Massive Online Open Courses: Features for Understanding and Learning

Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) are based on digital cognitive technologies that serve the education of the greatest number by promoting understanding and learning. Combined with appropriate functionalities, methods, and procedures, MOOCs may become Smart Things with intelligent devices at the service of learners. This article aims to introduce to the education community a method for defining and evaluating the exemplary nature of MOOCs as Smart Things that have a user-centric design based on utility, acceptability, accessibility, usability, and ergonomic criteria. The procedure implemented in the following three-phase study is a Human Centered Design based co-construction of an exemplary MOOC for user-learners and designers. In the first phase, a brainstorming study is carried out to define the exemplary MOOC as a Smart Thing by collecting and establishing indicators according to their contribution to the exemplary MOOC. In the second phase, the construction of evaluation tools is studied to assess the exemplary nature of the MOOC by testing 29 indicators and their weights. The third phase is for a focus group study about the evaluation of the learnability of MOOCs produced by learners and designers’ cooperation. The results of the study lead to a series of recommendations aimed at promoting the design of exemplary MOOCs.