How to feel "in love" with Math - a MOOC experience

In the past few years we have witnessed the fast development of distance learning tools such as Open Educational Resources (OER) and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). This paper presents the “Mathematics without STRESS” MOOC Project, which is a cooperation between four schools from the Polytechnic Institute of Oporto (IPP). The concepts of MOOC and their quickly growing popularity are presented and complemented by a discussion of some MOOC definitions. The process of the project development is demonstrated by focusing on used MOOC structure, as well as the several types of course materials produced. At last, is presented a short discussion about problems and challenges met throughout the project. It is also our goal to contribute for a change in the way as teaching and learning Mathematics is seen and practiced nowadays.

How to feel “in love” with math – a MOOC experience

In the past few years we have witnessed the fast development of distance learning tools such as Open Educational Resources (OER) and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). This paper presents the “Mathematics without STRESS” MOOC Project, which is a cooperation between four schools from the Polytechnic Institute of Oporto (IPP). The concepts of MOOC and their quickly growing popularity are presented and complemented by a discussion of some MOOC definitions. The process of the project development is demonstrated by focusing on used MOOC structure, as well as the several types of course materials produced. At last, is presented a short discussion about problems and challenges met throughout the project. It is also our goal to contribute for a change in the way as teaching and learning Mathematics is seen and practiced nowadays.

How to feel “in love" with math: a MOOC experience

In the past few years we have witnessed astonishing developments on distance learning tools, in particular on Open Educational Resources (OER) such as Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC). In this paper we present the “Mathematics without STRESS”, a MOOC Project, which has been a collaborative volunteer effort that brought together professors, from four schools of the Polytechnic Institute of Oporto (IPP), in Portugal. Some concepts directly associated with MOOC and their quickly growing popularity are complemented with a discussion of some particular MOOC characterizations. The design process of this project is revealed by focusing on the MOOC structure we used, as well as on the several types of course materials that were produced. At last, we undertake a short discussion about some of the problems, achievements and challenges met throughout this project development, giving a special attention to the motivational aim of this work - hoping to contribute to a change in the way of teaching and learning Mathematics is seen and practiced nowadays.

Behind video lectures in a MOOC

The year 2012 was the “boom year” in MOOC and all its outstanding growth until now, made us move forward in designing the first MOOC in our Institution (and the third in our country, Portugal). Most MOOC are video lectured based and the learning analytic process to these ones is just taking its first steps. Designing a video-lecture seems, at a first glance, very easy: one can just record a live lesson or lecture and turn it, directly, into a video-lecture (even here one may experience some “sound” and “camera” problems); but developing some engaging, appealing video-lecture, that motivates students to embrace knowledge and that really contributes to the teaching/learning process, it is not an easy task. Therefore questions like: “What kind of information can induce knowledge construction, in a video-lecture?”, “How can a professor interact in a video-lecture when he is not really there?”, “What are the video-lectures attributes that contribute the most to viewer’s engagement?”, “What seems to be the maximum “time-resistance” of a viewer?”, and many others, raised in our minds when designing video-lectures to a Mathematics MOOC from the scratch. We believe this technological resource can be a powerful tool to enhance students' learning process. Students that were born in digital/image era, respond and react slightly different to outside stimulus, than their teachers/professors ever did or do. In this article we will describe just how we have tried to overcome some of the difficulties and challenges we tackled when producing our own video-math-lectures and in what way, we feel, videos can contribute to the teaching and learning process at higher education level.

Challenges in the creation and development of a mathematics MOOC

The fast development of distance learning tools such as Open Educational Resources (OER) and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC or MOOCs) are indicators of a shift in the way in which digital teaching and learning are understood. MOOC are a new style of online classes that allow any person with web access, anywhere, usually free of charge, to participate through video lectures, computer graded tests and discussion forums. They have been capturing the attention of many higher education institutions around the world. This paper will give us an overview of the “Introduction to Differential Calculus” a MOOC Project, created by an engaged volunteer team of Mathematics lecturers from four schools of the Polytechnic Institute of Oporto (IPP). The MOOC theories and their popularity are presented and complemented by a discussion of some MOOC definitions and their inherent advantages and disadvantages. It will also explore what MOOC mean for Mathematics education. The Project development is revealed by focusing on used MOOC structure, as well as the quite a lot of types of course materials produced. It ends with a presentation of a short discussion about problems and challenges met throughout the development of the project. It is also our goal to contribute for a change in the way teaching and learning Mathematics is seen and practiced nowadays, trying to make education more accessible to as many people as possible and increase our institution (IPP) recognition.

Designing video lectures for MOOC

Educational videos differ from other teaching and learning technologies as they allow the benefit of using visual perception. Video lectures are not new to education, however with the use of innovative video technologies they can improve academic outcomes and extend the reach of education. They may offer extraordinary new experiences for higher education institutions (HEI). Through them lecturers can provide information and contents to students, and if used creatively, video lectures can become a powerful technological tool in education, inside and outside classrooms. Inside a classroom it can motivate students and improve topics’ debate and outside it is a good support for students’ self- learning. In some cases they can be used to work some subjects standing behind, but needed to support actual courses contents, that students do not remember (or were not even taught), opening an “in front to the past door” that backs students self-study. The student-educator dynamic is changing. Students are expecting exceptional instruction and educators are expecting students to be more and more well informed about subjects from online viewing.This article explores some of the potential benefits and challenges associated with the use of video lectures in the teaching and learning process at higher education. We will also discuss some thoughts and examples for the use of teaching materials to enhance student’s learning and try to understand how video can act as powerful and innovative to enlighten teaching and learning (note that unfortunately, sometimes, the opposite is happening).

MOOC Themes

This is a collection of themes around the evolution of MOOCs, captured in Feb 2014.

UKES MOOC 2014 Surveys for Interim Report

UKES MOOC 2014 Surveys for Interim Report

Figura de los facilitadores en los Cursos Online Masivos y Abiertos (COMA / MOOC) : nuevo rol profesional para los entornos educativos en abierto

Resumen basado en el de la publicaci??n

Dise??o e implementaci??n de cursos abiertos masivos en l??nea ( MOOC ) : expectativas y consideraciones pr??cticas

Resumen basado en el de la publicaci??n

De la clase magistral tradicional al MOOC : doce a??os de evoluci??n de una asignatura sobre programaci??n de aplicaciones web

Resumen basado en el de la publicaci??n

Educaci??n en abierto : integraci??n de un MOOC con una asignatura acad??mica

Resumen basado en el de la publicaci??n

Arqu??medes y la tecnolog??a educativa : un an??lisis cr??tico en torno a los MOOC

Resumen tomado de la publicaci??n

La filosof??a educativa de los MOOC y la educaci??n universitaria

Resumen basado en el de la publicaci??n.