivity between learners and opportunity for collaboration within a social structure [2]. Suggestions for MOOC platform development include 1) Scaffolding interaction designs to engage with other learners, 2) Open collaborative group selection 3) Student instructor interaction, 4) Co-creation of content with students, 5) Creation of open learning communities.…”

“…Secondly, online courses for design thinking are lack of interaction and collaboration between the instructor and students; and between students and students [2]. One of the suggestions is to have a social collaborative platform on the MOOC platform.…”

The Philippine Higher Education Sector in the Time of COVID-19

“…First, there is the issue of social integration and peer culture, and the possibility of transmission of values in a "virtual" classroom. Since there is a lack of human interaction in the learning process, students may learn less in such a setup as opposed to those in the traditional classroom (Edge and Loegering, 2000;Gamage et al, 2020). Second, there is also an issue on the unnaturalness and the results of online learning, since it goes against how natural teaching and learning supposedly take place (Larreamendy-Joerns and Leinhardt, 2006;Adnan and Anwar, 2020).…”