This document summarizes the results of a Group Concept Mapping (GCM) study conducted to identify guidelines for designing MOOCs. Experts generated 113 ideas that were sorted into 79 statements and rated on importance and difficulty. Multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis identified 7 clusters of guidelines: Assessment, Organizational Issues, Hybrid Construction/Technological Affordances, Instructional Strategies, Self-Directed Learning, Learning Design Theoretical Background, and Learning Networks. The clusters were rated on importance and difficulty, with Organizational Issues and Learning Design rated most important and easiest respectively. Pattern analysis found little difference in ratings between cognitive styles.

1. Didactical and pedagogical approach for
European MOOCs (preliminary results)
Slavi Stoyanov
Fred de Vries
Open University of the Netherlands
Fred de Vries

2. Group Concept Mapping GCM
• A structured approach to objectively identify the common
understanding of a group of experts about a particular
issue
• A few simple activities: generating, sorting and rating of
ideas)
• Robust analysis (MDS Multidimensional scaling; HCA,
Hierarchical cluster analysis. GCM quantitatively aggregate
original participants contribution to show the group’s collective
view (as thematic clusters)
• GCM presents the results from the analysis as conceptual
maps and other graphical representations (pattern matches
and go-zones)
Fred de Vries

3. Fred de Vries
Focus statement One specific instructional guideline that
should be taken into account when
designing MOOCs is…
Ideas 113 generated
Filtered ideas 79 remaining for sorting and rating +
difficult / easy

4. Fred de Vries
Brainstorming 25 people
Sorting 18 started, 11 finished
Rating importance 11 started, 10 finished
Rating difficult / easy 10 started, 8 finished

5. Point map
Fred de Vries
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6. Replay map 16 clusters
Fred de Vries
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7. Replay map 7 clusters
Fred de Vries
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8. 7 clusters labeled
Fred de Vries
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1. Assessment
2. Organisational issues
3. Hybrid construction and techological affordances
4. Instructional strategies
5. Self-directed learning
6. Learning design theoretical background
7. Learning networks

9. 7 clusters labeled map
Fred de Vries
Assessment
Organisational issues
Hybrid construction and techological affordances
Instructional strategies
Self-directed learning
Learning design theoretical background
Learning networks

10. 1 Assessment
Fred de Vries
• Include student peer review in the evaluation
• Include case-studies, interaction and group work in the
assessment
• Assessments should be evaluated for their reliability and validity

11. 2 Organizational issues
Fred de Vries
• Clear contact point/person for questions. Contact points for
specific topics (technical, administrative, content issues)
• Define the technical tools students are assumed to be able to use
for the specific MOOC
• Share the learning materials and resources openly, using for
instance, Creative Commons CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA licensing

12. 3 Hybrid construction
and technological affordance
Fred de Vries
• Take into account the possibilities of the platform you will use from
the start of the design process
• Explore affordances of emerging technologies
• If MOOC must be suitable for inclusion in regular university
programs, the design should be flexible to enable the adaptation
of the MOOC to the guidelines of the university

13. 4 Instructional strategies
Fred de Vries
• Confront learners with a problem, issue, challenge, preferably,
real-life one
• Provide for each task explicit support in terms of background
information, examples, procedures, methods, techniques, and
tools
• Focus not only on personalisation but also on collective
intelligence.

14. 5 Self-directed learning
Fred de Vries
• Participants are expected to work individually and take control of
their learning
• Each participant forges her/his own learning path through the
materials
• Involve the participants in deliberate practicing and creating
artefacts

15. 6 Learning design
theoretical background
Fred de Vries
• Look at the classical online learning and teaching for inspiration
for MOOC pedagogies
• Consider heutagogy, i.e. a theoretical approach that sees learners
as highly self-determined individuals
• A more nuanced approach (not only xMOOC vs cMOOC) is
needed that takes into account an analysis of MOOC pedagogy at
a micro level of individual course design

16. 7 Learning networks
Fred de Vries
• Try to generate a community of interest among learners that go
beyond the MOOC itself
• Promote social collaboration among students internally as well as
among external networks
• MOOCs rely on the benefits of scale though significant interaction
with a distributed network of peers

17. Clusters rating map importance
Fred de Vries
1. Assessment
2. Organisational issues
3. Hybrid construction and techological affordances
4. Instructional strategies
5. Self-directed learning
6. Learning design theoretical background
7. Learning networks
Cluster Legend
Layer Value
1 3.76 to 3.82
2 3.82 to 3.89
3 3.89 to 3.96
4 3.96 to 4.03
5 4.03 to 4.10

18. Clusters rating map difficulty
Fred de Vries
1. Assessment
2. Organisational issues
3. Hybrid construction and techological affordances
4. Instructional strategies
5. Self-directed learning
6. Learning design theoretical background
7. Learning networks
Cluster Legend
Layer Value
1 3.05 to 3.21
2 3.21 to 3.38
3 3.38 to 3.54
4 3.54 to 3.70
5 3.70 to 3.87

19. Pattern match rating values
Fred de Vries
Importance Difficult/Easy
Organisational issues Organisational issues
Learning design theoretical background
Learning design theoretical background
Learning networks
Learning networks
Self-directed learning Self-directed learning
Hybrid construction and techological affordances
Hybrid construction and techological affordances
Instructional strategies
Instructional strategies
Assessment
Assessment
3.76 3.05
4.10 3.87
r = 0.11

20. Pattern cognitive style group
Fred de Vries
Importance/Adaptors Importance/Innovators
Organisational issues
Organisational issues
Hybrid construction and techological affordances
Hybrid construction and techological affordances
Learning design theoretical background
Learning design theoretical background
Instructional strategies
Instructional strategies
Learning networks
Learning networks
Assessment
Assessment
Self-directed learning
Self-directed learning
3.77 3.68
4.30 4.22
r = -0.03

21. Please help in completing the sorting and rating of our GCM
https://conceptsystemsglobal.com/HOME/sort/rate
Slavi Stoyanov and Fred de Vries
fred.devries@ou.nl