Topical Collection "Massive Open Online Courses"

Welcome to contribute with your latest research on MOOCs

I am the Collection Editor 

Dr. Ebba Ossiannilsson

The Swedish Association for Distance Education
Interests: choiced based learning; e-learning; hybrid learning; learning analytics; learning design; MOOCs; OER; online open learning; quality; rhizome learning

Topical Collection Information

Dear Colleagues,

All global organizations, such as UNESCO, Commonwealth of Learning, the European Union, and others around the globe, call for opening up education in all means to:

…turn international policy statements into actions to ensure equity, access, and quality which encourages countries to provide inclusive, equitable, quality education and life-long learning opportunities for all. In particular, this is to respond to the scale and urgency of need for higher education in the period 2015 to 2030 due to the expected massive growth of students.

Global actions aim to encourage, facilitate, and embrace the power of online, open and flexible Higher Education for the future we want for a sustainable global development, and to allow education for all, at anytime, from anywhere, by any person, at any time and on any device. Thus, we have to concentrate, what is on the horizon related to the entire concept of opening up education. MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) provides offers and resources as never before. New business models are seen, not just branding and common goods, but also, for example, MOOCs are used both for lifelong learning and degrees, but also as continuing professional development (CPD), and not least of all, to meet the enormous higher education updates for refugees. MOOCs have also highlighted pedagogical questions for open online learning, as we can not educate today’s students with methods from the past century, for a future we do not know anything about. There are huge needs for innovations and entrepreneurship to meet demands in the global society today, and tomorrow. Opening up education requires also that we go beyond MOOCs and OERs (Open Educational Resources) and also to find new opportunities for learning, especially for personal learning, just for me and just in time learning.

We very much welcome your contribution of your research and/or policy statements.

The journal is an open access journal, so we are welcoming articles continuously.

We will especially address some burning themes:
•    open online learning beyond MOOCs
•    innovation in global open online learning
•    new pedagogy and learning engagement
•    the death of the MOOCs, or maybe the new born MOOCs
•    MOOCs and inequality
•    Can MOOCs address the need to “skill” the population around the globe?
•    the next generation of learners, teachers, managers, administrators
•    opening up learning to ensure equity, access, and quality
•    credentialization and recognition of MOOC-based learning
•    stakeholders for MOOCs
•    business models for MOOCs
•    learners success stories
•    If MOOCs are the answers, what are the questions?

Ebba Ossiannilsson
Collection Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the collection website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Education Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 350 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions. 

Keywords

• choice based learning
• equity, access and quality
• globalization
• lifelong and lifewide learning
• new learning environments
• open online learning
• recognition
• MOOC

UKÄ förespråkar att MOOCs bör inkluderas i svensk högskola

UKÄ:s  utredning om MOOCs presenteras på ett webbinar den 16 mars 2016. UKÄ:s uppdrag var att analysera möjligheter med och eventuella hinder för att införa öppen nätbaserad utbildning (så kallad MOOCs) i svensk högskola.

Marie Kahlroth som ansvarat för utredningen kommer att presentera UKÄ:s syn på om, hur och i vilken omfattning MOOCs skulle kunna integreras i svensk högskola. Det blir tillfällen att ställa frågor till henne och till avdelningschefen och moderatorn Annika Pontén.

 

Webbinariet är kostnadsfritt och är ett samarrangemang mellan UKÄ, SVERD, ITHU och SUNET Det hålls på svenska. Rapporten publicerades i slutet av januari vid ett välbesökt seminarium Stockholm.

Tid: 16 mars kl. 15.00-16.00

Plats: Virtuellt mötesrum i Adobe Connect - läs mer om hur det går till här

Anmälan senast: 14 mars -Länk till anmälan

Antal anmälda 14 mars: 137

 

Sammanfatting av utredningen 

Sedan flera år erbjuder universitet och högskolor i många länder öppna nätbaserade kurser som är fritt tillgängliga via internet, så kallade Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Vem som helst kan delta i kurserna, det enda som behövs för deltagande är tillgång till en dator med internetuppkoppling.

