International audience

This work in progress paper investigates if timely feedback increases learners' passing rate in a MOOC. An experiment conducted with 2,421 learners in the Coursera platform tests if weekly messages sent to groups of learners with the same probability of dropping out the course can improve retention. These messages can contain information about: (1) the average time spent in the course, or (2) the average time per learning session, or (3) the exercises performed, or (4) the video-lectures completed. Preliminary results show that the completion rate increased 12% with the intervention compared with data from 1,445 learners that participated in the same course in a previous session without the intervention. We discuss the limitations of these preliminary results and the future research derived from them.

Literature in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) highlights the importance of students' self-regulation ability for succeed in reaching their learning objectives. The questionnaire is one of the most widely used instruments for measuring self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies in online environments. However, questionnaires available in the literature have some limitations when applied in MOOCs: (1) they do not consider those strategies that have been related with academic achievements in MOOCs; (2) the response rates are low due to their large number of questions, which limits the usage of the collected data; and (3) they do not capture the idiosyncrasies of the actual MOOCs technological environment given that statements of existing questionnaires are based on instruments developed in the 90s. To overcome these shortcomings, this study presents the MOOC-SRL, a questionnaire to measure SRL in MOOCs. This questionnaire is built upon an analysis of existing SRL questionnaires used in traditional face to face, online learning and on a review that analyzed which SRL strategies relate to successful learning outcomes in MOOCs. This questionnaire was validated through an exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis developed over a sample of 4,627 ( N = 4,627) learners of 6 different MOOCs. The final questionnaire consists of 22 items to assess 5 SRL strategies in MOOCs: Self-efficacy, Goal setting, Study environment management, Organization and Help-seeking.

In order to develop an entrepreneurial mindset in future engineers, entrepreneurial training has become a key aspect of engineering education. Following this trend, a large and prestigious engineering school in Chile designed and implemented a third-year compulsory course on technology-focused entrepreneurship. To understand how course teaching and assessment methods have benefited students in terms of self-efficacy and learning gains, a cross-sectional survey study has been conducted since 2015. Over the last four academic periods, we assessed Pre-Post self-efficacy gains and learning benefits in 1,335 students. These survey results show that students perceived positive benefits from all course teaching and assessment methods. Thus, we discuss how a core engineering course can develop an entrepreneurial mindset in a diverse population of students.

Curriculum analytics (CA) emerged as a sub-field of learning analytics, aiming to use evidence to drive curriculum decision-making and program improvement. However, its overall impact on program outcomes remains unknown. In this context, this paper presents work-in-progress of a large research project to understand how CA could support continuous improvement processes at a program-level. We followed an approach based on design-based research to develop a CA tool: The Integrative Learning Design Framework. This paper describes three out of four phases of this framework and its main results, including the evaluation of the local impact of this CA tool. This evaluation consisted of an instrumental case study to evaluate its use to support 124 teaching staff in a 3-year continuous improvement process in a Latin American university. Lessons learned indicate that the tool helped staff to collect information for curriculum discussions, facilitating the availability of evidence regarding student competency attainment. To generalize these lessons, future work will consist of evaluating the tool in different university settings.

In recent years, institutions of higher education have been using Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) as an alternative to enhance and innovate traditional classroom practices. One of the approaches to this type of innovation consists of using MOOC platforms to develop online courses exclusively for their students. They are known as SPOC (Small Private Online Courses), distance-learning courses that provide access to knowledge online to smaller groups of students with a well defined profile. However, despite being robust platforms that support large volumes of data and visits, these are limited in the development of certain traditional class activities. Specifically, the existing platforms lack tools to facilitate group work. To address this problem, this article presents MyMOOCSpace, a game-based mobile application that offers an opportunity to scaffold the collaborative learning processes of MOOC platforms. MyMOOCSpace was developed with CSCL and game dynamics in mind. To assess this application and demonstrate its use, a case study of 25 students is presented. The results show that MyMOOCSpace increases the interaction among groups of SPOC participants.

Study in a Massive Open and Online Courses (MOOCs) is challenging, since participants take the course without the support of a teacher. Taking a MOOC require the students to have the ability to self-regulate their learning. However, every person has its own learning style and the way each one interacts and self-regulate in a MOOC varies. In this work we present an exploratory study from a process-oriented perspective to study whether students with different learning styles and SRL profiles show differences in navigating through a MOOC. Specifically, we investigate using Process Mining Techniques to analyze log files recording the course behavior of 99 learners across an Open edX MOOC combined with data from self-reported surveys. Our findings show that learners with different SRL profiles follow similar navigation paths, but there are differences when differentiating students by their learning styles.

This paper presents a systematic literature review that examines and analyzes the articles from 2008 to 2016 that have addressed the development of tools to support Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) in online and MOOC environments. The findings denote that: (1) there is a lack of tools to support SRL in MOOC environments; (2) the evaluation of the existing tools are not aligned whit the objectives of the research; (3) current research presents proposal of tools but very few achieve the stage of implementation; and (4) current existing tools tend to support many SRL strategies at the same time. We end up with a set of lessons learned for guiding the implementation of tools to support SRL strategies in MOOCs environments.

