Education technology - Lifelong learning
F. Fathi Hafshejani; H. Zeinalipour; A.A. Shikhi Fini; K. Fathi Vajargah; E. Jafari
Abstract
Background and Objectives: With an awareness of the era that entails the day-to-day changes, the organizations must constantly keep up with technology and technological changes and implement them to survive and achieve the best possible results. One of these changes is making decision about the implementation ...
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Background and Objectives: With an awareness of the era that entails the day-to-day changes, the organizations must constantly keep up with technology and technological changes and implement them to survive and achieve the best possible results. One of these changes is making decision about the implementation of massive open online courses (MOOCs) in digital learning area at the workplaces, which is regarded as a complicated issue. Awareness of and informing about the effectiveness of educational services of this type of technology, as one of the manifestations of virtual education, is not inconclusive in choosing this path due to the key role of MOOCs as a potential educational strategy in organizations and companies in developed and developing countries. The purpose of this research was thus to identify the technological pedagogical functions of MOOCs to employees in the workplace.Methods: This basic research was conducted using a qualitative research synthesis technique. The corpus included documents (books, research and review articles, dissertations and Internet resources) retrieved by searching the authentic Persian (Islamic World Citation Database (ISC), Magiran, Noor Database (Noormags), CIVILICA Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, Barakat Knowledge Network System, Iran Scientific Information Database (GANJ) and Iranian Research Institute for Information Science and Technology (IranDoc) and Latin web databases (ProQuest, Springer, Scopus, Science Direct, and also Google Scholar search engine) retrieved from 183 sources using a criterion sampling method (From corporate MOOCs 2014 to 2022). A total of 45 samples were selected. Theoretical saturation of themes was reached by the 32th sample. In order to collect data, the library research method was used. The collected data were then analyzed using a thematic analysis technique that is used in qualitative research studies. Finally, to validate the proposed model, a total of six experts in different fields, such as curriculum and educational planning, educational technology, and electronic learning were selected using a purposive sampling method. The researcher-made questionnaire for content validation of conceptual model was then sent for them. The final model was approved after modifications.Findings: Based on the findings of this research, three main components were obtained. The first group was the educational process with six sub-components (Educational targeting of courses, Contents of training courses, Various professional learning methods, Professional educational activities, Educational resources of the courses, and performance evaluation); the second group was the supporting part with five sub-components (training coverage of staff, Educational support, Educational expenses, Educational stimuli, and capabilities of the educational method); and the third group was the operational part with three sub-components (Educational areas, Complementary skills training, and Creating professional soft skills).Conclusion: This study showed the probable consequences of educational functions of MOOC in the workplace. The beneficiaries, including organizations, companies, and employees, can reliably employ these functions in their education system by paying more attention to them because it can be said that most organizations in Iran seem to be still unaware of its potential educational benefits. In a world where with the rapid development of technology, being online is considered a necessity both personally and professionally in Iranian organizations, and the today's workforce is expected to be highly skilled and to continuously improve their skills based on the today's global standards, they can acquire these new skills through life-long learning, i.e. MOOCs, in an advanced digital environment.Methods: This basic research was conducted using a qualitative research synthesis technique. The statistical population includes documents (books, research and review articles, dissertations and Internet resources) retrieved by searching the authentic Persian (Islamic World Citation Database (ISC), Magiran, Noor Database (Noormags), CIVILICA Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, Barakat Knowledge Network System, Iran Scientific Information Database (GANJ) and Iranian Research Institute for Information Science and Technology (IranDoc) and Latin web databases (ProQuest, Springer, Scopus, Science Direct, and also Google Scholar search engine) retrieved from 183 sources using a criterion sampling method (From corporate MOOCs 2014 to 2022). A total of 45 samples were selected. Theoretical saturation of themes was reached by the 32th sample. In order to collect data, the library research method was used. The collected data were then analyzed using a thematic analysis technique that is used in qualitative research studies. Finally, to validate the proposed model, a total of six experts in different fields, such as curriculum and educational planning, educational technology, and electronic learning were selected using a purposive sampling method. The researcher-made questionnaire for content validation of conceptual model was then sent to them. The final model was approved after modifications.Findings: Based on the findings of this research, three main components were obtained. The first group was the educational process with six sub-components (Educational targeting of courses, Contents of training courses, Various professional learning methods, Professional educational activities, Educational resources of the courses, and performance evaluation); the second group was the supporting part with five sub-components (training coverage of staff, Educational support, Educational expenses, Educational stimuli, and capabilities of the educational method); and the third group was the operational part with three sub-components (Educational areas, Complementary skills training, and Creating professional soft skills). Conclusion: This study shows the probable consequences of educational functions of MOOC in the workplace. The beneficiaries, including organizations, companies, and employees, can reliably employ these functions in their education system by paying more attention to them because we can dare say most organizations in Iran are still unaware of its potential educational benefits. In a world where with the rapid development of technology, being online is considered a necessity both personally and professionally in Iranian organizations, and the today's workforce is expected to be highly skilled and to continuously improve their skills based on the today's global standards, they can acquire these new skills through life-long learning, i.e. MOOCs, in an advanced digital environment.
