In LRNT 526 we were tasked to begin a critical inquiry into an online modality, for which our team – Team MOOCtastic – has chosen a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) called Learning How to Learn from the Coursera platform. We plan to conduct a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats), with my area of focus being opportunities.
In my role we work to support professional association members with learning opportunities, some of which are mandatory and others that are voluntary. The industry Regulator and Provincial Association currently design and monitor mandatory interventions, with our team supporting by delivering a consistent and positive learner experience. Our team also designs and delivers additional learning interventions which focus on supporting members in achieving professional excellence. Although learners must complete a minimum number of additional learning experiences, they do have flexibility to choose the content topics and delivery methods that they prefer.
Our goal is to shift the culture of learning to one where learners access learning interventions because they value the content and can measure how the learning positively impacts their skills and knowledge in professional practice. Instead of members accessing a minimum amount of professional development, we envision a learning program that engages and motivates learners to participate due to the value they receive. I wonder if the opportunities provided by MOOCs, such as Coursera, could provide a framework to support a refreshed approach to content delivery in our association.
From past courses I am reminded of pedagogical approaches such as cognitive load theory, motivation theory, and gamification theory. Each seems to have a space in the MOOC environment and each has implications for the design and delivery of learning. During our preliminary research into MOOCs, Team MOOCtastic found that learner course completion rates are supported by supporting specified instructor-led timetables (Adamopolous, 2013), by allowing flexibility for learners that accommodates their various schedules (Khalil & Ebner, 2014), by motivating learners through access to feedback (Huang & Hew, 2016) and by including gamified elements (de Freitas, Morgan, & Gibson, 2015). In reflecting back on these studies, I am reminded learner completion rates are an important metric to track, especially when related to our learners’ needs to complete a specific number of courses.
As I was brainstorming opportunities that MOOCs provide, I was reminded of an LRNT 523 debate where I provided evidence that digital badges could render degrees obsolete. We found evidence that digital badges are a non-traditional way of representing learners’ skills, qualifications and achievements, which may not otherwise be captured in a degree (DiSalvio, 2016; Dyjur & Lindstrom, 2017; Shields & Chugh, 2017). This information resonated with me again in this inquiry, as I saw a correlation to the learning interventions we provide, which are not tied to a degree, but rather are tied to professional competencies. A key take-away from that debate that I will continue to explore was that there is disagreement in the world of badging, from those viewing digital badges as a reward to those who embrace a badge’s ability to evidence competency.
A question that pops top of mind as I delve deeper into my area of study is how learner content retention can be tracked and measured? If our goal is to positively shift professional excellence in practice, then we also need to measure learner content retention. I wonder if MOOCs can provide the framework that a learner needs to effectively recall the desired information (or easily access it) when needed in the field? A near-term priority for my inquiry will revolve around exploring content retention in MOOCs.
Our colleagues from Team Awesome Sauce posed a question on our blog post that resonated for me in my organizational context that asked what Learning How to Learn offers that differs from other MOOCs in the same modality. Now that I have completed the course, I can share that my experience was positive. I even find myself leveraging some of the learning in my practice, leading me to assume that I retained at least some of the core learning. Perhaps the reason is that I was committed throughout and that the content was applicable in the work I do? Perhaps it was due to the course design? I will need to explore this further as another near-term priority.
Through my continued critical inquiry I hope to uncover best practices, pedagogical approaches, and design principles that support learners to both complete a MOOC and to retain the content learned in practice. Justice, Rice, Roy, Hudspith, and Jenkins (2009) share that critical inquiry “occurs in an environment supportive of open-minded discussions, the questioning of assumptions, and the critical assessment of information, evidence and argument” (p. 843). To that end, I invite my colleagues to share their experiences and questions with me in the comments below.
Thanks for reading!
References
Adamopoulos, P. (2013). What makes a great MOOC? An interdisciplinary analysis of student retention in online courses.Retrieved April 12, 2018 from http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~padamopo/What%20makes%20a%20great%20MOOC.pdf
de Freitas, S. I., Morgan, J., & Gibson, D. (2015). Will MOOCs transform learning and teaching in higher education? Engagement and course retention in online learning provision. British Journal of Educational Technology, 46(3), 455-471. doi:10.1111/bjet.1
DiSalvio, Philip. (2016, May 3). New pathways to credentialing: The digital badge. New England Journal of Higher Education [Blog post] Retrieved from http://www.nebhe.org/thejournal/new-pathways-to-credentialing-the-digital-badge/
Dyjur, P., & Lindstrom, G. (2017). Perceptions and Uses of Digital Badges for Professional Learning Development in Higher Education. TechTrends, 61(4), 386–392. doi: 10.1007/s11528-017-0168-2Huang, B., & Hew, K. F. (2016). Measuring learners’ motivation level in massive open online courses. International Journal of Information and Education Technology, 6(10), 759-764. doi:10.7763/ijiet.2016.v6.78 8
Justice, C., Rice, J., Roy, D., Hudspith, B., & Jenkins, H. (2009). Inquiry-based learning in higher education: administrators’ perspectives on integrating inquiry pedagogy into the curriculum. Higher education, 58(6), 841.
Khalil, H., & Ebner, M. (2014). MOOCs completion rates and possible methods to improve retention-A literature review. In EdMedia: World Conference on Educational Media and Technology (pp. 1305-1313). Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved April 12, 2018 from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/147656
Shields, R., & Chugh, R. (2017). Digital badges—Rewards for learning? Education and Information Technologies, 22(4), 1817–1824. Retrieved from https://link-springer-com.ezproxy.royalroads.ca/article/10.1007%2Fs10639-016-9521-x
Karen – a very strong start, and good connections to literature and to other parts of the program. It’s interesting that many people in the workplace access MOOCs on their own to improve their professional practice and I would suspect that, apart from that motivation, badging has a lot of promise particularly in certifying professional competencies. A similar system has been in place for many years in IT and similar professional certifications. Good luck with your study.
Awesome read!! Given how well your post is written, I suspect you will offer a lot of good information in your presentation! Looking forward to it. 😀
Hi Karen,
Great post and you seem to be on a solid path of learning already. I appreciate the idea of seeing if you can track the learning and retention of content from the professional learning and what would that look like? I love that you are thinking of this question — it could be powerful. Proof might be in behaviour, skills, or ideas that resonate past the course – – are keywords or topic-specific language used? Do colleagues have greater projects, initiatives or involvements? Maybe with the professional development and the earning of a badge or micro credentialling, they have to refresh the knowledge and sustain current practices to keep it current?
Exciting stuff and keen to see where your research takes you and what your group has to discover about it.
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