Edmundo Tovar Technical University of Madrid Rosa Cabedo, Marco Kalz, Jaap Walhout, Karel Kreijns, Ge Niellisen, Jonatan Castaño-Muñoz, Teresa Guasch, Anna Espasa, Nikolaos Floratos

1. Who is taking European MOOCs and why?
A large-scale, cross provider data
collection about participants of European
Open Online Courses
Edmundo Tovar
Open Education Global Conference, Banff April 2015
Technical University of Madrid
Rosa Cabedo, Marco Kalz, Jaap Walhout,
Karel Kreijns, Ge Niellisen, Jonatan
Castaño-Muñoz, Teresa Guasch, Anna
Espasa, Nikolaos Floratos

2. Agenda
I. The Moocknowledge project
II. The research model
III. First data collection and preliminary analysis
IV. The case of Language MOOCs
IV. Invitation to MOOC providers

3. I. The Moocknowledge project

4. Building a knowledge base
on European MOOC learners.
Aligned with European
policies
ü Europe 2020 strategy: it is essential to concentrate on
smart, sustainable and inclusive growth to remain
competitive and to overcome the current economic crisis.
ü Modernization of the European Education and Training
system, with a special focus on early school leavers and
increasing tertiary education attainment
ü Enhancing both the acquisition of digital competences and
the modernisation of education to generate growth,
employment and social inclusion
ü Opening up Education: Innovative teaching and learning
for all through new technologies and Open Educational
Resources

5. ü Liyanagunawardena, Adams, & Williams (2013)
The learner perspective of MOOCs is
underrepresented
ü Fischer (2014)“both the hype and the
underestimation [of MOOCs are more based on
assumption and beliefs than theoretical
groundings and qualitative and quantitative
data”
ü Many in-depth studies on which these
assumptions are based, are stemming from an
English language context
Building a knowledge base on
European MOOC learners.
Motivation: Lack of data and empirical
evidence
• It is needed to provide a good
picture of the cultural, socio-
economic and motivational
diversity of participants of
European open online courses

6. Building a knowledge base
on MOOC learners. IPTS
Goals
ü To assess the current perspective of learners as
participants of European MOOCs.
ü To collect a large-scale data basis about participants of
(European) MOOCs Longitudinal and systematic data
collection (2014-2016)
ü Addressing intention vs behavior gaps
ü IMPACT of Open Education on labor market conditions
and formal education outcomes
ü Standardized & multilingual questionnaires
ü Audiences:
policy-making by the European Commission
MOOC providers to build open online education

7. Building a knowledge base
on European MOOC learners
ü Initiated and funded by JRC IPTS
ü Partners: OUNL, UPM, UOC
ü Support of GO-GN Network

8. II. The research model

9. Building a knowledge base on European
MOOC learners. Theoretical background
Research model
ü Other frameworks have guided the construction of a
standardized survey instrument based on items validated
earlier, and on the other hand, they also allow a
systematic analysis of the data at a later stage.
ü These frameworks offer a basis for the prediction of
human social behaviour

10. Building a knowledge base on European
MOOC learners
ü The project aims to establish large-scale cross-provider
data collection on European MOOCs
ü The project aims to deliver insights about the following
variables collected from participants of European Massive
Open Online Courses (MOOCs):
• socio-economic profile,
• lifelong-learning profile,
• ICT-profile,
• MOOC profile,
• Motivation
Impact on study success /job success

11. Research model

12. Survey instrument
• Prequestionnaire
ü Person related information
ü Learning & profesional development activities
ü ICT profile
ü Motivation
• Postquestionnaire
ü Person& related experience
ü Learning experience
ü Assessment

13. III. First data collection and preliminary
analysis

14. First data collection
1,204 fully filled in questionnaires from the pre-survey
and 172 questionnaires from the post-survey.

15. Results. Demographic details

16. Results. Economic profile and employer
appreciation
Nearly 45% of the sample is currently employed for wages,
while 18.5 % is currently unemployed. 15.8 % of
the sample are students and 12.7% are self-employed.

17. Results. Economic profile and employer
appreciation
Nearly 50% who have filled in these questions (employed
people) have mentioned that there is some
form of appreciation by the employer available for MOOCs

18. Results. Economic profile and employer
appreciation
Nearly 50% who have filled in these questions (employed
people) have mentioned that there is some
form of appreciation by the employer available for MOOCs

19. Results. Economic profile and employer
appreciation
Around 30% of the employed participants in
MOOCs report that there is some form of
support by their
employer to professional development in
general
Only the 21% of fresh entry-level position are
supported by employers, while approximately
47 % of the managers are supported.

20. Results. Economic profile and employer
appreciation

21. Results. Lifelong learning profile
Most participants have enrolled in the
past in 3 – 5 open online courses.

22. Results. Lifelong learning profile
Approximately 50% of the participants
have completed between 1 – 3 open
online courses before.

23. Discussion

24. IV. The case of Language MOOCs

25. Thematic studies: the case of LMOOCs
• Encouraging LifeLong Learning of Languages
• Encouraging among adults
• Recognition of language skills gained through non-
formal education
• Enhancement of professional opportunities
• Integration into a community.
• Leisure activities

26. Thematic studies: the case of LMOOCs
• Suitability in the MOOC format
• Degree of implementation of assessment tools
Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: CEFRL
European Language Portolio ELP
Guidelines for learning and teaching languages in the European context
Communicative activities
Linguistic competence: vocabulary, grammar, stress and pronunciation
• Interaction
Learner-learner, learner-teacher/lecturer, learner-content
• Certification
Official certifications

27. PRE and POS Questions
Which interactions are important for your learning process?.
• Learner – Learner interaction
• Learner – Content interaction
• Learner – Expert/Tutor interaction
PRE
POS How much have the following interactions been facilitated within
the MOOC?.
• Learner – Learner interaction
• Learner – Content interaction
• Learner – Expert/Tutor interaction
How satisfied have you been with this MOOC?.POS

28. Phase 2 BUIN Interaction
29,80%
45,27%
40,69%
-5,00%
10,00%
25,00%
40,00%
55,00%
70,00%
85,00%
100,00%
extremely
unimportant
very
unimportant
moderately
unimportant
neutral moderately
important
very
important
extremely
important
Phase 2 (PRE). Interaction
L-L L-C L-ET
31,13%
45,70%
21,19%
-5,00%
10,00%
25,00%
40,00%
55,00%
70,00%
85,00%
100,00%
not at all very little little somewhat to some
extent
to a great
extent
completely
Phase 2 (POS). Interaction
L-L L-C L-ET

29. V. Invitation to MOOC providers

30. Cooperation Agreement
• Use the survey instrument to survey
participant experiences in open online courses
of the organization or partners of the
organization.
• The goal of both parties is to collect as many
data as possible from participants of the
MOOC.
• Benchmarking report to the provider if goals
of participation reached.

31. Cooperation Agreement
• The data will be stored in a secure and safe
way in a digital repository.
• The MOOCKnowledge project members IPTS
are allowed to include the data in cross-
provider analysis activities.

32. Cooperation Agreement
• The MOOCknowledge project meets all the
requirements of the the European
Commission’s personal data protection
policy..
• The MOOC provider retains the right to use
the data-set of the MOOC and to produce
scientific output based on this.

33. Thank you for your attention!
Edmundo Tovar
(edmundo.tovar@upm.es)