e-learning
M. Abedini baltork; E. Salehi omran; N. Kolbadinezhad
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Massive open online courses as one of the latest educational technologies have caused fundamental and quality changes to educational processes at the level of different universities and it's expanding rapidly. Mooc entails an online learning environment that is considered as ...
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Background and Objectives: Massive open online courses as one of the latest educational technologies have caused fundamental and quality changes to educational processes at the level of different universities and it's expanding rapidly. Mooc entails an online learning environment that is considered as the latest revolution in online education and learning. These comprehensive learning courses have provided many people with access to knowledge that was not easy in the past. Mooc is a course aimed at highly interactive participation and open access via the Internet. Despite the importance of this issue, there is still no standard scale to measure Mooc-based Curriculum, so the current research was conducted with the aim of building and validating a curriculum scale based on Mooc in higher education.Methods: The research design is mixed method and the research method in the qualitative part is document review. In this regard, qualitative data was first collected and analyzed, then based on the qualitative results obtained, quantitative data was collected and analyzed and then the results of the quantitative part were used to better explain the qualitative findings. The statistical population also included Iranian and foreign sources in the field of virtual, electronic and Mooc education. In order to access texts and articles related to Persian and English keywords, curriculum, Mooc, virtual education, e-learning, online courses which are indexed in many internal electronic resources and electronic sources abroad were used to extract the latest sources related to the current research. Therefore, from 2000 to 2019, available and rich sources were studied in line with the current research and using the theme analysis method, 62 inclusive themes, 7 organizers and one comprehensive theme were discovered. The research method was quantitative, descriptive-survey and the statistical population consisted of 386 faculty members of University of Mazandaran. According to Morgan sampling table and based on relative stratified sampling, 181 people were selected as the sample. The data collection tool was a researcher-made questionnaire in the quantitative part, the content validity of which was 0.83 and the reliability was based on Cronbach's alpha coefficient and above 0.92. The research instrument was the Mooc curriculum scale with 7 subscales and 46 items on a five-point Likert scale.Findings: The results of confirmatory factor analysis showed that Mooc-based curriculum includes managerial, technological, manpower issues, goal, content, teaching-learning strategies and evaluation. The values of TLI and CFI indices were at the desired level and higher than the cut-off point of 0.90. Therefore, the factor model had a good fit with the data.Conclusion: Since Mooc is a course that aims for a lot of interactive participation and free access through the Internet and is considered as a source for learning and training, it can be said that this method has many more attractions than the traditional methods. On the other hand, nowadays, the existence of numerous unreliable sources of information on the Internet has become a big challenge for people, and access to websites can help those who are looking for information, because its content is prepared by reputable institutions and it is easy to understand whether the source is reliable or not.
e-learning
M.S. Ghoraishi khorasgani; M.S. Karimi Mehrabadi
Abstract
Background and Objectives: MOOCs as a form of e-learning, with their great potential and capacity in learning and teaching, can meet different needs of a diverse group of learners. Therefore, universities can utilize it as an effective educational tool in their educational and research courses and help ...
