Browsing by Subject "MOOCs"

Now showing 1 - 11 of 11
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    Challenges for conceptualising EU MOOCs for vulnerable learner groups
    (European Commission, 2017-07-04) Czerniewicz, Laura; Gallagher, Michael Sean; Willems, Julie; Zelezny-Green, Ronda; de Waard, Inge; Downes, Stephen; Kukulska-Hulme, Agnes
    This exploratory paper picks up elements from the European Commission’s educational vision and philosophy behind Opening up Education, the resulting initiative of the OpenupEd.eu MOOC platform and takes this as a starting point to look at potential challenges for developing MOOCs that include vulnerable learner groups. In order to align the future conceptualization of MOOCs with the vision and philosophy of Europe, potential tensions of contemporary and future education are listed. The current dichotomy of xMOOC and cMOOC are used to mark some of the unexplored MOOC territory. Practical answers to contemporary, ICT supported educational challenges are provided as options to fuel the debate. The challenges and options for future online education initiatives are based on insights and ideas of international scholars and researchers reflecting on potential barriers for learners and online education. This paper aims to stimulate discussion of the potential for new educational technologies to ensure social inclusion for virtual and physical vulnerable learner groups.
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    Open Access
    Learning analytics: New thinking supporting educational research
    (2017-07-27) Deacon, Andrew
    This presentation at the 3rd Learning LandsCAPE conference at Cape Town, 14-16 April 2015 explores how learning analytics have the potential to transform educational research by providing fine-grained data on access, usage and completion of online educational materials. Examples from the UCT MOOCs project are used to illustrate the kinds of insights learning analytics can provide in monitoring and evenn predicting student performance.
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    MOOC-making: What is has meant to CILT
    (University of Cape Town, 2016) Czerniewicz, Laura
    Discussion of the process of making Massive Online Open Courses from both the academics' and supporting institution's perspectives.
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    MOOCs and access to higher education by South African underprivileged learners
    (2024) Mabhele, Mncedisi Chris; van Belle, Jean-Paul
    Background: Underprivileged South Africans struggle to access higher education for various reasons. Higher education potentially increases opportunities for the underprivileged to improve their socio-economic conditions. Higher education MOOCs have been revolutionary in providing quality higher education courses to the masses across the world with low barriers to entry and low cost. MOOCs could provide an alternative for underprivileged South Africans to access higher education. The purpose of the research: The main objective of this study is to identify and generate new and alternative perspectives on access to higher education by the underprivileged when assisted by the inclusion of MOOCs. To this end, this study discusses the role of MOOCs in reducing the barriers to access of higher education by underprivileged learners. Design/methodology/approach: This study employed mixed method approach (qualitative and quantitative methods). Initially, 25 one-on-one interviews with South Africa based participants were conducted online to gain insights and views on the topic. The results were analysed using thematic analysis. Subsequently, 116 South Africa based participants responded to a survey informed by the results from the initial interviews. The results were statistically analysed using regression analysis. Findings: The findings demonstrate that the underprivileged face many challenges in accessing higher education, including affordability, limited spaces within institutions and high entry requirements. The study further demonstrates that MOOCs can be used to address these challenges. However, challenges such as access to ICT, lack of role models and career guidance, low standard of basic education and not being academically prepared may need to be addressed through other means. Research contribution: This study adds to perspectives on the use of MOOCs to increase access to higher education by the underprivileged learners. Additionally, this study has the potential in creating new knowledge for underprivileged individuals to better leverage MOOCs in improving their chance to better life prospects. Lastly, this study can influence policy makers and higher education leadership in better using MOOCs in the quest for creating a more educated workforce.
