Enrolment purposes,instructional activities,and perceptions of attitudinal learning in a human trafficking MOOC

This study examines learner enrolment purposes, perceptions on instructional activities and their relationship to learning gains in a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) for attitudinal change regarding human trafficking. Using an author-developed survey, learners reported their perceptions on instructional activities and learning gains within the MOOC, as well as their enrolment purposes. Motivations varied with the majority of learners wanting to formulate a viewpoint or to justify their existing viewpoint, with those taking the MOOC in order to earn a formal certification reporting the highest learning gains. Overall, learners perceived lectures and videos as the most impactful instructional strategy. However, learners who reported the personal project activity as the most effective instructional strategy showed the highest learning gain. The authors discuss the instructional design considerations based on these survey results.     

Facilitating attitudinal learning in an animal behaviour and welfare MOOC

This case study examines the design and facilitation of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) that focused on attitudinal learning about the topic of animal behaviour and welfare. Findings showed that a team of instructors worked together collaboratively towards realising learning goals and found the experience rewarding. While learners had mixed perceptions of gains in cognitive, affective and behavioural learning, they reported high satisfaction with lecture videos and instructor course participation. Implications for the instructional design of MOOCs and attitudinal learning are discussed based on these findings, including a discussion of MOOCs as a unique platform for attitudinal learning, and recommendations for their successful use. The recommendations include the importance of creating a collaborative instructor team, establishing high instructor presence, using interactive and collaborative learning activities, and receiving support from platform providers and institutions.     

Perceived attitudinal learning in a self-paced versus fixed-schedule MOOC

This study (N = 427) examined perceived attitudinal learning gains (i.e., cognitive, affective, and behavioral learning) related to the course topic by comparing a self-paced version of a Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) with a fixed-scheduled version. Independent samples t-tests revealed that those in a self-paced classroom were more likely to perceive higher levels of attitudinal learning gains and satisfaction than those in a fixed-scheduled MOOC. Those enrolling in the self-paced course also identified significantly more diverse reasons for enrolling. Learners in both courses identified course videos as the most impactful instructional component. Implications for the design of self-paced MOOCs are discussed.     

Primary assessment activity and learner perceptions of attitude change in four MOOCs

This study seeks to examine perceptions of attitudinal change in relation to the primary assessment activity within four Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) that were designed for attitudinal learning. The purpose of this study was twofold. First, we sought to understand if by focusing on assessing cognitive learning (quizzes) as opposed to behavioral learning (personal projects), the courses would result in greater reported attitude change in the respective areas. The second component of the study examined whether learners who identified cognitive learning (quizzes) as opposed to behavioral learning (personal projects) as the most impactful learning activity (or vice versa) reported stronger learning in the respective attitudinal component. Using an author-created survey that included learner reported attitudinal learning, perceptions of attitude change were collected. Results revealed that learners who utilized assessment activities focusing on behavioral learning did not report higher perceptions of behavioral learning. In contrast, learners utilizing assessment activities that focused on cognitive learning did report higher perceptions of cognitive learning. We conclude with a discussion of instructional design and facilitation of learning in MOOCs, as well as instruction for attitudinal learning within open-learning environments.     

Factors influencing the pursuit of personal learning goals in MOOCs

MOOCs are promising opportunities for lifelong learning, but as promising as these learning opportunities seem, many learners do not succeed in pursuing their personal learning goals. Barriers to learning are the main reason for not finishing the intended (parts of the) MOOCs. This study addressed the question whether the factors age, gender, educational level, and online learning experience affect barriers faced while learning in MOOCs. The results show that it is challenging to combine work and family life with lifelong (online) learning activities, especially for learners in their early adulthood and mid-life. However, more experience with online learning positively affects individuals’ ability to cope with these challenges. Also, learners with a lower educational level may experience a lack of knowledge or difficulties with the course content. These findings may serve as input to inform potentially vulnerable learners about these issues and support them in successfully achieving their personal learning goals.     

