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Open Online Courses in the context of higher education:
an evaluation of a German cMOOC
Anja Lorenz, Daniela Pscheida, Marlen Dubrau, Andrea Lißner and Nina Kahnwald
sense (in contrast to gathering blog posts via the blog
aggregator that collected contributions automatically
via once-registered RSS-Feeds), the majority of the participants
preferred this concept of using an e-portfolio
form (55 %, n=20). At the end of the course, they were
asked again about their satisfaction of the assessment via
e-portfolios (n=29).
Figure 2. Attitude towards the e-portfolio form from the second
survey (n=20) and the after-all satisfaction from the third survey
(n=29)
Besides evaluation another important didactical aspect
within a cMOOC is to ensure that participants experience
a personal learning progress. This should be supported
by in-class workshops for preparation as well as the continuous
structure of each course section. Learners were
later asked about the most helpful learning activities in
that context (see Figure 3). As an example, learners rated
the reading of official chapter introductions as the most
helpful learning activity. 34.5 % fully agreed and 44.8 %
mostly agreed that this supports their individual learning
process. In contrast, only 3.5 %, i. e. one participant said
that he/she could draw little or no value from the introduction
chapter.
ticipation which leads to a heterogeneous participant
group. Learners had different foreknowledge on the topic
‘Learning 2.0 – Individual Learning and Knowledge Management
with Social Media:’ 37 % had none, 53 % had
some foreknowledge and 10 % had extensive prior knowledge
on this subject (n=99). This leads to the question of
motivation for course participation, as it can be assumed
that other factors have influence. The survey results show
that most of the participants took part because they were
interested in the course format (42.3 %), were interested
in the subject ‘Learning 2.0’ (39.3 %) and/or wanted to
learn more about digital tools for learning (41.4 %).
Although the issue of uncertainty was a recurring topic
during the course, more than 80 % of the participants
mentioned that they liked the course structure (n=29).
Only 17.2 % of those who finished the course were critical.
Also 79.3 % thought the offered materials interesting.
Moreover, 62.1 % said they felt that they met the
requirements of the #SOOC13. Most participants (86.2
%) were satisfied with the support of the facilitators. Support
from the SOOC Team seems to have been especially
useful in clearing up uncertainties surrounding provided
information and resources and the course blog, and was
much appreciated. The majority (62.1 %) of participants
felt well connected to the online community. Final evaluation
shows that most of the participants who finished the
course learned to deal with the open nature of their studies
and used the opportunity to better understand online
educational tools.
To summarize, participants should evaluate the performance
of this open online course (n=29). 21 % of the
learners found that the course was ‘performed very successfully,’
45 % opted for the option ‘performed successfully,’
24 % for the option ‘performed fairly successfully.’
The options ‘performed rather poorly,’ ‘performed poorly,’
and ‘performed very poorly’ were ticked by only one
participant each (3.5%). About 8% of respondents did not
give a response or ticked ‘I do not know.’
Outlook: After the #SOOC13, before
the #SOOC1314
Figure 3. Did these activities support you in increasing your
knowledge and experience (n=29)
Motivation, Interests and Satisfaction: Pedagogical aspects
A basic idea of MOOCs is the open accessibility of the
course. Regardless of learners’ individual backgrounds
and disciplines, the course is free of restrictions for par-
The results of the evaluation indicate that the didactical
and technical solutions used in the #SOOC13 were appropriate
for a first run, especially the free text survey
answers as they provided the course facilitators with
valuable advice for the next course. Based on this feedback,
the SOOC Team developed guidelines in four different
fields for planning and conducting cMOOCs: communication,
topics, assessment and media. Participants’
comments are summarized in the following sections and
the corresponding recommendations are derived from
our conclusions. We have adopted them for our second
course, the #SOOC1314, which started in winter semester
2013 and will run until the end of January 2014.
Experience Track |237