This paper presents the results of a pilot study about students’ adoption and learning outcomes of 4 MOOCs proposed as a complementary resource for traditional remedial courses on calculus. While the MOOCs were not mandatory, traditional remedial courses were required for those freshmen failing a diagnostic exam. The effects on 589 freshmen students were investigated. The data analysis shows that up to 16 % of the students were active in the MOOCs under study, mostly during the days before taking the diagnostic exam that preceded the traditional face-to-face remedial courses. Trace data about learner actions within the platform were collected as well as the students’ scores. According to a statistical comparison of the students’ exam scores and their interaction behavior with the MOOCs, we observe that active students had more chances of passing the diagnostic exam and skipping the required remedial courses. However, we found no significant differences on the remedial course exam scores between the students that were active in the MOOCs and those that were not. These findings suggest that MOOCs are a good solution to strengthening skills and reviewing concepts, but that more guidance is needed when used as a complement to traditional f2f courses.

Many committed learners struggle to achieve their goal of completing a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). This work investigates self-regulated learning (SRL) in MOOCs and tests if encouraging the use of SRL strategies can improve course performance. We asked a group of 17 highly successful learners about their own strategies for how to succeed in a MOOC. Their responses were coded based on a SRL framework and synthesized into seven recommendations. In a randomized experiment, we evaluated the effect of providing those recommendations to learners in the same course (N = 653). Although most learners rated the study tips as very helpful, the intervention did not improve course persistence or achievement. Results suggest that a single SRL prompt at the beginning of the course provides insufficient support. Instead, embedding technological aids that adaptively support SRL throughout the course could better support learners in MOOCs.

MOOCs represent a new medium for education. In this paper, we describe some of the best practices identified after having produc- ed and run a MOOC in 2013 for the first run of MiríadaX, having set up a service unit at Univ. Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) for the production of MOOCs (mainly for edX) and SPOCs for internal use, and continuing to be active in MOOCs and MOOC-related production at both sides of the Atlantic (in Spain and Chile).

The appearance of MOOCs has boosted the use of educational technology in all possible contexts. Universities are trying to understand this new phenomenon, while carrying out the first trials. Best practices are still scarce and will be developed in the coming months. In this paper, we present first experiences carried out at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, both with MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) and with SPOCs (Small Private Online Courses), which are MOOC counterparts for internal use.

This paper summarizes some of the work that has been carried out within the eMadrid research network in the last four years in the area of educational technology at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. In order to organize the findings and identify future trends and possibilities, a framework space is used with three dimensions: physical-digital, local-global, and formal-informal. Research results are presented along the three dimensions and possible future developments are suggested in this framework.

This article presents the results of a design workshop that developed scenarios of learning in an imaginary "smart city": Villard-de-Lans (Vercors, French Alps) by exploring suitable methodological approaches to the Smart City Learning Design. The aim of this case study was to propose "glocal" solutions intended to balance the global trends and the expectations of the community of reference (local elements), while distinguishing between access to information and participation in informal learning processes located in a smart city.

The collection of learner events within a server-client architecture occurs either at server, client or both complementarily. Such collection may be incomplete due to various factors, particularly for client-based monitoring, where learners can disable, delete or even modify their event logs due to privacy policies. The quality and accuracy of any analysis based on such data collections depends critically on the quality of the subjacent dataset. We propose three initial metrics to evaluate the completeness of a learning dataset: client-to-server ratio, event-to-activity ratio and subjective ratio. These metrics provide a glimpse on the coverage rate of the monitoring and can be applied to distinguish subsets of data with a minimum level of reliability to be used in a learning analytics study.

ISiS and 4SPPIces are two conceptual models that support the design of blended learning scenarios and of the technological systems for their enactment taking the space (virtual and physical) into account. Despite of their similarities, these two models have been conceived to a different end, usage contexts and for different audiences. However, they can be used complementarily. As a work usage example, we model a third party science inquiry educational scenario with both ISiS and 4SPPIces. This exercise illustrates how, in a two-phases design process, both models can complement each other to support collaboration among practitioners and technicians in the design of technologically supported innovative blended learning scenarios taking into account the space.

Mobile technologies are currently being applied to facilitate the development of learning activities in diverse spaces beyond the classroom. Indoors and outdoors spaces are augmented with located digital Educational Resources (ER) through specific technologies that provide a sensory input to smart phones that can indicate position and, thus, enable located learning activities. The potentiality that smart phones have, make these devices adequate to facilitate the access to located ERs. This paper proposes four space-aware design factors (the space, the connectivity, the position-based technologies and the guidance) that have to be considered for designing located learning activities supported with smart phones. The application of the factors is explained through four illustrative located learning scenarios. The paper discusses and provides a wide-range vision of how the combination of these factors affects the design of the activity, accessing to the ERs and monitoring the students' progress.

The management of groups is an essential task in collaborative learning scenarios. In a blended learning situation, in which online activities and face-to-face activities are combined, this group management becomes more complex. Different technological solutions have been proposed for supporting the group management in the CSCL field. However, these approaches fail to consider factors inherent to the blended learning scenarios. In this paper we discuss and propose a conceptualization of the main factors that condition the group management in these scenarios: the pedagogical method, the participants, the space and the history. These new conceptualization may help on incorporating more flexibility and accuracy on the whole learning design process for a wide range of learning situations.

Scripts are the computational solution proposed in the computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) field to guide and support potentially fruitful interactions in terms of learning benefits. However, when applying these scripts to real contexts, unexpected situations occur that forces to change the script on the fly. In a blended learning situation, in which online activities and face-to-face activities are combined this changes becomes more complex. Different solutions and tools have been developed to provide support to collaborative practices. However, these systems are still too rigid to capture the unexpected changes and situations that can occur in educational contexts. Specialized and interoperable tools should be developed for supporting these changing situations, without spoiling natural group dynamics.