In the previous blog post about our experience in creating videos, we mentioned how videos are a major component in MOOCs’ learning designs. Videos in MOOCs not only provide a different type of learning, but they also allow participants to interact with the content and share what they learned by building online learning communities. In this blog, we discuss how MOOCs facilitate knowledge and information sharing between participants through collaborative learning environments.
Picture 1. Screenshot taken of a discussion prompt from the Transforming Education in Challenging Environments MOOC. Step 2.5 What children may bring to the classroom
Learning in MOOCs is self-driven, and students have the opportunity to study anywhere and anytime. In most cases, the role of the instructor is not essential, or in most cases, non-existent, as opposed to face-to-face classes or closed online courses where the instructor is responsible for managing the different groups of students, giving feedback, and assigning homework.
Nevertheless, we found that it might be helpful to give our MOOC participants some type of support in order to provide further clarification on notions and assist them in case they face technical challenges in order to maintain a high rate of retention. For this reason, we collaborated with educators from Lebanon and assigned them the role of "Mentors" in the MOOCs. To enable a more supportive environment for the participants, we created a Mentor dashboard on Flipgrid where the mentors and the course’s team introduced themselves in a video that is no more than one minute long.
Picture 2. Screenshot of the Flipgrid taken from the Teaching Online: Be Ready Now MOOC on Edraak. Step 1.1 Meet the course's team.
Designing the steps
The design of the steps followed the six types of learning (Acquisition, Collaboration, Discussion, Inquiry, Practice and Production) that derived from Laurillard’s Conversational Framework. Diversifying the types of activities helped participants learn, process, and apply the concepts and skills in different ways. It gave participants the option of choosing the way in which they wanted to contribute to the course. One of the participants in the Transforming Education in Challenging Environments MOOC said:
I liked the combination of different learning types in the course. The videos of the teachers sharing their experiences, the articles, the discussion forums, and the interactive activities were very useful for me (Teacher).
Participants were able to contribute to the MOOCs through different learning activities and by using different online tools. As mentioned in the previous blog, one of the ways was by engaging in the discussion forums that followed the videos. They allowed participants to reflect and elicit new knowledge, share their experiences and learn from others. Another participant mentioned:
I enjoyed using the Padlet and I liked the way it presented the posts of other participants. It was very interesting to learn about the experiences of others working in the field, the difficulties that they were facing, and how they were able to solve them (MOOC participant).
Different types of activities were incorporated into the MOOCs by using different tools and techniques. For example, we used peer review to facilitate participants' feedback on each others’s work.
Picture 3. Screenshot taken of a peer review activity from the Community Based Research: Getting Started MOOC Step 3.6 Peer Review of the research proposal outline
And we used Padlets and WordClouds to enable participants to easily share their ideas, interact with others and see what other people are thinking.
Picture 4. Screenshot taken of a padlet activity from the Community Based Research: Getting Started MOOC Step 2.8 Creative ways of listening.
Picture 5. Screenshot taken of a WordCloud activity from the Transforming Education in Challenging Environments Step 1.7 The principles of a good learning environment.
Over to you!
Those are some of the ways that we created a social and collaborative learning experience.
Start your MOOC learning experience and engage in meaningful, constructive discussions with people in your field with one of the MOOCs mentioned below!
Find out more about this topic:
Transforming Education in Challenging Environments MOOC
Teaching Online: Be Ready Now MOOC on Edraak
Community Based Research: Getting Started MOOC