Några svenska lärosäten har börjat anordna MOOCs, men det finns flera oklarheter kring denna utbildningsform i den svenska högskolan. Regeringen gav våren 2015 Universitetskanslersämbetet (UKÄ) i uppdrag att analysera möjligheter och eventuella hinder med ett införande av öppna nätbaserad utbildningar (MOOCs) i svensk högskola. I uppdraget ingår att föreslå om, och i så fall på vilket sätt och i vilken omfattning, MOOCs skulle kunna rymmas inom den svenska högskolan och vilka konsekvenser detta skulle få. I denna rapport redovisar UKÄ uppdraget.

MOOCs bör inkluderas i svensk högskola

UKÄ anser att svenska universitet och högskolor, liksom lärosäten i andra länder, bör ges möjlighet att anordna öppen nätbaserad utbildning i form av kurser (MOOCs). UKÄ menar att kurserna bland annat ger nya möjligheter att nå ut med kunskap till stora grupper i samhället och att de kan hjälpa till att hantera stora samhällsutmaningar. Samtidigt synliggörs lärosätena ytterligare internationellt.

Här kan  Du läsa mer och också ladda ner hela rapporten.

Education Science Special Issue on "Massive Open Online Courses" (MOOCs) Call for papers

Special Issue Editor

Guest Editor Dr. Ebba Ossiannilsson The Swedish Association for Distance Education  Elearning Specialist and international quality reviewer, elearning, OER and MOOCs Website: http://www.oeconsortium.org/directory/professional/ebba-ossiannilsson/ | http://www.openeducationeuropa.eu/en/user/351 Interests: choiced based learning; e-learning; hybrid learning; learning analytics; learning design; MOOCs; OER; online open learning; quality; rhizome learning Special Issue Information Dear Colleagues, The Global High Level Policy Forum, organized by UNESCO and the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) in June 2015 aimed to: …turn international policy statements into actions to ensure equity, access, and quality which encourages countries to provide inclusive, equitable, quality education and life-long learning opportunities for all. In particular, this is to respond to the scale and urgency of need for higher education in the period 2015 to 2030 due to the expected massive growth of students. The actions aim to encourage, facilitate, and embrace the power of online, open and flexible Higher Education for the future we want for a sustainable global development, and to allow education for all. Thus, we have to concentrate, and to look at the sunrise and what is coming on the horizon related to the entire concept of opening up education, instead of just looking at the sunset of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). We can not educate today’s students with methods from the past century, for a future we do not know anything about. This Special Issue on MOOCs  will address some burning themes: new pedagogy and learning engagement the death of the MOOCs MOOCs and inequality can MOOCs address the need to “skill” the population around the globe who is the next generation of learners, teachers, managers, administrators opening up learning to ensure equity, access, and quality credentialization and recognition of MOOC-based learning if MOOCs are the answers, what are the questions Keywords choice based learning equity, access and quality globalization lifelong and lifewide learning new learning environments open online learning recognition MOOC Welcome to contribute, we are looking forward to hear from you! Find more information here Ebba Ossiannilsson Guest Editor Submission Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. Papers will be published continuously (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website. Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Education Sciences is an international peer-reviewed Open Access quarterly journal published by MDPI. Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 300 CHF (Swiss Francs). English correction and/or formatting fees of 250 CHF (Swiss Francs) will be charged in certain cases for those articles accepted for publication that require extensive additional formatting and/or English corrections. Information about  the Journal Education Sciences — Open Access Journal Education Sciences (ISSN 2227-7102) is an international, open access journal published quarterly online by MDPI. Open Access - free for readers, with publishing fees paid by authors or their institutions. Rapid publication: manuscripts are peer-reviewed and a first decision provided to authors approximately 31 days after submission; acceptance to publication is undertaken in 8 days (median values for papers published in this journal in 2015).

My three latest book chapters

My three latest book chapters are the following, all published Summer 2014


My first chapter: 

Once considered disruptive to learning, technology has increasingly become an integrated and valued part of the modern classroom. In particular, mobile technologies provide the ability to encourage evocative student learning through new experiences.