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    MOOCs, openness and changing educator practices: an Activity Theory case study
    (10th International Conference on Networking Learning 2016, 2017-03-06) Czerniewicz, Laura; Glover, Michael; Deacon, Andrew; Walji, Sukaina
    The practices and perceptions of educators formed through the creation and running of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) provide a case study of how educators understandings of ‘openness’ change (Beetham et al 2012, p 3). We are interested in how educators engage with open education resources (OER) and openness as part of developing open online courses, and how this informs their practices and attitudes afterwards. Deepening understandings of these changes is important for informing strategies involving helping educators in adopting productive open educational practices. Our research question is how do educators’ practices change or not change when using - or not using - OER in and as a MOOC? We are interested in whether and why educators adopt open practices in their MOOCs. We employ an Activity Theory (AT) conceptual framework as a heuristic tool to track and thickly describe educators’ practices and perceptions. This frame enables us to locate educators’ practices - in a context of mediating nodes, i.e., tools/artefacts, rules, divisions of labour, and community – as they strive towards and consider their object. The object upon which the educators act is the development of a new interdisciplinary field. We focus on the role of two mediating artefacts introduced into the activity system, namely Creative Commons (CC) licenses and the ‘MOOC design’. We describe how the open aspect of these artefacts mediate and affect educator’s perceptions, attitudes and educational practices in the context of their object-directed activity system. We draw predominantly on semi-structured interviews with the MOOC lead educators and the MOOC learning designers. Interviews were conducted at two time intervals, before and after the MOOC has run. From this we craft two activity systems. We have categorised our findings according to Beetham et al’s dimensions of open practices. Further, two broad themes emerged from the data analysis. These are Affordances of the MOOC and Reflection on educational practices
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    MOOCs, openness and changing educator practices: an Activity Theory case study
    (International Council on Distance Education, 2017-03-15) Czerniewicz, Laura; Glover, Michael; Deacon, Andrew; Walji, Sukaina
    The practices and perceptions of educators formed through the creation and running of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) provide a case study of how educators understandings of ‘openness’ change (Beetham et al 2012, p 3). We are interested in how educators engage with open education resources (OER) and openness as part of developing open online courses, and how this informs their practices and attitudes afterwards. Deepening understandings of these changes is important for informing strategies involving helping educators in adopting productive open educational practices. Our research question is how do educators’ practices change or not change when using - or not using - OER in and as a MOOC? We are interested in whether and why educators adopt open practices in their MOOCs. We employ an Activity Theory (AT) conceptual framework as a heuristic tool to track and thickly describe educators’ practices and perceptions. This frame enables us to locate educators’ practices - in a context of mediating nodes, i.e., tools/artefacts, rules, divisions of labour, and community – as they strive towards and consider their object. The object upon which the educators act is the development of a new interdisciplinary field. We focus on the role of two mediating artefacts introduced into the activity system, namely Creative Commons (CC) licenses and the ‘MOOC design’. We describe how the open aspect of these artefacts mediate and affect educator’s perceptions, attitudes and educational practices in the context of their object-directed activity system. We draw predominantly on semi-structured interviews with the MOOC lead educators and the MOOC learning designers. Interviews were conducted at two time intervals, before and after the MOOC has run. From this we craft two activity systems. We have categorised our findings according to Beetham et al’s dimensions of open practices. Further, two broad themes emerged from the data analysis. These are Affordances of the MOOC and Reflection on educational practices.
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    MOOCs, openness and changing educator practices: an Activity Theory case study
    (Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Networked Learning 2016, 2016-05-19) Czerniewicz, Laura; Glover, Michael; Deacon, Andrew; Walji, Sukaina
    The practices and perceptions of educators formed through the creation and running of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) provide a case study of how educators understandings of ‘openness’ change (Beetham et al 2012, p 3). We are interested in how educators engage with open education resources (OER) and openness as part of developing open online courses, and how this informs their practices and attitudes afterwards. Deepening understandings of these changes is important for informing strategies involving helping educators in adopting productive open educational practices. Our research question is how do educators’ practices change or not change when using - or not using - OER in and as a MOOC? We are interested in whether and why educators adopt open practices in their MOOCs. We employ an Activity Theory (AT) conceptual framework as a heuristic tool to track and thickly describe educators’ practices and perceptions. This frame enables us to locate educators’ practices - in a context of mediating nodes, i.e., tools/artefacts, rules, divisions of labour, and community – as they strive towards and consider their object. The object upon which the educators act is the development of a new interdisciplinary field. We focus on the role of two mediating artefacts introduced into the activity system, namely Creative Commons (CC) licenses and the ‘MOOC design’. We describe how the open aspect of these artefacts mediate and affect educator’s perceptions, attitudes and educational practices in the context of their object-directed activity system. We draw predominantly on semi-structured interviews with the MOOC lead educators and the MOOC learning designers. Interviews were conducted at two time intervals, before and after the MOOC has run. From this we craft two activity systems. We have categorised our findings according to Beetham et al’s dimensions of open practices. Further, two broad themes emerged from the data analysis. These are Affordances of the MOOC and Reflection on educational practices.
