March 17, 2014, by Helen Whitehead

First HEA report on research into MOOCs

The Higher Education Academy has published its research into learning and teaching of Massive Open Online courses (MOOCS) and finds that ‘the teacher persists’.

The Pedagogy of the MOOC: the UK View by Sian Bayne and Jen Ross from the University of Edinburgh also contains snapshots of five current UK MOOCs with an emphasis on the detail of teacher practice. It concludes that although teaching functions are sometimes delegated to automated processes and community-based social learning in MOOCs, the place and visibility of the teacher remain of central importance.

The Edinburgh report makes three policy recommendations: to continue to investigate what may be most useful regarding the accreditation of MOOCs and the implications for teaching; to encourage innovation and transformation in continuing professional development (CPD) contexts using MOOCs; and to acknowledge MOOCs as representing a significant shift to digital education by implementing policies and practices which support and foster digital literacies. The HEA supports these recommendations.

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