There is still a lot of hype around MOOCs - Massive Open Online Courses. I would like to find a good critical evaluation of them, based on solid empirical research. Can anyone help?
High quality empirical research on MOOCs is hard to find, but this is to be expected in a new field still finding its feet. Here are some starting points for you.
Various journals have published special issues on MOOCs - for example JOLT 9(2) and IRRODL 15(5) and more are forthcoming (e.g. BJET 46(3)).
(edit - added later) The IRRODL special issue drew together research reports form the MOOC Research Initiative http://www.moocresearch.com/reports
The recent LAK15 conference (http://lak15.solaresearch.org/home) had a strong focus on MOOC research, with papers available at http://dl.acm.org.gcu.idm.oclc.org/citation.cfm?id=2723576
My colleague Anoush Margaryan has published an analysis of the instructional quality of a range of (76) MOOCs:
Margaryan, A., Bianco, M., & Littlejohn, A. (2015). Instructional quality of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Computers and Education, 80, 77-83.
Similarly, Toven-Lindsay and colleagues evaluated the tools/design of a range of (24) MOOCs against a pedagogical framework along dimensions of individual-group and objectivist-constructivist approaches.
Toven-Lindsey, B., Rhoads, R. A., & Lozano, J. B. (2015). Virtually unlimited classrooms: Pedagogical practices in massive open online courses. The Internet and Higher Education, 24, 1-12.
I hope this helps.
Last June I heard a really interesting presentation by Erik Borg from Coventry University on this subject. His personal experience was very different from the hype about MOOCs.
Thank you so much! Both of your answers are extremely useful to me.
I have hardly found few empirical studies;
Mediating Knowledge through Peer to Peer Interaction in a Multicultural Online Learning Environment: A Case Study of International Students in the US
Gulnara Sadykova Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University, Russian Federation
Practical guidelines for designing and evaluating educationally oriented recommendations
Olga C. Santos, Jesus G. Boticario
Delving into Participants’ Profiles and Use of Social Tools in MOOCs
Carlos Alario-Hoyos, Mar Perez-Sanagustın, Carlos Delgado-Kloos, Hugo A. Parada G., and Mario Mu~noz-Organero
They were good for my research. Good night..
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