Gamification: A key determinant of massive open online course (MOOC) success

Massive open online courses (MOOCs), contribute significantly to individual empowerment because they can help people learn about a wide range of topics. To realize the full potential of MOOCs, we need to understand their factors of success, here defined as the use, user satisfaction, along the individual and organizational performance resulting from the user involvement. We propose a theoretical framework to identify the determinants of successful MOOCs, and empirically measure these factors in a real MOOC context. We put forward the role of gamification and suggest that, together with information system (IS) theory, gamification proved to play a crucial role in the success of MOOCs.     

Creating a community of inquiry in online environments: An exploratory study on the effect of a protocol on interactions within asynchronous discussions

The purpose of our research was to examine the influence of an online protocol on asynchronous discussions. A mixed-methods study compared two online graduate classes: one that used a protocol and one that did not use a protocol for the same discussion about a complex reading. Analysis of the data revealed that the online protocol more evenly distributed the presence of cognitive, social, and teaching elements necessary to create and sustain an online community of inquiry. Use of the protocol also promoted more shared group cognition and more student ownership of the discussion and empowered students to facilitate themselves, helping to reduce the instructor workload. These findings may enable educators to provide more dynamic interaction and richer learning experiences in asynchronous online environments.     

MOOC环境下引导社科类军队院校学员自主学习计算机基础课程初探

MOOC作为一种崭新的在线教学模式,引起了国内外各界的高度关注。分析了MOOC的教学模式和社科类军队院校计算机基础教学的现状,在借鉴MOOC的设计形式、交流形式和组织形式的基础上,充分利用MOOC课程资源,引导学员自主学习,试图在社科类军队院校计算机基础教学中做出一些有益的尝试和探索。     

Examining online teaching,cognitive, and social presence for adult students

Drawing on the Community of Inquiry model (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000), this mixed-method case study examined the nature and interactions of teaching, cognitive, and social presence created by online instructors and adult students in diverse course contexts. The study results indicated online instructional design and teaching elements that are crucial prerequisites for a successful online higher educational experience for adult students. The study also informed e-learning designers on the relations between online teaching, cognitive, and social presence.     

Sage,guide, both,or even more? An examination of instructor activity in online MBA courses

This study examined faculty characteristics and behaviors in 46 MBA courses conducted over a two-year period. We found that both formal instructor activities, referred to in the online learning literature as teaching presence, and informal instructor activities, known as immediacy behaviors, were positive predictors of student perceived learning and satisfaction with the educational delivery medium. We also found that instructor login intensity, the average amount of time spent per login session, was a negative predictor of perceived learning. Collectively, these findings suggest the need for instructors to structure and organize their courses beforehand so they can focus on efficient engagement with their students while the class is in session. Although teaching presence and instructor immediacy were significant predictors of delivery medium satisfaction, they explained only 6% of the variance. This finding should help instructors avoid taking unnecessary responsibility for students’ attitudes toward online learning. The paper concludes with a discussion of implications for training of online instructors and the appropriate use of multilevel analytical tools in online learning and education research.     

Community of inquiry as a theoretical framework to foster “epistemic engagement” and “cognitive presence” in online education

In this paper, several recent theoretical conceptions of technology-mediated education are examined and a study of 2159 online learners is presented. The study validates an instrument designed to measure teaching, social, and cognitive presence indicative of a community of learners within the community of inquiry (CoI) framework [Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2000). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 2, 1–19; Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2001). Critical thinking, cognitive presence, and computer conferencing in distance education. American Journal of Distance Education, 15(1), 7–23]. Results indicate that the survey items cohere into interpretable factors that represent the intended constructs. Further it was determined through structural equation modeling that 70% of the variance in the online students’ levels of cognitive presence, a multivariate measure of learning, can be modeled based on their reports of their instructors’ skills in fostering teaching presence and their own abilities to establish a sense of social presence. Additional analysis identifies more details of the relationship between learner understandings of teaching and social presence and its impact on their cognitive presence. Implications for online teaching, policy, and faculty development are discussed.     

