Recently, distance education has become popular and has gotten much attention. Information and Communication Technology advances fostered distance learning creation and enabled individuals to participate in the education process via various web-based platforms and study entirely online. Thus, the notion of e-learning and distance learning emerged. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) appeared as part of e-learning in 2008 and attracted great interest, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was anticipated that this kind of study also could be integrated into higher education and revolutionize the learning approach. However, several issues related to MOOCs limit their full potential. One of the most significant problems is substantial rate of learners’ attrition. It was discovered that only 5-10 percent of MOOC learners complete a course. This thesis aims to examine what influences individuals’ decision to leave MOOCs and how learners perceive various course components to get ideas regarding how MOOCs could be enhanced. To do this, the mixed-method study was undertaken where quantitative data analysis of learners’ reviews from discussion forums and qualitative interviews were adopted. It allowed to get two perspectives and broaden the thesis out- come. For the current research, data was collected from six courses in three different subjects-«Health», «Art and Humanity/Design» and «Computer/Data Science». In the first part of the work, sentiment analysis and topic modeling using Python packages were carried out, and then the results were used to construct an interview questionnaire. Lexicon-based sentiment analysis technique and LDA topic modeling algorithm were utilized and proved to be robust methods to extract texts’ polarity and peoples’ opinions. In the qualitative part, 19 topics of discussion were identified, which were consolidated into eight topics with higher abstraction – materials, instructor, content, time, assignment, feedback, program(course), and algorithms. Then during the qualitative part, participants expressed their opinions regarding these topics, and analysis codes were predefined, and new topics did not emerge. The results showed learners’ perceptions related to presented topics and how these aspects influence experience with MOOCs. The outcome also showed a slight disparity between different subject learners, in both qualitative and quantitative studies identified topics of discussion were not exactly the same, showing that learners from different educational domains tend to discuss different themes.

The purpose of this research was to determine how MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) can be introduced and implemented in Higher Education institutions in Mauritius. The study explored the perspectives of students, teachers and educational leaders using an exploratory case study approach, and involved the implementation of short MOOC-based courses in three areas of higher education in Mauritius. While much of the existing literature on MOOCs has used quantitative data to explore patterns of enrolment and retention, this study explicitly focused on student experience, and used Garrison, Anderson and Archer’s (2000) Community of Inquiry (COI) model to explore patterns of ‘presence’ and pedagogical preferences and needs of learners. In order to explore how these preferences, together with other contextual factors might affect the adoption of MOOCs in Mauritius, Venkatesh and Davis’s (2000) Technology Acceptance Model2 (TAM2) was used. The COI and TAM2 models were used both as analytical frameworks, but also to develop a new composite model that also can function as a boundary object (Bowker and Star, 1999; Fox, 2011) enabling different stakeholders to understand each other’s needs and expectations and communicate better with each other. For Mauritian learners, teaching presence in online environments is of critical importance: this is reflected in different scenarios of MOOC implementation identified, and in a proposed staged model for MOOC adoption across the HE sector in Mauritius. This involves further pilots and preliminary research (stage 1), integration of MOOCs into practice (stage 2), customisation and development of MOOCs (stage 3) and a MOOC for Mauritius (stage 4), with each stage informing the implementation of subsequent stages as part of a broad action research framework. The original contributions made by the research to the knowledge base of its possible audiences include: providing models of practice for teachers and educational leaders; informing the educational leaders and policy makers about how MOOCs can be successfully implemented in Mauritius; providing detailed case studies on MOOCs to the academic audience interested in MOOCs specifically; and proposing a new composite, pedagogically-informed, technology acceptance model to those academics who are interested in online pedagogy and technology acceptance. The results of this PhD research can also inform the introduction and effective implementation of MOOCs in other less-economically developed countries.

