Description of My
Project and Preliminary List of Learning Outcomes
The draft hypothesis for my project is that ‘by attending weekly face-to-face community learning meetings, as a
supplement to participating in a ‘live’ online MOOC, learning by adults will be
enhanced.’ For my project I am focusing on one particular MOOC entitled: ‘Developing Your Research Project,
University of Southampton’ on the FutureLearn platform. It is 8 weeks long and
in 2016 it ran 3 times starting in June, September and October. My learners
will be adults living in or around The Glebe neighbourhood in Ottawa, Canada.
The learning goals and outcomes have been developed by the MOOC designers and I
have included them, together with my proposed face-to-face learning outcomes,
in the attached document Outline of goal, objectives and learning outcomes.
How will the Online and
Face-to-Face Learning Activities Link to the Learning Theories
While the MOOC requires learners to contribute online discussion
posts where peer-to-peer and tutor-to-peer discussion and reflection takes
place, I propose to create an additional opportunity for oral discussion of the
learning topics in a face-to-face environment between a group of learners
living in proximate distance. Consistent with social constructivist theory, this
discussion will help learners in formulating their ideas in a way that is
immediate and direct with peers, unlike the asynchronous discussion in the
online forums. In addition, as all the
learners are adults, it is expected that this face-to-face environment will
give them the opportunity to identify areas in which they are having
difficulties and by sharing and receiving feedback they will be ‘scaffolding’
each other.
The MOOC course has already been designed consistent
with scaffolding theory such that it has reduced “the number of steps required
to solve a problem by simplifying the task, so that the learner can manage
components of the process and recognize when a fit with task requirements is
achieved” (Bransford et al., quoted in Laurillard, 2012, p. 72). In this
particular course the amount of didactic teaching is limited and an
experiential learning approach is integrated throughout as a way of engaging
the learner’s interest (Laurillard, 2012). The face-to-face meetings will
augment the interaction designed in the online MOOC, especially the reflection discussions,
and allow the oral discussion of, for example, the summary of the hypothesis
and research questions with comments from other learners using the feedback
rubric as a guide. This is strengthening the learning in a manner consistent
with social constructivism theory.
Initial Ideas on
Learner Assessment and Link with the Learning Theories
In the MOOC there are formative assessments in the
form of quizzes and 2 peer-reviewed short assignments (200 words each) and one
summative assessment in the form of a multiple-choice question test at the end
of the 8-week course. In this course there is no formal portfolio assessment
plan required by the instructors, but rather a portfolio is recommended to
serve as a learning log, an important part of academic research. “Keeping track
of your research process in the form of a learning log, reflecting upon changes
you have made and the reasons for this is as important a part of your research
project as the essay at the end” (FutureLearn, 2015).
In the face-to-face meetings, learners could be
encouraged to keep track of their research project using an e-portfolio not
only to file and aggregate resources but also to share it with others in the
academic or professional communities that they are linked with or even with
peers in the face-to-face learning group. This could enhance learning by
encouraging metacognitive (reflective) journaling and, by obtaining additional
feedback from their peers on their reflections.
References
FutureLearn.
(2015). Developing Your Research Project, University of
Southampton (online course). Retrieved from https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/research-project/7/steps/111785.
Laurillard,
D. (2012). Teaching as a Design Science.
New York: Routledge.
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