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    MOOCs: A UCT Discussion
    (2014-11-05) Czerniewicz, Laura; Walji, Sukaina; Small, Janet; Deacon, Andrew
    This is a presentation by MOOC Task Team to inform the discussion around MOOCs in the UCT Course provision landscape. The presentation took place at the Centre for Innovation in Teaching and Learning (CILT), Centre for Higher Education Development (CHED) here at UCT on 31 March 2014.
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    OER & MOOCs: What’s the fuss?
    (2014-11-04) Hodgkinson-Williams, Cheryl; Czerniewicz, Laura
    As part of Open Education Week 2014 here at UCT, Associate Professor Cheryl Hodgkinson-Williams and Associate Professor Laura Czerniewicz provided some insights into what Open Educational Resources (OER) & Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are and why they are being touted as ways of providing access to quality education in tough economic times. By referring to global and local UCT examples of OER on UCT OpenContent, this presentation helps to demystify these relatively new opportunities on the educational landscape.
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    Open Education and the Open Scholarship Agenda, a University of Cape Town Perspective
    (University of Cape Town, 2014-09) Czerniewicz, Laura; Cox, Glenda; Hodgkinson-Williams, Cheryl; Willmers, Michelle
    At the University of Cape Town open education and open scholarship activities and projects have taken place in several guises over the past seven years. They have been loosely connected, driven by champions and enabled by external grant funding. Open education practices and advocacy work has been firmly grounded in a collegial institutional culture, with the concomitant implications. The year 2014 saw the organic growth come together in an institutional commitment expressed in a Council-approved holistic open access policy, in the Launch of a repository curating both open education resources and research, and through a decision by the Library to provide a home for much of the work, partnered by the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching. The work has been accompanied by a commitment to researching practice, and has seen a number of studies completed, with a large scale research project on OERs across the global south underway. The open education agenda has been driven by a commitment to high quality education, by a belief in access to knowledge, by the hope for economies in the system, and through the Internet enabling the collaboration already woven into the academy to take a new networked and transparent form. Given its location, there has also been an acknowledgement of the need to make openly available locally developed teaching resources and research scholarly content from the global south. This bookchapter is a post-print. It is made available according to the terms of agreement between the author and the journal, and in accordance with UCT’s open access policy available: http://www.openuct.uct.ac.za/sites/default/files/UCTOpenAccessPolicy.pdf for the purposes of research, teaching and private study.
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    UCT Open Education Week 2015
    (2015-04-07) King, Thomas; Cox, Glenda; Makwande, Tinashe; Kawana, Monde
    On 13 March 2015 the Vice Chancellor's Open Educational Resources Adaptation project hosted an event which focused on the Open Educational activities underway at the University of Cape Town. Emeritus Professor Martin Hall provided the keynote address with '50 Shades of Openness', giving the audience some feedback on the history of the Open movement and sharing insights from his time as XXXX of Jisc, the British library consortium. He was followed by Mark Horner, talking about Open Textbooks in South African schools; Tobias Schonwetter, who provided a brief look at the legal frameworks behind open licensing; Sukaina Walhi, reporting on UCT's MOOCs project; Cheryl Hodgkinson-Williams, talkiing about the Research on Open Educational Resources for Development project; Jill Claassen, the manager of the OpenUCT repository; and Juan Klopper, sharing his experiences of providing Open Education.