Material Detail

Learner Experiences with MOOCs and Open Online Learning is an e-book in which student authors describe and reflect upon their open online learning experiences. Current conversations around educational innovations in general, and MOOCs in particular, lack student voices. This book enables learners to share their stories, thus contributing to our understanding of open online learning.

A number of questions guided the development of this book. These included: What are learner experiences with open online courses, MOOCs, and other forms of open online learning? What is it like to participate in open online learning? What are learners’ perspectives on open education? Answers to these questions clarify the nature of open online learning, help us focus innovations on learners, and aid us in improving digital learning initiatives.

Learner experiences arise from the ways learners interact with and respond to content, activities, instructional methods, instructors, and the context within which learning and instruction happen (Parrish, 2005). At a time when researchers and online learning providers are embracing the use of learning analytics and big data to examine learner behaviors, activities, and actions, very few researchers have sought to gain a deep, qualitative, and multidimensional understanding of learner experiences with open forms of learning. Yet, understanding learner experiences is vital. A nuanced appreciation of how users experience open learning, including the successes and obstacles they face, will assist learning designers, researchers, and providers in refining and improving open online learning.

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