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Indicators of pedagogical quality for the design of a Massive Open Online Course for teacher training

Indicadores de calidad pedagógica para el diseño de un curso en línea masivo y abierto de actualización docente

Abstract

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have generated high expectations and revolutionized some educational practices by providing open educational resources for reference, usage and adaptation; therefore, their pedagogical quality is often questioned. The objective of this study is to identify indicators related to pedagogical, functional, technological and time factors in order to assess the quality of the MOOC entitled “Liderazgo en gestión educativa estratégica a través del uso de la tecnología” (Leadership in strategic educational management through the use of technology), offered as a teacher training program through Coursera to 10.161 participants. Via the Delphi method, a group of 55 experts agreed that time is a key factor to be considered in the design of learning activities. It was concluded that without measuring results, the success of a MOOC could not be evaluated; thus, institutions and consortia must establish evaluation indicators to focus their efforts on the enhancement of pedagogical quality. By providing relevant information, the learning potential of educational resources based on connectivism principles can be evaluated, and so can the quality of MOOCs. The goal is to contribute to a vision of a future in which everyone has access to a world-class education.

Resumen

Los cursos en línea, masivos y abiertos (MOOC) han generado importantes expectativas y han revolucionado algunas prácticas educativas, al ofrecer recursos educativos abiertos para su consulta, uso y adaptación; sin embargo, con frecuencia se cuestiona su calidad pedagógica. El objetivo de este estudio es identificar indicadores relacionados con factores pedagógicos, funcionales, tecnológicos y de tiempo, para evaluar la calidad del MOOC Liderazgo en gestión educativa estratégica a través del uso de la tecnología, ofrecido como recurso de actualización docente en Coursera a 10.161 participantes. Mediante el método Delphi, un grupo de 55 expertos acordó que el tiempo es un factor clave a considerarse en el diseño de las actividades de aprendizaje. Se concluye que sin medición de los resultados no se puede valorar el éxito de un MOOC, por ello instituciones y consorcios deben establecer indicadores de evaluación para enfocar sus esfuerzos para la mejora de su calidad pedagógica. Si se proporciona información relevante se podrá evaluar el potential de aprendizaje que poseen los recursos educativos basados en principios conectivistas y reconocer la calidad pedagógica de los MOOC, con el objetivo de coadyuvar a la visión de un futuro en el que todos tengan acceso a una educación de clase mundial.

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Correspondence to Lorena Yadira Alemán de la Garza.

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Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits use, duplication, adaptation, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

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Alemán de la Garza, L.Y., Sancho-Vinuesa, T. & Gómez Zermeño, M.G. Indicators of pedagogical quality for the design of a Massive Open Online Course for teacher training. Int J Educ Technol High Educ 12, 104–118 (2015). https://doi.org/10.7238/rusc.v12i1.2260

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.7238/rusc.v12i1.2260

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