Promoting Active Learning through the Integration of Mobile and Ubiquitous Technologies showcases the widely varied ways that technology can be applied to enhance classroom learning. Closely examining and critiquing the best methods in assimilating technologies, this publication is a valuable resource for faculty, teachers, administrators, technology staff, directors of learning centers, and other education technology leaders interested in incorporating new technologies within the classroom for engaging student learning.

Topics Covered

• Classroom Learning
• Education Technology
• Information Technology
• Innovative Teaching Approaches
• Mobile Applications
• Mobile Technology
• Student Learning
• Virtual Learning Environments

Ossiannilsson, E. Quality Enhancement for M-learning in Higher Education (2014). In: Keengwe, J. (2015). Promoting Active Learning through the Integration of Mobile and Ubiquitous Technologies (pp. 1-304). Hershey, PA: IGI Global. doi:10.4018/978-1-4666-6343-5

http://www.igi-global.com/book/promoting-active-learning-through-integration/105937?camid=3v11

This chapter focuses mainly on quality and a frame of reference to understand M-learning dimension concerns as course design, learning design, and media design and content. Consistent layout and design, clear organization, and presentation of information, consistency, easy-to-use navigation, and aesthetically pleasing design and graphics are dimensions that also have to be taken into consideration. It is argued in this chapter that security, accessibility, interactivity, flexibility, personalization, and the devices and interfaces are the main quality dimensions. 

My second chapter

Everyday learners use and reuse open, digital resources for learning. Reusing Open Resources offers a vision of the potential of these open, online resources to support learning. The book follows on from Reusing Online Resources: A SustainablApproach to E-learning. At that time focus was on the creation, release and reuse of digital learning resources modeled on educational materials. Since then the open release of resources and data has become mainstream, rather than specialist, changing societal expectations around resource reuse. Social and professional learning networks are now routine places for the exchange of online knowledge resources that are shared, manipulated and reused in new ways, opening opportunities for new models of business, research and learning. 

The goal of this book is to extend the debate of how open, online resources might support learning across diverse contexts. Twenty-four distinguished experts from nine countries distributed across Europe and North America contribute empirical evidence and ideas. Collectively they provide a vision of the potential of open, online resources to support learning across everyday contexts of education, work and life.

Pre-publication versions of five chapters from the book, with a special version of the editors' introduction are published in the open access Journal of Interactive Media in Education, in a special Issue dedicated to the book: 'Open for Learning Special Issue’ -http://jime.open.ac.uk/

Ponti M, Berquist M & Ossiannilsson E (2014) Learning across Sites through Learning by Design in Use In: A Littlejohn & C Pegler (eds). Reusing Open Resources Learning in Open Networks for Work, Life and Education.

The focuses of the chapter are about OER and learning by design in use.


My third chapter

Digitaliseringen i dagens samhälle är ett faktum. Vad innebär barns och ungdomars förändrade uppväxtvillkor för lärande och utbildning? Hur formas lärares roll i det samtida medielandskapet?

INTERAKTIVA MEDIER OCH LÄRANDEMILJÖER presenterar olika synvinklar på dagens utbildning, både från forskning och från praktik. Författarna tar avstamp i att lärare redan har tillgång till interaktiva medier i lärandemiljöer men att de inte alltid vet hur de ska använda dessa tillsammans med eleverna.

INTERAKTIVA MEDIER OCH LÄRANDEMILJÖER består av 13 kapitel som utifrån olika tillämpningar, erfarenheter och exempel ger lärare och pedagoger idéer, begrepp och metoder för sin professionella utveckling. De olika kapitlen ska kunna fungera som inspiration, diskussionsunderlag eller utgångspunkter för vidare problematisering, i arbetslag, utbildning eller för en enskild pedagog.

Creelman A, Ossiannilsson E & Falk P (2014) Förändringar, utmaningar, gränslöst lärande. In: E Dunkels och  S Lindgren (eds) INTERAKTIVA MEDIER OCH LÄRANDEMILJÖER. Gleerups: Malmö (In Swedish).

The chapter (In Swedish) focuses on the changing educational landscape, and the paradigm shift towards open learning. MOOCs, OERs, gamifications as well as informal and formal learning are discussed.