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Description
Session Description
This presentation reports on the lessons learnt from the pilot of a professional development MOOC for a culturally and linguistically diverse cohort from low and middle income countries. This research seeks to address the gap in the literature of how linguistically and culturally diverse learners engage in online MOOC forums.
The session will comprise a discussion of the main findings of the pilot with some audience interactivity in the form of questioning throughout the session. This session sits within the wildcard topic – and investigates work-based learning, professional development, MOOCs, and linguistically and culturally diverse learning cohorts.
Findings from the pilot MOOC revealed that participants felt that the MOOC had improved their understanding of the topic considerably and was useful as a professional learning tool. One of the most commonly cited areas for improvement focused on the discussion forums, assessment timing and format, and time allocation for modules.
The findings from this study will be of value to those developing MOOCs for professional development purposes, particularly for cohorts of learners that are culturally or linguistically diverse and from low and middle income countries.
Session content: evaluation and reflection
This presentation reports on the lessons learnt from the pilot of a professional development MOOC for a culturally and linguistically diverse cohort across low and middle income countries. The MOOC focused on implementation research into infectious diseases in developing nations and was developed by the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases established by the World Health Organisation, in collaboration with the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. The pilot offering had a total of 123 participants from 29 countries across 6 continents. The course participants were a mix of managers, researchers and local health workers. The data for this study comprises online anonymous survey responses conducted on completion of each of the five modules of the MOOC and insights from a focus group conducted of participants in one of the regions participating in the pilot from the Americas region.
Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have increasingly gained in popularity since their inception approximately 10 years ago. MOOCs are a valuable tool for professional development and widely used for this purpose worldwide (Milligan & Littlejohn 2017; Salmon et al. 2015). Despite MOOCs being open to all, those that participate in them are largely well-educated and employed, with a majority from developed countries (Escher et al. 2014; van de Oudeweetering & Agirdag 2018). The vast majority of MOOCs are offered in English (Brouns et al. 2015; Colas et al. 2016; Hollands & Tirthali 2014) and come from an American or western perspective (Altbach 2014). Although MOOCs are increasingly used for student cohorts from different cultures and language groups (Fitzgerald, Wu & Witten 2014), much of the discussion of and research into MOOCs is based on the U.S. context (Jansen et al. 2015).
While research into learner engagement and interaction in MOOCs abounds (Crosslin et al. 2017; Joksimović et al. 2018), there is a dearth of research that specifically addresses how learner engagement and interaction takes place within culturally and linguistically diverse learner cohorts. Few studies have addressed the issue of how best to serve learners who are not fluent in the language of instruction, which is most often English. Those that have addressed this issue have found that learners may be reluctant to join online discussions in a language that they do not feel comfortable using (Garreta-Domingo, Hernández-Leo, Mor, and Sloep 2015). In such multilingual MOOCs, providing multilingual facilitation may activate participation in certain ways (Colas et al. 2016).
Findings from the pilot MOOC revealed that participants felt that the MOOC had improved their understanding of the topic considerably and was useful as a professional learning tool. One of the most commonly cited areas for improvement focused on the discussion forums, assessment timing and format, and time allocation for modules.
This research seeks to address the gap in the literature of how linguistically and culturally diverse learners engage in online MOOC forums. The findings from this study will be of value to those developing MOOCs for professional development purposes, particularly for cohorts of learners that are culturally or linguistically diverse and from low and middle income countries.
References
Altbach, P 2014. MOOCs as neocolonialism: Who controls knowledge?. International Higher Education, 75, pp. 5-7.
Brouns, F, Serrano Martínez-Santos, N, Civera, J, Kalz, M & Juan, A 2015. Supporting language diversity of European MOOCs with the EMMA platform.
Colas, J, Sloep, P & Garreta-Domingo, M 2016. The effect of multilingual facilitation on active participation in MOOCs. IRRODL, 17(4).
Crosslin, M, Dellinger, J, Joksimović, S, Kovanović, V & Gašević, D 2018. Customizable modalities for individualized learning: Examining patterns of engagement in dual-layer MOOCs. Online Learning, 22(1), pp. 19-38.
Deimann, M & Vogt, S 2015. Towards a European perspective on Massive Open Online Courses. IRRODL, Special Issue, 16(6), i–iii.
Fitzgerald, A, Wu, S & Witten, I 2014. Flexible open language education for a multilingual world. Proceedings of OpenCourseWare Consortium Global 2014: Open Education for a Multicultural World.
Garreta-Domingo, M, Hernández-Leo, D, Mor, Y & Sloep, P 2015. Teachers’ perceptions about the HANDSON MOOC. In G Conole, C Rensing, J Konert, & D Hutchison (Eds.), Design for teaching and learning in a networked world; EC-TEL, Toledo, Spain, (pp. 420–427). Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer.
Jansen, D, Schuwer, R, Teixeira, A & Aydin, C 2015. Comparing MOOC adoption strategies in Europe. IRRODL, 16(6), pp. 116-136.
Joksimović, S, Poquet, O, Kovanović, V, Dowell, N, Mills, C, Gašević, D, Dawson, S, Graesser, A & Brooks, C 2017. How do we model learning at scale? A systematic review of research on MOOCs. Review of Educational Research, 88(1), pp. 43-86.
Milligan, C & Littlejohn, A 2017. Why study on a MOOC? The motives of students and professionals. IRRODL, 18(2).
Salmon, G, Gregory, J, Lokuge Dona, K & Ross, B 2015. Experiential online development for educators: The example of the Carpe Diem MOOC. BJET, 46(3).
van de Oudeweetering, K & Agirdag, O 2018. MOOCs as accelerators of social mobility? A systematic review. Educational Technology and Society, 21(1).
Resources for participants
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