MOOCs would benefit from adopting more active teaching methods

A recent study has shown that online courses, including MOOCs, should place more emphasis on the evaluation of learning and be based on active methods.

“Online courses open to all”, commonly referred to as MOOCs, have seen a significant increase in popularity in recent years, partly because of their accessibility (available remotely) and their free admission. Despite their popularity and their ability to attract learners from a variety of backgrounds, their impact on learning would remain modest.

According to one study carried out by researchers from the American university Carnegie Mellon, MOOCs are too often based on passive teaching methods, such as viewing videos, which do not sufficiently promote user learning.

As part of their works, the researchers wanted to compare different variables. To do this, an introductory psychology course was offered in two versions. The first version was a standard MOOC and took place on the platform Coursera. The second version represented an enhanced version of a MOOC. The latter took place on the open platform Open Learning Initiative of the institution and was added to the traditional version. In the enhanced version, participants were more likely to be active in terms of learning than those following the traditional version. For example, in the enhanced version, formative assessments aimed to prevent learners from advancing in the course without having demonstrated that they had mastered a concept.

27,720 learners took part in the study, including 18,645 who took the course in the traditional MOOC format and 9,075 in the enhanced version. The researchers were interested in three main variables: the perseverance rate, the quality of learning and the links between the activities used and the quality of learning.

30 % more participants who took the enhanced version continued the course until the final exam. Of those who dropped out of the course before the end, those in the enhanced version stayed, on the whole, longer than those in the traditional version.

The participants who followed the course in the enhanced version obtained a higher average final mark (66 %) than that of the regular group (57 %).

In terms of learning, researchers agree that active methods promote their development and quality. For example, participants who simply watched the videos scored lower overall on the various ratings.

To Norman Bier, the director of Open Learning Initiative, online courses, including MOOCs, should place more emphasis on the evaluation of learning and be based on active methods.