Participatory learning culture and community formation in connectivist MOOCs

The purpose of this research is to better understand community formation in MOOCs through employing combined lenses of connectivism, rhizomatic learning, actor-network theory, community of practice, and community of inquiry. In a sequential explanatory mixed methodology design, social network analysis and nethnography were used to analyze and interpret data from a five-week, open and freely available MOOC, #humanMOOC, conducted in late 2015 and early 2016. The findings revealed that both intrinsic and extrinsic drives have unique roles in community formation process and support. These include respect and transparency in mutual communication, being socially visible and building a digital identity, seeing the relationships and patterns among the ideas, and being emotionally present and creating a welcoming, safe place are some effective internal drives, while opportunities to connect to personally meaningful sources or nodes, being able to wander among open ecologies, using nonhuman elements to facilitate learning, creating a safe base ground for initial activities, and creating community goods and well-designed learning spaces that meet diverse needs of the learners are some external drives.     

Instructional design for distance learning

An intrinsic link exists between instructional design (ID) and distance learning (DL). Their inextricability in the real world raises specific problems of interest in the field of ID. In no other teaching/learning situation is ID so essential as in DL. The conditions of DL make it a necessity to have long-term instructional planning, cost analysis, curriculum and course development, instructional materials development and maintenance, delivery plans, and detailed evaluation rules. Without all of these components, DL simply could not happen. It took some time for this neccessity to be acknowledged, as can be seen in the history of DL. However, ID becomes even more critical as increasingly costly and complex means are used. Conditions of learning have special features in DL, such as the role of media, since the professor, teacher or instructor is replaced by media for either transmitting information or for organizing learning activities. In this paper, the term distance learning will be used to mean media-based, remote or asynchronous learning supported by an instructional system. This paper introduces general features of DL and examines essential aspects of ID for DL, with special emphasis on ID methodologies and on media selection.     

Designing for learning in the Yellow House: a comparison of instructional and learning design origins and practices

ABSTRACT

For the past two decades, there has been persistent debate around whether there is a difference between the fields of instructional design (ID) and learning design (LD). While differences in the two approaches are certainly apparent, there are cross-over points that can provide ID and LD researchers and practitioners with opportunities for dialogue about the purposes and remit of research-based practices for optimal design. Though potentially disruptive, initiating dialogues among learning and instructional designers could lead to more thorough and critical analyses of both ID and LD repertoires. Should boundary crossings occur, there is a potential for a third space for the contemplation, research, and practice of design. A goal of this article is to use the notion of Van Gogh’s Yellow House as an anchoring metaphor for the third space – a location for shared discourse, inspiration, collaboration, and challenge for a community of designers of/for learning. Using the impressionist and expressionist terminology to help elucidate the ways of thinking of designers of both traditions, this article examines the history, underlying philosophical approaches, methodologies, and design goals of ID and LD. We conclude that the emergence of a third space for design can help us move beyond the LD and ID dichotomies. We suggest that a socio-materialist perspective alleviates issues of incommensurability by acknowledging ontological multiplicity.     

“慕课”冲击与高等教育厘革趋向——应用型高等院校课程建设研究探微

慕课(MOOCs)起源于基于互联网的开放课程,以其大规模、自组织、个性化、社会性和免费开放等新型课程优势,成为跨越时空的超级课程、聚合能量的巨型课程。慕课强烈地冲击与挑战着传统课程体系,颠覆着传统的高等教育模式。网络化的学习潮流,探索出一个新的学习前沿,带来一场新的学习革命。当下,中国大学到了自我转型升级的关键时刻,课程改革势在必行!     

