Research Insights into How Instructors Design and Deliver MOOCs to Facilitate Participant Selfmonitoring

Abstract

This mixed-methods study investigates the design and delivery of MOOCs to facilitate student selfmonitoring for self-directed learning (SDL). The data sources of this study include an online survey with 198 complete respondents, semi-structured interviews with 22 MOOC instructors, and document analysis of 22 MOOCs. The results of the study indicated that MOOC instructors considered self-monitoring skills critical for SDL. To foster learners’ self-monitoring, MOOC instructors reported that they facilitated students’ self-monitoring with both internal and external feedback. Students’ internal feedback is related to cognitive and metacognitive processes. To facilitate cognitive processes, quizzes, tutorials, learning strategies, learning aids, and progress bars were employed. For metacognition, MOOC instructors provided reflection questions and attempted to create learning communities. In addition, MOOC instructors, teaching assistants, and peers provided external feedback for students’ self-monitoring. In addition, synchronous communication technologies, asynchronous communication technologies, and feedback were used with diverse purposes in supporting student’s self-monitoring. //Paper ID 276