利用MOOC开展计算机基础教学改革实践

分析大学计算机基础课程的教学问题,利用MOOC实施翻转课堂,开展主动学习,进行教学效果分析,其效率优于传统课堂,达到以教师为中心转变为以学生为中心的目的。军队院校运用MOOC开展大规模教学虽仍存在一定挑战,但在线教学必定会有进一步发展。     

Three problems with the connectivist conception of learning

Connectivism, which has been argued to be a new learning theory, has emerged in the field of online learning during the last decade. On the World Wide Web at least, connectivism promises to establish learning spaces similar to those that Ivan Illich imagined in ‘Deschooling Society’, through so‐called massive online open courses (MOOCs). In this paper, we critically examine the theoretical postulates of connectivism and identify three important psychological and epistemological problems, namely the lack of a solution to the learning paradox, the underconceptualization of interaction and the inability to explain concept development. Some of the theoretical deficiencies in question may explain certain learning problems experienced by participants in MOOCs. The paper concludes that, although MOOCs are a worthwhile experience and ought to be continued, connectivism as a learning theory has significant theoretical problems and should be profoundly revised if it is to explain and foster learning in such environments.     

Semantically enriched Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) platform

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are becoming an essential source of information for both students and teachers. Noticeably, MOOCs have to adapt to the fast development of new technologies; they also have to satisfy the current generation of online students. The current MOOCs’ Management Systems, such as Coursera, Udacity, edX, etc., use content management platforms where content are organized in a hierarchical structure. We envision a new generation of MOOCs that support interpretability with formal semantics by using the SemanticWeb and the online social networks. Semantic technologies support more flexible information management than that offered by the current MOOCs’ platforms. Annotated information about courses, video lectures, assignments, students, teachers, etc., can be composed from heterogeneous sources, including contributions from the communities in the forum space. These annotations, combined with legacy data, build foundations for more efficient information discovery in MOOCs’ platforms. In this article we review various Collaborative Semantic Filtering technologies for building Semantic MOOCs’ management system, then, we present a prototype of a semantic middle-sized platform implemented at Western Kentucky University that answers these aforementioned requirements.     

Understanding the MOOCs continuance: The role of openness and reputation

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are classes delivered in an online environment with several features that are different from previous approaches to online education. The effectiveness of MOOCs is an open question as completion rates are substantially less than traditional online education courses. The objective of this study is to identify factors that enhance an individual' intention to continue using MOOCs, which a limited amount of research has previously explored. A research model based on the information systems continuance expectation-confirmation model is proposed and tested with data collected in a large-scale study. The research model explained a substantial percentage of the variance for the intention to continue using MOOCs, which is significantly influenced by perceived reputation, perceived openness, perceived usefulness, perceived, and user satisfaction. Perceived reputation and perceived openness were the strongest predictors and have not previously been examined in the context of MOOCs.     

基于深度学习的MOOCs辍学率预测方法

近年来大规模开放在线课程获得了较为广泛的关注。由于学习者学习方式不合理使得学习兴趣下降,学习效果不佳,MOOCs辍学率很高,针对这一问题,从学习者学习活动日志中自动抽取一段时间内连续特征,以学习者行为特征为自变量,建立MOOCs辍学预测模型。在KDD Cup 2015数据集上的实验表明,使用基于卷积神经网络的长短期记忆CNN_LSTM辍学预测模型,能够帮助MOOCs课程教师和设计者追踪课程学习者在不同时间步长的学习状态,从而动态监控不同阶段的辍学行为,模型的预测准确率高,这将为教师改进教学方法提供更合理的指导和建议。     

关于MOOC的一点思考

MOOC自问世以来吸引了教育界和工业界的目光。分析了MOOC的现状和不足,将MOOC与智能导学系统结合,提出了智能MOOC的概念,设计了智能MOOC的通用模型iMOOC,指出了该模型中各部分的关系与功能。     

