Perceived Effectiveness of Videos as e-Content in MOOC

Abstract

PCF10 Sub-theme: Inspiring Innovations // Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have gained momentum in the past decade. MOOCs are becoming popular day by day across the world. One visible difference between traditional teaching-learning and MOOC is in terms of the central position of videos. Video-based content delivery has become the primary medium of instruction in most the MOOCs (Yousef, 2015), supported by e-text, activities, quizzes, and discussion forums. In India, the MOOCs being offered on the SWAYAM platform are mostly video-based. As per SWAYAM guidelines (2016 & 2017), for a four-credit MOOC in SWAYAM, a minimum of 20 hours of video content is essential. The researcher has offered two MOOC courses of 16 weeks duration on SWAYAM platforms namely, Learning and Teaching (with enrolment of around 15000) and, Pedagogy of Science (with enrolment of around 5000) in two cycles, i.e., July 2020 and January 2021. Total 111 videos have been developed for these two courses and when the viewership data was analysed, it was found that except for the course introductory videos, the viewership of other videos was varied and some videos have nearly 2530 views only in six months, this triggered the researcher to undertake a study to find out the usability of videos in MOOC. The researcher has decided to find out the usability and perceived effectiveness of videos in MOOCs being offered on the SWAYAM platform. The outcomes of the study are based on the perception of learners in IGNOU-SWAYAM MOOC around various identified factors like duration and number; content quality and relevance, quality of graphics and animations; subject matter experts; language; and positioning of video in the module. The paper also suggests ways to improve the video component of MOOC to improve its effectiveness and usability. // Paper ID 8414