Advocates of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), a cross-cultural phenomenon that has attracted public attention throughout the world, portray them as an equalizing force in international higher education; but researchers have noted discrepancies in how learners from different countries have engaged with them. The number of MOOC learners in China is growing rapidly, and Chinese learners are enthusiastic about the unprecedented freedom they now have in selecting courses and accessing resources from the best international universities. However, they have a significantly low completion rate and may experience unique challenges about which little is known. This study took into account the diversity of MOOC learners and proposed changes to its course design to make it more inclusive for Chinese students. I used a mixed method—including document analysis, surveys, and interviews—to investigate the Chinese experience of taking Western MOOCs and also to explore the educational theories and design principles of MOOCs that have been discussed in the Western and Chinese literature. My analysis of the literature revealed issues of contextualization that may play a critical role in improving the MOOC experience for Chinese students. Drawing on theoretical educational frameworks—including motivation, community of inquiry, self-regulated learning, and social identity—my analysis of surveys and interviews identified common themes in the Chinese experience of Western MOOCs. In accordance with the results of my analysis, and also in line with interaction equivalency and situational principles, this study provided suggestions for adapting MOOCs to Chinese learners, such as enhancing content quality, improving learner–learner and learner–instructor interactions, providing social support, and collaborating with local universities and agencies in providing technical and credentialing support.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T14:31:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Daniela Manole.pdf: 4566123 bytes, checksum: ade44921f4bd38f3b6f1aaef9f29c32c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-09-29 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The key elements of this work emerge in an environment of an enormous use of web 2.0/3.0 for authorship together with a exponential growth of massive online educational initiatives with strong technology usage, where open educational resources with creative commons licenses and copyrighted materials oppose to materials without any indication of license, and at the same time there is a tension on the creative work of professors and students as to whom belongs its fruits. This research aims to analyze some of these environments where the conflicts are present, get to know the Bills of Law that tries to adjust to the new reality, in Brazil and elsewhere, as well as questioning and identify the key curriculum elements and pedagogical strategies used in the educational conceptualization of massive virtual environments. Through search one seeks comprehension of philosophical changes at todays cybernetic moment, trying to understand the need of change in teachers and students new roles. The problem is defined as the exposure of points of conflict between Open Educational Resources (OER) and copyrights in virtual learning environments, which in turn could comprehend a group of Learning Objects (LO), cited in various documents within this work. The results of this work suggests that in short and mid term learning objects which form the contents of a course kept in a virtual environment from a public or private institution, needs to be standardized and should explicitly contain, in metadata format, the kinds of embedded license whereas from copyrights or open educational resources under creative commons. The possibility of using LO with the appropriate and complete license information within metadata, depends on faculty knowledge for authorship as well as reuse of LO from another authors, so established principles can be applied / O elemento propulsor desta pesquisa surge em um cenário de crescente uso da web 2.0/3.0 para autoria na internet concomitante ao aumento exponencial de iniciativas educacionais massivas em ambientes virtuais de aprendizagem com intenso uso de tecnologia, em que o uso de recursos educacionais abertos com as respectivas licenças creative commons e os materiais protegidos por direitos autorais contrapõem-se a materiais sem qualquer indicação de licença atrelada, ao mesmo tempo em que há uma tensão entre a autoria do trabalho criativo de professores e alunos e a quem pertence os frutos dessa autoria. São objetivos desta pesquisa, a análise de alguns dos ambientes em que os conflitos estão presentes, o aprofundamento nos projetos de Leis, como a reforma à Lei de Direitos Autorais vigente, que procuram se adaptar à nova realidade, no Brasil e no mundo, e questionar e identificar os elementos curriculares e estratégias pedagógicas utilizadas nas concepções educacionais de ambientes virtuais massivos. Buscam-se na origem filosófica das mudanças ignitoras da cibercultura, as razões para as novas demandas de mudanças necessárias nos papéis do professor e do aluno. O problema é definido na exposição dos pontos de conflito entre Recursos Educacionais Abertos (REA) e direitos autorais nos Ambientes Virtuais de Aprendizagem (AVA), que, por sua vez, podem compreender diversos Objetos de Aprendizagem (OA), descritos em inúmeros documentos recentes citados ao longo deste trabalho. Os resultados apresentados neste estudo sugerem que, em uma perspectiva de curto a médio prazo, os objetos de aprendizagem que formam o escopo de um curso hospedado em um dado ambiente virtual, seja ele de uma instituição pública ou privada, precisam ser padronizados e conter explicitamente, em forma de metadados, os tipos de licenças embutidas, se são provenientes de conteúdos protegidos ou compõem-se de recursos educacionais abertos licenciados sob creative commons. A possibilidade de utilizar objetos de aprendizagem com a aposição completa das licenças nos metadados, depende do conhecimento dos professores, tanto para a autoria, quanto para o reúso de OA de outros autores, para que apliquem os preceitos estabelecidos