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Background and Objectives: MOOCs as a form of e-learning, with their great potential and capacity in learning and teaching, can meet different needs of a diverse group of learners. Therefore, universities can utilize it as an effective educational tool in their educational and research courses and help improve the quality of their education. Faculty members are among the most important pillars of the university and, accordingly, they play a major role in knowledge transfer and learning; therefore, it is necessary for faculty members to be aware of the latest methods of teaching such as MOOCs as well as knowledge acquisition and information literacy in this field. As a result, the present study has been conducted with the aim of investigating the MOOC-based information literacy of the faculty members of Al-Zahra University. Methods: The research approach used for the study is quantitative; the method is of descriptive-survey type, with a practical purpose. The research population includes the faculty members of Al-Zahra University. Through quota stratified sampling and based on Morgan table, among the 381 faculty members, 181 individuals were selected as the research sample. To collect data, based on the theoretical foundations and research background, a researcher-made questionnaire was developed with a five-point Likert scale (very high, high, medium, low and very low). In order to measure the validity of the questionnaire, the views of experts on new teaching methods and new approaches to teaching and learning were applied. The reliability coefficient of the data was calculated using Cronbach's alpha, with the obtained value of 0.97 which indicates the high reliability of the devised questionnaires. To analyze the data, SPSS 22, one-group t-tests, Friedman and multivariate analysis of variance were used. Findings: The findings indicate that from the participants' point of view, in the components of ‘knowledge’ (1.54), ‘preparation’ (1.53) and ‘analysis / implementation of the course’ (1.61), ‘evaluation’ (1.74), ‘review’ (1.78), ‘optimization’ (1.76) and, in general, the information literacy status of the faculty members based on MOOC (1.66) are rated below the average. The components are prioritized as ‘optimization’, ‘review’, ‘evaluation’, ‘analysis/course implementation’, ‘preparation’ and ‘knowledge’, respectively. Accordingly, ‘optimization’ (3.74) is in the best and ‘knowledge’ (3.25) is in the worst condition. In addition, among the views of the research participants on the ‘gap of information literacy of the faculty members towards the MOOCs’, there is no significant difference among the distinguishing indicators, such as ‘history, gender, academic status, age, and department’. Conclusion: The results of this research show that MOOC-based information literacy is low among university faculty members and their knowledge and awareness of the MOOCs is very low. Lack of up-to-date faculty members, lack of various trainings, such as holding workshops, conferences, specialized meetings in the field of MOOCs, inattention and lack of emphasis laid by higher education institutions on the need to use new teaching methods by the universities, lack of attention to practical skills and familiarity with new teaching approaches in the world as a qualifying feature in employing the faculty members, lack of approval and demand of students from the faculty members to use the MOOCs in their teaching-learning approaches and the dominance of the traditional approach to teaching in the universities can be enumerated as the reasons for the results of the study.
Education technology - higher education
A. Jadidi Mohammadabadi; M.R. Sarmadi; M. Farajolahi; H. Zare
Abstract
Background and Objectives: One of the forms of knowledge acquisition in the current era is the distance education system, which has changed the traditional teaching methods, made it possible for everyone to learn everywhere and at any time, and has established social justice in the distribution of resources ...
