Presentation at 3rd International Conference on Higher Education Development "Future Visions for Higher Education Development"

1. Interaction Possibilities in MOOCs
How Do They Actually Happen?
Submission to the 3rd International
Conference on Higher Education
Development
"Future Visions for Higher Education
Development"
Hanan Khalil
Instructional Technology Department , Faculty of Education ,Mansoura
University, Egypt
Martin Ebner
Social Learning, Information Technology Services, Graz University of
Technology, Steyrergasse 30, A-8010 Graz, Austria

3. M Massive
MOOC O Open
O Online
C course

4. (MOOC) is an open online course offered for
free to anyone who wants to participate and to
learn about a specific topic

5. MOOCs attract millions of online learners from all over
the world given the possibility to easily study science,
engineering, and humanities subjects delivered by the
world’s best professors from Harvard, Stanford, or MIT
Without having to pay expensive tuition

6. Adapting MOOCs by Egyptian universities can be
a further step in higher education. MOOCs can
provide innovative solutions to problems such
as
• Over-crowded classrooms
• High prices of traditional educational books
• Transportation problem
• Need for continued education and specialized
training.
MOOCs will bring teaching to multitudes of
wouldn’
students who otherwise wouldn’t have access
to it.

7. Why are MOOCs becoming popular?
The online experience is The increasing costs of MOOCs allow participants
constantly improving as higher education force to build professional and
technology continue to some to look for less personal skill sets in
evolve expensive alternatives their own time

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9. Famous MOOCs
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10. ity
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11. m
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27. One of the key components of good teaching in MOOCs
is the intellectually stimulating exchange of ideas,
those meaningful interactions that occur between
student and student, student and instructor, and
student and content

28. Though the importance of online interaction in MOOCs,
there are no recommended guidelines or overview for online
interaction in MOOCs. In addition, there is a lacking of
research on this topic. That's why the present study
addresses this research gap and gives apractical overview
of interaction in MOOCs

29. Research questions
three specific research questions are raised for this
study:
• What are the interactions (discussions) in MOOCs
about?
• How do the three types of interaction “students
to student”, “student to instructor”, and
“student to content” according to (Moore, 1989)
take place in MOOCs?
• Which type of interaction is the most used one in
MOOCs?

30. Results and discussions
What are the interactions (discussions) in
MOOCs about?
General
General
Discussion
Discussion
Study groups
Study groups

31. lectures
lectures
assignments
assignments
technical feedback
technical feedback

32. How do the three types of interaction “students to
student”, “student to instructor”, and “student to content”
according to (Moore, 1989) take place in MOOCs?
Student to student interaction
Ways in which student to Course Course not Percentage
student interaction happened using using of usage
Social networks 30 0 100%
Discussion group 24 6 80%
Meet up 6 24 20%

33. Student to instructor interaction
Ways in which student to Course Course not Percentage
student interaction happened using using of usage
Announcements 12 18 30%
Guides 6 24 20%
Participate in online 6 24 20%
discussion with students
Ask and answer questions 6 24 20%
Student to content interaction
Ways in which student to Course Course not Percentage
student interaction happened using using of usage
Homework assignments 24 6 80%
Quizzes and tests 18 12 60%
Activities and Submitting 6 24 20%
projects

34. Which type of interaction is the most used one
in MOOCs?

35. 1
2
3

36. Since “student to instructor”
interaction is missed in MOOCs,
future studies should be carried
out to suggest more strategies
and instructional activities that
promote and enhance MOOCs
“student to instructor”
interactions.
In addition, future researches
should be done to employ using
MOOCs in Egyptian universities
in order to provide innovative
solutions to problems such as
over-crowded classrooms, high
prices of traditional educational
books, transportation problems,
need for continued education,
and specialized training.