Competences,Learning Theories and MOOCs: Recent Developments in Lifelong Learning

Our societies have come to be known as knowledge societies in which lifelong learning is becoming increasingly important. In this context, competences have become a much discussed topic. Many documents were published by international organisations (UNESCO, World Bank, European Commission) which enumerated 21^st century key competences. The field of learning theories has also experienced advances. Findings from neuroscience have promoted a new understanding of what really happens in the brain when we learn. At the same time, the fact that learning increasingly takes place in virtual communities led George Siemens (2004) to propose connectivism as a learning theory for the digital age. Similarly, Roberto Carneiro (2010) suggested a theory he called generativism which aims at describing collaborative learning with digital technologies and open educational resources. These theories might be better able to describe and explain lifelong learning than classical learning theories. In the field of digital technologies, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have recently received a great deal of attention. While Siemens suggested connectivist MOOCs (cMOOCs) as the ideal platform for connectivist learning, other forms of MOOCs were also developed. These MOOCs have spread at a breath-taking pace in the last few years, although it is far from clear to what extent they are based on principles from learning theories and really support learning. These developments will be presented and discussed with respect to their relevance for lifelong learning as an integral part of man's quest for meaning.     

Incorporating motivation into multimedia learning

What is the role of motivation in multimedia learning? Cognitive theories of multimedia learning tend to focus on instructional methods aimed at reducing extraneous processing (such as highlighting the essential material) or managing essential processing (such as breaking a lesson into parts), whereas motivational theories tend to focus on instructional methods aimed at fostering generative processing (such as adding appealing graphics or challenging scenarios). Moreno's (2005) cognitive affective theory of learning from media is intended to better incorporate motivation and metacognition into theories of multimedia learning, helping to extend or clarify Mayer's (2009) cognitive theory of multimedia learning and Sweller's (Sweller, Ayres, & Kaluga, 2011) cognitive load theory. The research presented in this special section examines motivating instructional features intended to promote generative processing—such as adding appealing graphics (Magner, Schwonke, Aleven, Popescu, & Renkl, 2013; Plass, Heidig, Hayward, Homer, & Um, 2013) or challenging scenarios (D'Mello, Lehman, Pekrun, & Graesser, 2013). Overall, motivational features can improve student learning by fostering generative processing as long as the learner is not continually overloaded with extraneous processing or overly distracted from essential processing.     

如何有效设计高质量的MOOCs--基于认知目标分类和交互分析框架的思考

MOOCs的发展经历了从2012年的狂热支持,到2013年的反对声日益高涨的急速转变之后,如何有效设计高质量的MOOCs成为研究者和实践者日益关注的重要问题。教学目标与教学交互是网络课程设计的两大关键。基于布鲁姆认知目标分类以及穆尔的教学交互分析框架对现有三种MOOCs实践形式进行分析发现：以内容传递为主的MOOCs（xMOOCs）把认知行为主义作为理论基础,强调知识的传递,注重学生与内容的交互,处于认知目标分类底层;以任务完成为主的MOOCs（sMOOCs）混合了认知主义和建构主义学习理论,强调做中学,重视学生之间以及师生之间的交互,处于认知目标分类的中间层;以网络建立为主的MOOCs（cMOOCs）基于联通主义学习理论,强调学生和内容的交互是学习发生的基础,学生和学生的交互是学习发生的关键,学生与教师的交互是学习发生的保障,处于认知目标分类的最上层。三类MOOCs各有其优势和不足,在MOOCs设计和开发的过程中需要打破这些MOOCs分类之间的界限,根据教学目标,选择最佳的教学内容、教学方法,保持目标、内容、方法的一致和最佳匹配。我国在设计和开发MOOCs的过程中,还需要思考如何利用精品课程建设的已有成果,如何开放学习过程,并且在此过程中形成自身特色,吸引学习者的可持续、大规模参与。     

OCW、MOOCs的实践探索与开放大学的选择

在国家开放大学已有OCW(开放课件)和MOOCs(大规模网络公开课程)的相关研究与实践的基础上,选取一门MOOCs课程"时间管理"进行案例研究,综合运用问卷调查和访谈等相结合的方法,收集数据并进行分析,尝试为开放大学如何面对国际MOOCs的热潮及挑战,提供现实的思路和依据,研究的结论是,开放大学应做出选择:即借鉴MOOCs的相关经验,重点是要培养开放大学的核心能力,即整合课程、学习平台和学习支持服务等的综合服务能力,充分运用各种信息技术,实现远程开放教育领域的泛在学习路线图,从而为需求日益多样化的学生和社会学习者提供有支持的学习。     

