Analysis of MOOC Features in a Regional Platform: Design and Delivery of Courses

At least two motivations make relevant research on regional MOOC providers: (1) they are Learning at scale environments where a large amount of data is produced, the high number of learners can show different approaches to learning, the whole population can be analysed, teaching and instructional design methods can be compared; (2) regional platforms reach the interests and needs of population groups that have only sometimes registered in international platforms. Therefore, we conducted a study at a large scale on EduOpen, an Italian MOOCs platform to which 28 institutions joined. The research aims to describe the current situation on EduOpen MOOCs, identify a latent model for the design and delivery of courses, and detect points of interest to enhance the platform’s procedure. We used courses as statistical units and identified three groups of variables: basic features, design features, and delivery features. We used multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) with descriptive statistics to answer the research questions. MCA is a method for data reduction for qualitative variables in which the categories assumed by the variables play a central role in defining a smaller number of dimensions. We found two dimensions that define the structure that underlies the design process – COURSE DENSITY and CONTENT ATTAINABILITY, and the delivery process – DIFFUSION and PARTICIPATION. Some focal points that EduOpen members can consider improving strategies in the design of the courses are related to the organization of activities and content, the scheduling of activities and whole courses, the levels of interaction in the courses, and the definition of qualified professional figures for design and tutoring.