Are MOOCs impacting on-campus students? Jul. 2014 | Seite 20

3.3 SEARCH TERMS
After scoping the MOOCs discussion pieces, it was clear to me that one of the most
useful aspect of MOOCs for a Higher Education establishment was how the
experiences of those on the MOOCs, designing, teaching and learning would impact
the students of the institution. My interest was around the effect that MOOCs had
on education.
Initially it was envisaged that I would use the Journals for which I had access, via
my institutional access. However, these were limited (at first ) because of the lack
of published literature around the aspects of MOOCs that I was interested in. The
most useful method for accessing relevant and timely information was via Google
Scholar and latterly, via ERIC. The table below shows how limited the resources
were. It was not until the latter part of 2013 that peer reviewed research became
readily available. For the purposes of my research, I relied on the peer-reviewed
research with additional information from credible cited sources (usually respected
newspapers, periodicals and some (although few) blog posts).
Using the search terms “MOOCs”, “MOOCs AND blended learning” the following
results were returned, classified by year to illustrate how the available information
has grown exponentially since 2011.
Search term: MOOCs
Google Scholar
ERIC

2011
58
3

2012
374
19

2013
2130
19

TABLE 1: SEARCH TERM “MOOC”OVER TIME BETWEEN 2011-2012

Search term: MOOCs AND blended learning
Google Scholar
ERIC

2011
9
0

2012
75
2

2013
319
0

TABLE 2: SEARCH TERM “MOOCS AND “BLENDED LEARNING” BETWEEN 2011-2012

3.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
My research questions were initially very broad but were narrowed down specifically
to Academics and their perceptions of impact on the educational experience.
•

How have MOOCs affected education on campus?

•

What impact has this had on the student experience?

MSc Digital Education

University of Edinburgh, 2014

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