Signaling text-picture relations in multimedia learning: A comprehensive meta-analysis

The signaling principle recommends emphasizing relevant aspects of a multimedia message by means of signals (e.g., color coding). We determined the effectiveness of signals that highlight correspondences between text and pictures as well as possible boundary conditions by means of a meta-analysis. To this end, 58 potentially relevant articles were identified in a comprehensive search. After rating the studies based on inclusion criteria and correcting for biases, 27 studies were included in the meta-analysis yielding 45 pairwise comparisons with N = 2464 participants. Domain-specific prior knowledge, pacing of the materials, pictorial format, mapping requirements, and distinctiveness of signals were coded as moderators. For transfer and comprehension performance a positive small-to-medium effect size (r = .17, 95% CI [0.11, 0.22]) favoring signaled multimedia material was found, which was moderated by prior knowledge. The findings support the effectiveness of the signaling principle in particular for learners with low prior knowledge.     

MOOCs之发展脉络

伴随着社会发展与技术进步,大规模开放在线课程(MOOCs)作为高等教育开放过程在互联网时代的特定展现,2012年在媒体的大肆宣传下、在世界一流大学的示范效应下、在商业模式的快速介入下,在世界范围刮起了一股MOOCs在线学习的狂潮。面对经过2013年趋于常态化发展的MOOCs,大学该如何处之?对此,笔者认为应该正确厘清MOOCs的产生和发展脉络,即深入分析MOOCs的产生背景与理论基础、MOOCs的发展进程与现实呈现等。只有准确把握这些方面,大学包括身处其中的教师和学生才有可能选择适合自己的应对策略。     

Perceptions of instructional quality: impact on acceptance and use of an online learning environment

ABSTRACT

Given the growing use of online learning environments in higher education, it is important to further unravel how students’ use is influenced by their perceptions towards these learning environments. This study includes the perceived quality of the instructional design based on the First Principles of Instruction of Merrill and students’ acceptance based on the constructs perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of the technology acceptance model (TAM). The aim of this study is twofold: a first aim is to investigate the influence of the perceived instructional quality on students’ acceptance and the second aim is to investigate the impact of students’ acceptance and the perceived instructional quality on the quantity (i.e. course activity) and quality (i.e. course performance) of use. In this study, a Moodle-based online learning environment for learning French as a foreign language was studied. Participants were 161 university students. Structural equation modeling (SEM) indicates that the perceived instructional quality has a significant positive influence on students’ acceptance. Furthermore, students’ perceived instructional quality has a positive influence on the quality, but not on the quantity of use, whereas students’ acceptance of the online learning environment has no impact on the use of the learning environment.     

中国大陆地区2014年高校慕课课程建设情况调查

为了了解中国大陆地区高校对于慕课建设和利用的态度,特别是已经行动的高校的计划和定位,作者对中国大陆地区32所已经建设慕课且已经开展慕课教学的高校相关校级领导和项目主管人员进行了网络问卷调查,对调查结果进行了描述性统计分析,且与美国相关报告进行了同类数据对比。研究发现,大陆地区高校在慕课建设策略上有许多类似的地方,在慕课建设动机与定位方面与美国高校存在较大差异。最后,我们对部分高校的做法进行了点评,就高校建设慕课过程中可能出现的问题如何通过政策防范,做出了提醒。     

Principles and practices of designing narrative distance for transformative learning experiences

Narratives have a unique ability to grant listeners emotional and cognitive space in a way that encourages them to choose how they will make sense of a story. This effect, called narrative distance, also has the potential to help create transformative learning experiences. This article is a qualitative research study of experts who regularly design for narrative distance. Six experts from a variety of fields were interviewed about the principles and practices of designing for narrative distance with the purpose of discovering ways that instructional designers can better facilitate transformative learning experiences. A variety of principles and practices on how to create narrative distance are categorized under four themes: cognitive space, emotional space, invite change, and meaningful content. General comments are also given on the application of these insights to instructional design along with further suggestions for research.