The Online Interface and Social Inclusion: A MOOC Study in Turkey
Published | 11 May 2020 |
Journal | Journal of Interactive Media in Education Volume 2020, Issue 1, Pages 12 |
Country | Turkey, Asia |
ABSTRACT
One of the virtues of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) is that, because of their scalability, temporal flexibility and digital mediation, they have the potential to increase learner numbers in higher education, boosting their general level of social inclusion. Whether a MOOC actually succeeds in enhancing students’ social inclusion, however, is shaped by two elements of the course: 1) the features of the online interface – the embedded linguistic, pedagogical and interactive features that direct students’ engagement with the course materials, the educator and their peers; and 2) the knowledge content of the course, especially its relevancy for equipping learners to be able to engage meaningfully with the world after completion of the MOOC. With this in mind, this paper focuses on the first element, exploring Turkish students’ experiences of taking a MOOC and their perceptions of how the MOOC interface shaped their sense of social inclusion. Fifteen university-level students registered for a five-week MOOC on how to improve their English language writing skills. They then completed a questionnaire about their views on the learning experience. Nine of the students also kept diaries reflecting on their learning through the MOOC. Findings reveal that these students had a positive view of the MOOC, with different elements of the online interface playing important roles in improving digital, educational and social inclusion. The paper ends by recommending that researchers should further investigate the relationship between social inclusion and MOOCs; that course designers should rethink the role of online interfaces within MOOCS; and that Turkish higher education institutions should develop more MOOCs with locally relevant features embedded within them.Keywords | social inclusion · MOOC · online interface · Turkey · higher education |
Language | English |
Refereed | Yes |
Rights | CC BY |
DOI | 10.5334/jime.558 |
Export options | BibTex · EndNote · Tagged XML · Google Scholar |
AVAILABLE FILES
Viewed by 175 distinct readers
CLOUD COMMUNITY REVIEWS
The evaluations below represent the judgements of our readers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Cloud editors.










5.0 average · 1 rating (view) · Click a star to rate
▶ POST A COMMENT
SIMILAR RECORDS
Do MOOCs contribute to student equity and social inclusion? A systematic review 2014–18
Lambert, Sarah
In recent years, hopes that Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) would make access to education fairer faded in the light of research showing MOOCs favoured the already educated and relatively advantaged. This paper ...
Match: inclusion; mooc; higher education
Why MOOCs while dealing with large numbers of distance learners
Aydin, Cengiz Hakan
This webinar focuses on a long-time open and distance learning provider institution’s MOOCs initiative. It does not only provide an insight about the instructional, assessment, and managerial strategies but also ...
Match: mooc; turkey; higher education
Current status of the MOOC movement in the world and reaction of the Turkish higher education institutions
Aydin, Cengiz Hakan; HOME Project; European Association for Distance Teaching Universities
Match: mooc; turkey
Planning to design MOOC? Think first!
AlDahdouh, Alaa A.; Osório, António J.
Over the last years, educators have been forced to rethink about the whole education system. In 2005, Connectivism, a new learning theory, was emerged. Consequently, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have been ...
Match: mooc; turkey; higher education
The role of postgraduate students in co-authoring open educational resources to promote social inclusion: a case study at the University of Cape Town
Hodgkinson-Williams, Cheryl; Paskevicius, Michael
Like many universities worldwide, the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa has joined the open educational resources (OER) movement, making a selection of teaching and learning materials available through its ...
Match: inclusion; social inclusion
Opening up Down Under: the role of open educational resources in promoting social inclusion in Australia
Bossu, Carina; Bull, David; Brown, Mark
This article discusses the role of open and distance learning to widen participation and promote social inclusion within Australian higher education, as well as the benefits that open educational resources (OER) could ...
Match: inclusion; social inclusion
OER and OEP in the Global South: Implications and recommendations for social inclusion
Arinto, Patricia; Hodgkinson-Williams, Cheryl; Trotter, Henry; Hodgkinson-Williams, Cheryl; Arinto, Patricia B.
The Research on Open Educational Resources for Development (ROER4D) project was undertaken to provide a better understanding of the uptake of Open Educational Resources (OER) and their impact on education in the Global ...
Match: inclusion; social inclusion
The impact of ICT on the costs and economics of distance education: A review of the literature
Hülsmann, Thomas
The remit for this review was quite broad, requesting coverage of the relevant literature on costing since 2000 as well as on costing-relevant aspects of open educational resources (OER), massive open online courses ...
Match: mooc; higher education
Implementation of Tel Aviv University MOOCs in academic curriculum: A pilot study
Soffer, Tal; Cohen, Anat; McGreal, Rory; Conrad, Dianne
The study presented in this paper examines the feasibility of using MOOCs as a learning environment in academic courses. This paper focuses on the students who participated in two MOOCs offered by Tel Aviv University ...
Match: mooc; higher education
Changing the tune: MOOCs for human development? A case study (pre-print)
Balaji, Venkataraman; Kanwar, Asha; Bonk, Curtis J.; Lee, Mimi M.; et al.
The Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) is covered in critical analysis as well as in popular media as a development exclusively bearing on the Higher Education sector (The Economist, 2014). This term has also acquired an ...
Match: mooc; higher education