Archive

In recent years, online teaching and training with MOOCs has become increasingly important. This is demonstrated by the number of publications about them. Here we present a meta-analysis of the research that has been performed, focusing on the educational opportunities provided by MOOCs. This study was conducted using Social Sciences peer review open journal publications from the last five years (2011-2016). These indexed publications can be found in the following databases: JCR, Scimago Journal-SCOPUS, and Sello Fecyt. The main result obtained

MOOCs are seen as the latest development in online learning and since their launch in 2008 they have become an integral part of university course curricula. We are currently at an early stage in the development of MOOCs; few studies have been published on their assessment so far. Consequently, this paper is based on a literature review, using the main academic databases JCR and Scopus, on 33 articles published between 2013 and 2015 with the objective of determining the educational quality of MOOCs. The methodology is based on a literature review

This article analyses the impact of the MOOC movement on the Twitter social network. To do so the lexical-semantic impact of 55,511 tweets by ten of the world’s leading platforms offering MOOC courses was analysed using a tf-idf calculation to represent documents in natural language processing. The Twitter profiles, patterns of use, and geolocation of tweets by continent were also analysed using computational and statistical techniques. The results show that there is no correlation between use of Twitter accounts by MOOC platforms and their number

This paper shows the results of a longitudinal study on the integration of MOOCs in university classrooms and their influence on academic performance. The relationship between performance and the course design and the type of student participation is discussed. Performance has been assessed through evidence of learning, while the design and influence of the type of participation have been checked using standard instruments: TAM (Technology Acceptance Model) and IMMS (Instructional Materials Motivation Survey). Evidence obtained shows that participation

In general, participants use MOOCs for individual learning purposes by selecting certain contents of a MOOC in which they are interested. Simultaneously, MOOCs are used in the context of online-lectures offered to students who must or may enroll for a specific course to earn credits. However, many participants do not successfully complete all units of a MOOC. Therefore, completion rates —in general— are rather low. Certificates like PDF-documents or electronic badges can be an adequate stimulation to complete a course. This research raises the

After an initial stage of exponential growth in MOOCs, a need has arisen of to address several different aspects of the-se innovations in order to understand and develop them from different perspectives, such as this one, with the analysis of pedagogical dimensions aimed at improving course design. This paper presents an updated review of the literature and proposes five research lines for an in-depth approach. This study is part of a broader research project1 and here analyses 356 MOOCs delivered in Portuguese by 16 different platforms. The research

In recent times, computers and internet have penetrated secondary schools in Africa but with greater attention to students’ computer literacy than teachers. At the same time, previous studies on digital literacy of teachers are unsustainable and mainly skewed on pre-service teachers than in-service teachers. These realities point to the need to investigate and implement effective and sustainable initiatives for improving digital literacy and online life-long learning for in-service teachers in Africa. This paper therefore presents a specialised