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Background and Objectives: One of the forms of knowledge acquisition in the current era is the distance education system, which has changed the traditional teaching methods, made it possible for everyone to learn everywhere and at any time, and has established social justice in the distribution of resources and facilities. It has created the necessary conditions for standardized education and in accordance with the needs of individuals and society, as well as the significant help that this system can easily and timely modernize education, save time, money and energy consumption, create opportunities for continuing education for employed people, strengthen specializations and creates calmness and reduces anxiety. And given that in addition to classroom teaching at the university, distance learning is now a valid method worldwide and UNESCO and other educational organizations around the world emphasize the expansion of distance learning, it is necessary to seriously develop it and the foundations of epistemology; and make it known to policymakers, planners and learners.The present study was conducted with the aim of identification and assessing the epistemological characteristics of MOOC (massive and courses). Methods: For this purpose, two methods of exploratory search (qualitative) and a questionnaire (quantitative) method were used. In the qualitative part of the research environment, the relevant electronic sources related to the subject matter of the research including 20 related articles were selected. In the quantitative section from the statistical population of 60 specialists in planning distance education in 2018 in the country a sample of 36 people was selected through voluntary sampling. To analyze the qualitative data, content analysis method and content validity index were used for analyzing quantitative data from mean weight and Friedman test. Findings: The results of content analysis indicated that four episodes of the learner, the content, teaching organization and educational environment can be investigated in MOOC epistemology (massive and courses). A total of 35 criteria were identified and confirmed. Quantitative results show that improving the level of information and digital literacy of professors, and knowledge with previous cognitive structures are the most important criterions of the epistemological characteristics of the courses of MOOC; and the criteria of ease of usedigital content, the recruitment of information technology professionals, for knowledge courses and the provision of Internet-based learning group environment, are the most important criterion for epistemology of massive MOOC. Conclusion: The results showed that in the epistemology of massive courses the dim
E-Lerning
B. Mohajeran; M. Rezvan
Abstract
Background and Objective:Globalization as a dominant approach and influenced by technological changes in the accelerating position and in a convergent approach, has transformed human behavior and the tools of human society. Higher education and other related socio-economic systems have faced challenges ...
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Background and Objective:Globalization as a dominant approach and influenced by technological changes in the accelerating position and in a convergent approach, has transformed human behavior and the tools of human society. Higher education and other related socio-economic systems have faced challenges in responding to these changes that traditional solutions are not compatible with, and this institution is deeply involved in the current process of globalization. In the field of higher education, the emergence of globalization and the development of emerging technologies, factors such as student mobility in geographical sites, new disciplines, new educational technologies and new financial structures along with general challenges such as lack of financial resources in the higher education system, the quality and quantity of faculty members as well as limitations based on the specific conditions of each country such as inadequate human development indicators, lack of necessary infrastructure, infrastructure and digital divide lead to the need to use new and efficient solutions in providing new and standardized educational services that are dynamic and forward-looking in line with global economic realities. The purpose of this exploratory study is to design an optimal model to deploy MOOC based trainings in Tehran University using strategic analysis. Methods: To achieve this goal, in the first phase, a five-step research method with a "systematic review of previous literature" was used to identify stakeholders, as well as dimensions, components and processes of the MOOC and checked the results using Delfi methodology by a selected group of experts in virtual education and higher education policy makers. In the second phase, the current situation of Tehran University was evaluated based on the dimensions, components and identified processes. In the third phase, the deployment model of MOOC in Tehran University was designed and in the final stage, the proportion degree of designed model was validated by the expert group. Findings: The results of the study indicate that the possibility of successfully deploying Mooc tutorials in Tehran University in terms of high technology infrastructure is high, in terms of human resources infrastructure is moderate and in terms of cultural and social infrastructure is lower than average. Based on these results, Mook deployment model was designed based on 5 dimensions and 34 components and the proportion degree of designed model was validated and verified by the expert group. Conclusion: The establishment of MOOC as a new institution in educational technology in its global wave has affected many areas of human resource development. Improving efficiency along with reducing training costs means higher quality and cheaper for the general public. This institution in the country should be used with the necessary infrastructures. The main purpose of this study was to rely on the existence of an appropriate and national platform along with identifying and managing the real stakeholders and their participation in the formation and development of MOOC. In this study, using global studies, while screening well-known stakeholders in this field, relying on the opinion of experts, local stakeholders in the establishment of MOOC in the most important and most comprehensive university in Iran were identified and based on their needs and knowledge, the proposed model of MOOC and national platform was presented with the approval of the e-learning elite.
