Research plan discussion: The socio-technical construction of MOOCs and educator practices in HE

In this seminar slot, we will discuss Steve's research aims and plan. Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have received substantial coverage in mainstream sources, academic media, and scholarly journals, both negative and positive. Numerous articles have addressed their potential impact on Higher Education systems in general, and some have highlighted problems with the instructional quality of MOOCs, and the lack of attention to research from online learning and distance education literature in MOOC design. However, few studies have looked at the relationship between social change and the construction of MOOCs within higher education, particularly in terms of educator and learning designer practices. This study aims to use the analytical strategy of Socio-Technical Interaction Networks (STIN) to explore the extent to which MOOCs are socially shaped and their relationship to educator and learning designer practices. The study involves a multi-site case study of 3 UK MOOC-producing universities and aims to capture an empirically based, nuanced understanding of the extent to which MOOCs are socially constructed in particular contexts, and the social implications of MOOCs, especially among educators and learning designers.

Writing a Technical Report for Electronic and Electrical Engineers

Has a mixture of factual information (conventions on how a report should be structured) and motivational information on improving writing and communication skills

A guide to writing formal technical reports

A guide to writing formal technical reports for IT and CS students

Research Methods courses run in the University of Southampton

A listing from Banner of all courses (listed by School and level) run in the university that relate to research and inquiry. There is a crude attempt to cluster these courses thematically.

Technical Report Background Reading Guidance and Links

Handout which contains a set of links to a variety of background resources associated with the topics for a technical report coursework. Resources are clustered into three overview areas, but contain links which be used to address each of the six questions scenarios.

Writing Technical Reports and Papers

A brief coverage of the structure of a paper/report and some hints on writing and avoiding plagiarism

Technical reports

Collection of resources for COMP 1205