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MOOC Instructor Perceptions of Self-Directed Learning (SDL) |
| Sunday, December 29, 2019 |
I am always delighted when I can publish an open access article. I am even more delighted when it is research from one of my advisees. And I am ecstatic when it is research from a dissertation project of an emerging young scholar who has potential to do great things.
So I was smiling a couple weeks ago when the Online Learning journal announced its annual special issue of AERA papers. My brilliant advisee, Meina Zhu (now Dr. Zhu, an assistant professor at Wayne State University), had a key aspect of her dissertation on MOOC instructor perspectives on self-directed learning (SDL) published. This paper was evolved from an AERA poster last April in Toronto. She defended her dissertation right after the conference (April 15, 2019....tax day in the USA) and happily went through commencement in May.
Zhu,
M., Bonk, C., J., & Sari, A. (2019, April 8). Designing MOOCs to Facilitate Participant Self-Directed Learning: An
Analysis of Instructor Perspectives and Practices. Poster presented at the 2019 American Educational Research Association
(AERA) annual meeting, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
A picture of our poster at AERA is below. Meina is on the left. Of course, our poster visitors included current and past IU students and visiting scholars like Tina and Chris.
The journal article reference is below as is a link to the article as well as the entire special issue (and it's a good one!). Congrads to Meina who is on an upward trajectory with
a string of publications and accepted manuscripts during the past year. In fact, she had six papers accepted for publication her first 40 or so days at Wayne State. She is definitely a rising star in the field.
Zhu, M., & Bonk, C. J. (2019,
December). Designing MOOCs to facilitate participant self-monitoring for self-directed learning. Online Learning, 23(4), 106-134.
doi:10.24059/olj.v23i4.2037. Available: https://olj.onlinelearningconsortium.org/index.php/olj/article/view/2037
Designing MOOCs to Facilitate Participant Self-monitoring for Self-directed Learning
Meina Zhu, Curtis J. Bonk
Abstract
This study investigates the design and delivery of MOOCs to
facilitate student self-monitoring for self-directed learning (SDL)
using mixed methods. The data sources of this study include an online
survey with 198 complete respondents, semi-structured interviews with 22
MOOC instructors, and document analysis of 22 MOOCs. Study results
indicated that MOOC instructors considered self-monitoring skills
critical for SDL. To foster students’ self-monitoring, MOOC instructors
reported that they facilitated students’ self-monitoring by helping
students with internal feedback and providing external feedback.
Students’ internal feedback includes cognitive and metacognitive
processes. To facilitate cognitive processes, MOOC instructors provided
quizzes, tutorials, learning strategies, learning aids, and progress
bars. For metacognition, these instructors provided reflection questions
and attempted to create learning communities. In addition, MOOC
instructors, teaching assistants, and peers provided external feedback
for students’ self-monitoring. Across these findings, technology played a
central role in supporting student’s self-monitoring.
Keywords
massive open online courses (MOOCs), self-monitoring, self-directed learning, instructional design, MOOC instructors
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Check out the entire special issue:
Per the Editors to Volume 23, number 4:
Karen Swan, Jennifer Richardson, Tadd Farmer
"At the 2019 annual meeting, the OTL SIG received 145 proposals from
which 66 were selected to present. The articles in this special issue
report on the research findings stemming from those proposals. It
includes several articles concerned with quality in a variety of
settings and from both instructor and student perspectives."
More to come from Meina Zhu in the near future...just keep reading this blog.
Labels: massive open online course, MOOC instructors, MOOCs, open education, SDL, self-directed learning |
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Why not publish in the Journal of Learning for Development (JL4D)? Why not, indeed! |
| Saturday, April 08, 2017 |
Publishing open education in open journals has many advantages. For instance, people are less likely to call you a hypocrite...or so I hope.
Are you interested in the developing world or open education? MOOCs? Are you new in your career? Are you an oldtimer with much wisdom and knowledge? Are you just looking for a journal to publish in? Well, then, try the relatively new
journal called the Journal of Learning for Development (JL4D): http://www.jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d. This journal comes from the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) in Vancouver. My fantabulous friend Sanjaya Mishra from COL is one of the lead people on it. Thanks Sanjaya (see his COL bio)!
My most excellent colleague, Mimi Lee from the University of Houston, and I have a mixed methods research article in the current issue if JL4D that came out last week. It is open access.
Bonk, C. J., & Lee, M. M. (2017). Motivations, achievements, and
challenges of self-directed informal learners in open educational
environments and MOOCs. Journal of Learning for Development, 4(1),
36-57. Retrieved from http://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/195/188.
The article stems from research on informal and self-directed learning that I conducted with participants to my MOOC with Blackboard several years ago. It is great to have this research published finally. I have informed my friends at Blackboard as well as my former TAs who helped with this project. They are all delighted.
You might want to explore the Table of Contents (TOC) for that entire issue (or here). Below is the title, abstract, and keywords from that article:
Motivations,
Achievements, and Challenges of Self-Directed Informal Learners in Open
Educational Environments and MOOCs
Abstract: This research
targeted the learning preferences, goals and motivations, achievements,
challenges, and possibilities for life change of self-directed online learners enrolled
in a massive open online course (MOOC) related to online teaching hosted by
Blackboard using CourseSites. Data collection included a 40-item survey of which 159 MOOC respondents
completed the close-ended survey items and 49 completed the 15 open-ended
survey items. Across the data, it is clear that self-directed online learners
are internally motivated and appreciate the freedom to learn and choice that
open educational resources provide. People were also motivated to learn
informally from personal curiosity and interest as well as professional growth
needs and goals for self-improvement. Identity as a learner was positively
impacted by informal online learning pursuits. Foreign language skills as well as global,
cultural, historical,
environmental, and health-related information were among the most desired by the
survey respondents. The main
obstacles to informal online learning were time, costs associated with
technology use, difficulty of use, and lack of quality. Qualitative results, embedded
in the findings, indicate that self-directed learners take great pleasure in
knowing that they do not have to rely on others for their learning needs.
Implications for instructional designers are offered.
Keywords: Open
educational resources, open education, informal learning, massive open online
courses (MOOCs), self-directed learning, intrinsic motivation.
"This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the
principle that making research freely available to the public supports a
greater global exchange of knowledge. By making all articles available
under a CC-BY-SA license, the Journal of Learning for Development allows its authors
to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the
non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the
work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a
book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this
journal. Readers can copy and distribute the published work in any
medium and format; remix, transform, and build upon the work as long as
the original author (s) and the Journal of Learning for Development are attributed, and the derivative is released under CC-BY-SA license."
"The Journal of Learning for Development provides a forum for the
publication of research with a focus on innovation in learning, in
particular but not exclusively open and distance learning, and its
contribution to development. Content includes interventions that change
social and/or economic relations, especially in terms of improving
equity.
JL4D publishes research articles, book reviews and reports
from the field from researchers, scholars and practitioners, and seeks
to engage a broad audience across that spectrum. It aims to encourage
contributors starting their careers, as well as to publish the work of
established and senior scholars from the Commonwealth and beyond."
You might give this journal a try. Please let me know if you do. And let me know what you think about the new publication from Mimi and I in the current issue of the JL4D. You might read this article. In it, you will see that lives are being changed by newly open online educational resources, courses, and other exciting initiatives.
Labels: Blackboard, COL, Informal Learning, intrinsic motivation, Journal of Learning for Development, MOOCs, OER, online learning, open education, Sanjaya MIshra, self-directed learning |
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