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Even online students need to feel part of a group

By | Completion rate, Sin categoría | No Comments

ECO has set high standards when it comes to pass rates for students on their MOOCs. One of the challenges we face in online learning is the high drop-out rate. In this phase of our own internet evolution, users are becoming more and more conscious of how they can scan the internet, scout, sign up, but also opt-out. To truly engage online is quite a task that keeps the minds occupied of many commercially orientated internet players, like retailers. Some succeed, some are less productive, however it is not always necessary to have 100% engaged users. With only 10% of potential customers retaining their attention on just 1 product, will probably satisfy the needs of the busines model.

In online education it is hardly imaginable that superficially engaged users or temporarily engaged users will result in sustainable learning. So how do you create a motivation that lasts for at least several weeks the students spends online? Will it be money he or she spends? No, because the MOOCs that we offer within the project´s 3 year time frame will be freely accessible by anyone within the European Union. Will it be quality? Although we believe that we will offer the highest possible quality, we understand that that in itself does not create a prerequisite for engagement.

In our consortium´s Document of Work (DOW) the words ´social channels´ and ´social inclusion´ appear a number of times, the latter referring to including to including social groups into the student group who otherwise would not have access to these teachings in a physical classroom. Students who are in a hospital for instance or students that live in remote areas or cannot leave their home.

In their article ´Even in a MOOC, Students Want to Belong´* by Lisa Thomas and James Herbert published on September 4 on the Australian website and thought leadership platform Social Science Space, the authors comment on social inclusion as an motivational component in online learning. The researched what matters to students in an online context to keep them focused and engaged in their learning process and ” found that “sense of belonging” was one aspect deemed to be important.” The authors go on to investigate what elements the course in itself should contain ranging from debate options, to embedding collaborative asigments part of the course and assessment. Additionally the teacher has a possibility to create a certain outreach directly to students by means of “electronic office hours and `[…], creating announcements”.

The authors recap their research by stating that online courses must not necesarrily force the social cohesion strategy upon students who prefer just to stick to the course content. This part of the potential student population may in fact not be in need of the sense of belonging to stick to the course and gear up the course completion rate. Or possibly they are in part the ones who will drop out eventually.

Whatever the reason, at ECO we need to provide answers and counter measures for all potential scenarios and not forget the teacher for that matter either.

*Source: http://www.socialsciencespace.com/2014/09/even-in-a-mooc-students-want-to-belong

ECO reporting from India

By | Meeting report | No Comments

Between 15 to July 19, 2014 took place in Hyderabad (India) the International Congress IAMCR2014, the worldwide professional organization for excellence in the field of communication research.

ECO Consortium members Dra. Sara Osuna (UNED), professor Alfonso Gutierrez (University of Valladolid) and the consultant responsible for marketing and international comercialization Vicente Montiel (Tabarca Consulting) attended the Congress on behalf of our European consortium for the worldwiede presentation of ECO project.

SaraOsuna_ECO_IAMCR2014 SaraOsuna2_ECO_IAMCR2014 ECO_representation_IAMCR2014
Dra. Sara Osuna, professor Alfonso Gutiérrez and consultant Vicente Montiel at the entrance of the Congress

ECO consortium coordinator, Dra. Sara Osuna and the consultant responsible for marketing Vicente Montiel, made ​​the presentation of ECO on Thursday afternoon with a large representation of entities and education professionals coming from all over the world.Sara Osuna_VicenteMontiel_ECOLearning
ECO coordinator, Dra. Sara Osuna (UNED) and the consultant and marketing responsible, Vicente Montiel (Tabarca Consulting), after the presentation in IAMCR2014

The presentation was received with great interest by the participants in the Congress. We presented the objectives, commitments and methodology that the members of ECO consortium are developing to make this project the reference in European MOOCs .

At the end of the presentation, and after a roundtable discussion with those attending it, synergies of collaboration with different institutions and universities very interested in our project were established.

From the Coordination of the project, we highly value the participation in the event and after the great received assessment we will continue our work with more enthusiasm if possible to reach the objectives.

Why do ECO sMOOC rely on learner interactions?

By | Technology in education | No Comments

The ECO project has described an innovative pedagogical framework that should benefit in particular the learners enrolling in sMOOCs. What are sMOOCs? sMOOCs are social in that the learner learns from and with others by interacting with other participants, by not only exchanging and sharing knowledge, information, but also creating new knowledge through interaction and discussion. sMOOCs are seamless because they transgress borders found in traditional education: they integrate with learners’ real life experiences, and are accessible from a multiple platforms.

ECO sMOOCs are seen as part of the Open Education movement. Therefore, they are intended to remove all unnecessary barriers to learning and provide participants with a reasonable chance of success in education. This implies ‘openness’ in the sense not only of no financial cost, but also open accessibility, open licensing policy, freedom of place, pace and time of study, open entry, and open pedagogy.

ECO sMOOCs rely on a flexible pedagogical framework with a focus on networked and ubiquitous learning as the only means to deal with the number of students enrolling and to deal with the personalised learning objectives of these learners and to allow MOOC designers to design their courses flexibly in a variety of ways to meet pedagogical requirements. The learner is put central and enters the sMOOC to meet his personal learning objectives. Leaners learn by interacting with others, by being active in situated, authentic tasks. The teacher is there to facilitate the process, not to act as knowledge provider in a one-way knowledge transfer mode.