MOOCs實現了高等教育的跨國性、大量性與開放性，成功將世界各地的學習者、教學者與相關機構帶進全球網絡，為全球知識與傳播提供一個全新的平台。這場由世界頂尖大學所引發的MOOCs風暴，短時間內便席捲全球，在高等教育界掀起一陣波瀾。《紐約時報》甚至將MOOCs形容成一場「校園海嘯」，以迅雷不及掩耳的速度，衝擊高等教育的百年現場。 然而，究竟這場MOOCs風暴是如何一路延燒到世界各地？不同階段的影響因素又有何不同？為了釐清這些問題，本研究利用複雜理論「系統性」與「動態性」的觀點，探討MOOCs創新擴散之動態歷程，分析相關因素如何影響各個階段的歷程演變，以及因素之間互動後所產生的回饋關係。 本研究採用歷史研究法，並參考王美雅（2005）的創新擴散之動態模型，做為研究架構之基礎，探討MOOCs各階段擴散歷程之初始狀態、演化與正向回饋效果以及自我組織的現象。 研究結果發現，MOOCs的擴散事實上是一個自我組織的過程。在MOOCs擴散過程中，以「創新者的網路位置」與「理解創新的難易程度」兩項變數的影響尤其顯著。而各項變數之間不僅擁有正向回饋效果，亦存在著負向回饋效果，進而影響MOOCs的擴散與演化。 / MOOCs successfully brought global students, educators, and related organization into a global network, forming a platform for global diffusion of knowledge. Started by top universities around the globe, MOOCs’ forces have swept around the globe in a short amount of time, creating ripples in the higher education web. The New York Times describes MOOCs as a “Campus Tsunami,” sweeping through the sectors of higher education. How did this “Campus Tsunami” sweep around the globe? What are the factors that affect its dynamic diffusion process? In order to clarify these questions, this study employs the systematic and dynamic point of view of the complex theory to analyze how the factors influence each of MOOCs diffusion stages and what effects the factors create after interaction. This study employs the historical study method and Mei Ya, Wang’s (2005) dynamic innovation diffusion model as the fundamental structure to explore the initial conditions, evolution and positive reinforcements, and self-organization of each diffusion stage. The results demonstrate that MOOCs’ diffusion is based on self-organization. Within the seven factors, innovator networks and the difficulties in understanding innovation are the foremost influential factors. During MOOCs diffusion stages, the different factors interact with each other, producing both positive reinforcements and negative reinforcements, thus influencing MOOCs continuous diffusion and development.

Ziel des Beitrags ist, einen Überblick über aktuelle Entwicklungen und Ausprägungen von MOOCs sowie die Erfahrungen und Ergebnisse aus der Untersuchung von zwei MOOCs vorzustellen, die 2011 und 2012 durchgeführt wurden. Besondere Schwerpunkte liegen dabei auf der Bedeutung und Ausprägung der Beteiligungsformen in den verschiedenen MOOC-Formaten, der Beteiligung in den beiden untersuchten MOOCs sowie auf deren Unterschiede auch aufgrund von Veränderungen des Kursdesigns.

This thesis contributes to knowledge about how Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) as educational online platforms can be utilized in achieving the purposes of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Starting out from a view that, in the face of global challenges every individual is an important actor with agency to drive for necessary social changes, the overall ambition of this thesis is to investigate the role of MOOCs, as a specific form of online learning, in empowering and enabling learners to acquire the competences needed to take responsible actions and informed decisions in a rapidly changing, interdependent and unequal world. More specifically, this thesis aims at providing a deeper insight into the question of whether the pedagogic approaches used in ESD (learner-centered, action-oriented and transformative learning) and the learning processes that they promote, can be incorporated in the MOOC environment. This issue holds importance due to the global and intergenerational character of ESD where providing access to training and learning for sustainable development for all is vital. In this respect, MOOCs have been envisioned as revolutionary in the provision of access to education to a wider audience. Nevertheless, the “massive” part of MOOCs could pose a challenge in connection to ESD, due to the fact that ESD is not easily generalized and aims at upholding local relevance. Therefore, this thesis also looks into the question of the implications posed by scale and the issue of scalability when investigating how MOOCs can enable the application of ESD pedagogic approaches, thus also contributing to the achievement of the purposes and learning objectives of ESD and Climate Change Education as its constituent part. Utilizing a case study methodology, the MOOC in Climate Change Leadership at Uppsala University is chosen as a case example of the MOOC learning environment and learning circumstances. By conducting a content analysis of the MOOC materials as presented on the online platform, and developing an analytical framework based on the ESD pedagogic approaches, this thesis reaches the conclusion that some aspects of the ESD approaches benefit from the networked environment and large-scale participation in the MOOC environment, while the incorporation of others is more challenging and asks for further research and improvement of the MOOC learning environment in order for them to provide for the optimal learning circumstances and outcomes in connection to ESD.

