Are MOOCs impacting on-campus students? Jul. 2014 | Página 22

Futurelearn. However, I am not a Learning Designer for those MOOCs. I am the
Chair of the Association of Learning Technology Special Interest Group on MOOCs,
which looks at a range of MOOC types and from no particular platform or style.
Although it may be in my professional interest to bring a positive bias, it is also
important to gain a realistic awareness of the application of MOOCs for on campus
learning and teaching, especially at such an early stage of their development. I
was aware that I needed to apply an objective approach in my analysis of the data
and maintained a position of neutrality.

3.8 ETHICS
This research was undertaken after ethical approval was granted in accordance with
the University of Edinburgh regulations. I also approached each of the academics
(via email) to ask permission to use the content of the webinar. Doug Fisher
responded on behalf of the participants and gave permission.

4. PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
The thematic analysis identified that there were strong themes across all of the case
studies. In order to qualify the questions for my research I was looking for examples
of impact on the campus experience. The campus experience in this context refers
to both academic and student experiences.
It was my intention to identify academic staff who were using MOOCs to teach their
face to face classes and to use surveys and semi-structured interviews to speak to
students and staff about their experiences. Using qualitative methods I felt would not
just give me information about what but also why. My initial attempts to secure
participants was limited entirely by the lack of eligible academics and students.
There were many academic staff participating on MOOCs but I had no way of
identifying those who had used the MOOCs as part of their courses. Likewise for
students.
I had also intended to use social media to gather information and secure
participants. However, I quickly realised that my networks, although established,
were generally limited as most of those I was following were Learning Technologists
and staff associated with online learning, but were not involved in teaching or
running a MOOC, yet, themselves.

MSc Digital Education

However, through searching the web I

University of Edinburgh, 2014

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