“科学探究乐园”虚拟学习社区的初步设计

虚拟学习社区作为一种新的网络学习支撑平台越来越被人们所熟悉和接受。文章利用文献调查研究法、内容分析法等研究方法,从虚拟学习社区的定义入手,分析了当今国内外虚拟学习社区的研究现状,并以科学探究乐园为例,给出了虚拟学习社区的初步设计。     

计算机程序设计课程教学中的微课程案例设计

随着翻转课堂、MOOC等新概念的兴起,作为其重要信息载体的微课程受到了人们的高度重视,逐渐成为教育教学方法中的研究热点。微课程对于计算机类课程的应用有着更加实际的意义和先天优势。简要回顾微课程起源以及发展现状,针对本课程特点,提出了《计算机程序设计》微课程设计方法和案例设计。     

Investigating the adoption of MOOCs: A technology–user–environment perspective

In spite of the potentials promised by MOOCs (massive open online courses), the adoption rate of MOOCs is still low, especially in developing countries. Research on the adoption of MOOCs in developing countries is also limited. To fill this research gap, this research aims to study the adoption of MOOCs by extending current research on innovation and technology adoption in order to promote the diffusion of MOOCs in developing countries. Here, a conceptual framework, technology–user–environment was proposed to identify influential drivers and barriers of MOOC adoption. Eight hundred and twenty‐seven individuals in a developing country, were invited to participate in a questionnaire survey. Data were analysed by hierarchical regression, and the results show that for the (a) technological characteristics, perceived usefulness has the most significant influence, followed by lack of accessibility and performance‐to‐cost value; for the (b)user factors, self‐regulation was the most significant predictor of MOOC adoption, and female learners showed higher willingness to adopt MOOCs; and for the (c) social environmental factors, tradition and social norms and lack of information about MOOCs were negatively associated with adoption of MOOCs. Implications and suggestions are discussed at the end of this paper.     

My words for your pizza: An analysis of persuasive narratives in online crowdfunding

We analyze charity requests registered on the Random Acts of Pizza online community and examine the content of postings and non-content characteristics to identify features that are associated with the success of donation. We find that the presence of rational and credible appeals in a message increases the likelihood of receiving a donation, whereas the mere presence of negative emotional appeal does not do so. Our research is useful for those who like to make persuasive charity requests on online platforms.     

Attitudes, beliefs, and attendance in a hybrid course

Since online learning technology, such as streaming video, was introduced to the college distance-learning environment, there has been a need to study the attitudes of college students toward the use of this modality in hybrid courses. Understanding students’ attitudes toward using online materials and the impact on class attendance is not only essential to ascertain how effectively the online content is delivered, it also helps teaching faculty prepare online courses and education programs. This paper studies the attitudes of college students’ about online materials in a hybrid upper division communications class. Student attitudes towards combining distance-learning techniques with traditional lecture tended to be positive. Students held the belief that hybrid courses have a negative impact on attendance, but they did not self-report an actual impact. Students do believe that they benefit from this technology, but the belief is strongest in those who are most computer/Internet literate. How these attitudes/beliefs impact the student in the context of a rural culture will be discussed.     

Effectiveness of learning in online academic courses compared with face‐to‐face courses in higher education

This study examined the effectiveness of 3 online courses compared with the same 3 courses in a face‐to‐face (F2F) format, which had the same characteristics (e.g., the same instructor and final exam content and place). Effectiveness was examined by utilizing a wide range of variables, including 2 objective measures (N = 968): grades and completion rate; and 9 subjective measures (N = 360): 7 measures include instructional aspects (course structure, learning content, lessons watched, assignments, communication), engagement, and satisfaction. Findings indicate significant differences between online and F2F courses in most of the examined variables. Students in the online courses reported better understanding of the course structure, better communication with the course staff, watching the videos lessens more, and higher engagement and satisfaction. Students in the F2F courses reported better contribution of the learning content. Students' final grades were higher in the online courses, and no differences were found in the completion rate. The findings suggest that in many of the examined effectiveness aspects, online courses are as effective as, or more effective than, F2F courses. Interpretations of the findings are discussed.