MOOC in higher education from the students’ perspective. A sustainable model?

Abstract

[EN] In this chapter we present a research that analyzes, from the perspective of university students, the positioning of MOOCs in the university panorama, determining their characteristics, strengths, weaknesses, and the main challenges to achieve sustainability. The research is based on a methodology based on virtual ethnography, and the qualitative analysis of university innovation experiences on the perception of 56 students who study “Information and Communication Technology” at the Pablo de Olavide University in Seville (Spain) following a Degree in Social Education corresponding to the academic year 2016–17. The results show that the main advantages of this type of courses are its wide offer, its open access, and the possibilities of accessing free audiovisual materials and establishing networks among the participating students. Main weaknesses are related to didactics and assessment: traditional teaching methods and little contact with teachers and tutors. As challenges that guarantee its sustainability and improvement in the future, five areas of intervention in the technological field are proposed: calibrated peer review, faculty-directed “student-sourcing” of responses to student questions, just-in-time teaching, recommendation systems and learning analytics.