The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning
Notice to Authors
Due to the overwhelming number of submissions to IRRODL, the journal has already met its publication quota for 2019. As a result, for a period that will not exceed six months, IRRODL will no longer be accepting submissions after May 1, 2019. In order to improve our service to the academic community, and to ensure a six month review to publication cycle, IRRODL will be moving to a regularized publication schedule in 2020. More information will be provided later this year.
We thank our authors, reviewers, and readers for their unwavering and exceptional support in making our journal one of the world's most successful, open access journals in the field of open and distributed learning.
Meaningful Learner Information for MOOC Instructors Examined Through a Contextualized Evaluation Framework
Kerrie A Douglas Purdue University
Mitchell W. Zielinski Purdue University
Hillary Merzdorf Purdue University
Heidi A Diefes-Dux Purdue University
Peter Bermel Purdue University
Keywords: MOOCs, Evaluation, MOOC Instructor
Improving STEM MOOC evaluation requires an understanding of the current state of STEM MOOC evaluation, as perceived by all stakeholders. To this end, we investigated what kinds of information STEM MOOC instructors currently use to evaluate their courses and what kinds of information they feel would be valuable for that purpose. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 14 faculty members from a variety of fields and research institutions who had taught STEM MOOCs on edX, Coursera, or Udacity. Four major themes emerged related to instructors' desires: (1) to informally assess learners as an instructor might in a traditional classroom, (2) to assess learners' attainment of personal learning goals, (3) to obtain in-depth qualitative feedback from learners, and (4) to access more detailed learner analytics regarding the use of course materials. These four themes contribute to a broader sentiment expressed by the instructors that they have access to a wide variety of quantitative data for use in evaluation, but are largely missing the qualitative information that plays a significant role in traditional evaluation. Finally, we provide our recommendations for MOOC evaluation criteria, based on these findings.
Kerrie A Douglas, Purdue University
Prof. Kerrie Douglas is an Assistant Professor of Engineering Education at Purdue University. Her research is focused on methods of evaluation and assessment in large educational environments.
Hillary Merzdorf, Purdue University
Douglas, K. A., Zielinski, M. W., Merzdorf, H., Diefes-Dux, H. A., & Bermel, P. (2019). Meaningful Learner Information for MOOC Instructors Examined Through a Contextualized Evaluation Framework. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 20(1). Retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/3717
Copyright (c) Kerrie A Douglas, Mitchell W. Zielinski, Heidi A Diefes-Dux, Peter Bermel
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence. The copyright of all content published in IRRODL is retained by the authors.
This copyright agreement and use license ensures, among other things, that an article will be as widely distributed as possible and that the article can be included in any scientific and/or scholarly archive.
You are free to
Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms below:
Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
Formerly named the International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning.
2016 Impact Factor: 1.734 ©2017 Clarivate Analytics, Journal Citation Reports®
IRRODL Co-Editors:
Dietmar Kennepohl (acting)
Rory McGreal (on leave)
Subscribe to Mailing List:
IRRODL INDEXING
Thompson Reuters: Social Sciences Citation Index
Cabell Publishing Inc.
ERIH PLUS
H.W. Wilson Company
Index Copernicus International
OCLC Education Index
Ulrich's Web
AU Press
About Open Journal Systems
RSS 2.0 (current issue)
Atom 1.0 (current issue)