Are MOOCs impacting on-campus students? Jul. 2014 | Page 2

ABSTRACT
This research investigates the impact that blended learning with Massive Open
Online Courses (MOOCs) has had for education, with campus based students by
academics at four highly ranked American institutions.
It uses case studies to present a Thematic Analysis of a webinar discussion about
their use of flipped learning, peer assessment and other active learning techniques.
Four descriptive case studies were produced providing useful insights into the
pedagogical techniques and issues that were raised by the investigation. The
specific questions addressed were what the impact of using the MOOC was for both
staff and students, along with what has changed.
The findings showed that there was an impact on the education activity of the
academics through the three distinct themes of Performance, Support and Change.
The academic staff used active learning to ‘flip’ their classrooms and were able to
offer a high level of support to both staff and students. Campus classes were
adapted to create deeper learning and communities of teaching have been formed,
creating inspiring and engaging working and learning conditions. However, despite
consistencies across case studies, it was clear that this was not a broad enough
study to offer a significant outcome.
Finally it concludes that although there was individual evidence across all three
themes that it should be noted that this cannot be shown to be indicative of every
institutions use for blended learning. Further research is suggested, from other
platform providers and institutions. This research should be seen as a sign post for
further investigation.

MSc Digital Education

University of Edinburgh, 2014

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