What is it like to learn and participate in MOOCs?

Special Issue – Call for papers

Educational Media International

Scholarly Peer-Reviewed Journal published by Taylor & Francis

Overview

While during 2011-2012 the mass media were largely exuberant about MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), claiming that these courses will revolutionize and democratize access to education, in 2013-2014 anti-MOOC sentiment rose amidst concerns pertaining to completion rates, sustainable business models, and pedagogical effectiveness. Heated debates on the status quo and future of higher education have ensued since then, and even though there is “no shortage of prophecies about [MOOC’s] potential impact” (Breslow et al., 2013, pp. 23), the academic community has yet to develop an in-depth understanding of learner experiences in MOOCs. The aim of the special issue is to add to our understanding of learner experiences in MOOCs by providing answers to the question: What is it like to learn and participate in MOOCs?

Learner experiences arise from the ways learners interact with and respond to content, activities, instructional methods, instructors, and the context within which learning and instruction happen (Parrish, 2005). At a time when researchers and online learning providers are embracing the use of learning analytics and big data to examine learner behaviors, activities, and actions, very few researchers have sought to gain a deep, qualitative, and multidimensional understanding of learner experiences with open forms of learning. A nuanced appreciation of how users experience open learning, including the successes and obstacles they face, will assist learning designers, researchers, and providers in making greater sense of the open course phenomenon as well as enable them to improve open online learning.

This CFP arises has its foundations on a 2013 call in which Veletsianos argued that “we only have small pieces of an incomplete mosaic of students’ learning experiences with open online learning” (Veletsianos, 2013). While there’s been an expansive amount of research on MOOCs, the existing literature predominantly focuses on learner behaviors and practices, while investigations of learners’ lived experiences are largely absent (Adams et al., 2014). The availability of large-scale data sets also appears to have shaped the research questions that are being asked about MOOCs, and, while significant insights are developed via that research route, the field will benefit tremendously by gaining a better understanding and appreciation of learners’ experiences.

To address these issues and to support the development of the field, we invite authors to submit manuscripts investigating the learner experience in massive open online courses.  Manuscripts can be of three types:

• Empirical. Such manuscripts should follow rigor guidelines appropriate for the research methods used.
• Systematic reviews of the literature and literature meta-syntheses.
• Theoretical manuscripts, contributing to the development of theory pertaining to learner experiences in open courses.

We are interested in hosting a forum for leading edge contributions to the nascent field that help us make sense of learner experiences, and allow practitioners and researchers to benefit from these contributions. Towards this aim, recommended topics of interest for this special issue include, but are not limited to, the following research questions:

• What is it like to learn in massive open online courses?
• What are learners’ experiences in open courses?
• Why are learners participating in open courses in the ways that they do?
• What are learner-learner and learner-instructor interactions like?
• How do learners respond to various instructional design decisions and instructor roles?
• How do learners perceive their relationships with each other, content, instructors, institutions, and MOOC providers?

Submission Process

Interested authors should submit 500-word abstracts and 200-word bios by December 19 at moocs@cardet.org. Submissions should include short descriptions of the following:

• Identified gap/problem addressed
• Methods or modes of inquiry
• Data sources
• (in-progress or final) results

Invitations to submit full papers will be send on or before January 9, 2014. Manuscripts should be formatted using APA style and should be 6,000 words, including references. The process to be followed thereafter is as follows:

• March 1, 2015: Full-length papers due via email at moocs@cardet.org
• May 1, 2015:  Notification of acceptance/rejections
• June 30, 2015: Final papers with revisions due
• 2015: Special issue is published

Special Issue Editors

Dr. George Veletsianos
Canada Research Chair in Innovative Learning and Technology
Associate Professor
Royal Roads University, Victoria, BC, Canada.

Dr. Vrasidas Charalambos
Executive Director, CARDET (www.cardet.org)
Associate Professor of Learning Innovations & Associate Dean for e-learning, University of Nicosia, Cyprus.

References

Adams, C., Yin, Y., Vargas Madriz, L.F., & Mullen, S. (2014). A phenomenology of learning large: The tutorial sphere of xMOOC video lectures. Distance Education, 35, 202-216.

Breslow, L., Pritchard, D. E., DeBoer, J., Stump, G. S., Ho, A. D., & Seaton, D. T. (2013). Studying learning in the worldwide classroom: Research into edX’s first MOOC. Research & Practice in Assessment, 8, 13-25.

Parrish, P. (2005). Embracing the aesthetics of instructional design. Educational Technology, 45(2), 16-25.

Veletsianos, G. (2013). Learner Experiences with MOOCs and Open Online Learning. Madison, WI: Hybrid Pedagogy Publications. Retrieved from http://learnerexperiences.hybridpedagogy.com.