In the last decade, development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) thatsupports online learning has increased the demand for e-learning and Massive Open OnlineCourses (MOOCs). Despite their increased popularity, MOOCs are struggling with highdropout rates and only a small percentage of learners complete the courses they enrolled in. Thepurpose of this thesis is to gain knowledge about MOOC learner behaviour. The aim of thestudy is to identify the motivations of learners and how these differ between learners whocompleted a course and those who dropped out. Research on MOOC learners has mostly beencarried out using a quantitative approach. While quantitative methodologies are effective inhandling the large amount of data produced by MOOCs, qualitative methods can give deeperinsights into online learners’ motivations. Therefore, this thesis employs an explanatorysequential mixed methods research, in which sentiment analysis and topic modeling of learnerreviews from the platform Coursera are further explained by qualitative interviews with MOOClearners. In the study 28,000 reviews scraped from five courses within the fields of data sciencewere analyzed and ten interviews were held with learners who either completed, dropped outfrom or both completed and dropped out from a MOOC. In the quantitative analysis nine coursefactors were found that learners wrote about: content, delivery, assessment, learning experience,tools, video material, teaching style, instructor skills and course provider. In addition, eighteenthemes were yielded from the interviews: self-discipline, just for fun, certificates, personaldevelopment, knowledge, career, time, equipment, practical exercise, interaction, instructor,reality, structure, external material, cost, community, degree of difficulty and other. In thediscussion the empirical findings are reflected upon using the theoretical framework of theresearch and the literature review. The result does not reveal any differences in motivationsbetween learners who completed a course and those who dropped out, however, it does identifyfactors that caused learners’ to drop out and the topics that most negative learner reviews wereabout. This research contributes to the body of knowledge in the field of research on MOOClearner retention and motivations. The topic is relevant for research in education informaticsand for continued improvements in delivery of MOOCs.

Ziel des Beitrags ist, einen Überblick über aktuelle Entwicklungen und Ausprägungen von MOOCs sowie die Erfahrungen und Ergebnisse aus der Untersuchung von zwei MOOCs vorzustellen, die 2011 und 2012 durchgeführt wurden. Besondere Schwerpunkte liegen dabei auf der Bedeutung und Ausprägung der Beteiligungsformen in den verschiedenen MOOC-Formaten, der Beteiligung in den beiden untersuchten MOOCs sowie auf deren Unterschiede auch aufgrund von Veränderungen des Kursdesigns.

В работе исследуются мнения отечественных и зарубежных ученых об определении и классификации онлайн-курсов и массовых открытых онлайн-курсов. Проведен анализ сорок одного русскоязычного и англоязычного массового открытого онлайн-курса по издательскому делу. Рассмотрены платформы, где размещены курсы, темы, цели курсов, язык и методы обучения, продолжительность, доступ к курсам. На основе анализа выявлены специфические черты онлайн-курсов по книгоизданию. Также в работе подробно описывается концепция авторского онлайн-курса по следующим параметрам: платформа для размещения, тема, цель курса, язык и методы обучения, продолжительность и доступ к курсу. Предлагается план-конспект для первого урока курса, включающий тему урока, цели, содержание урока и практические задания. / The dissertation examines the opinions of domestic and foreign scientists on the definition and classification of online courses and massive open online courses. The analyzed of forty-one Russian-language and English-language massive open online courses on publishing. The platforms where courses are located, topics, course objectives, language and teaching methods, duration, access to courses are considered. Based on the analysis, the specific features of online book publishing courses have been identified. The dissertation also describes in detail the concept of the author's online course in the following parameters: platform for placement, topic, course purpose, language and teaching methods, duration and access to the course. An outline for the first lesson of the course is proposed, including the topic of the lesson, objectives, lesson content and practical tasks.