MacKinnon, Lachlan and Bacon, Liz (2016) How to develop a GROOC: Establishing group dynamics in MOOCs. In: There and Back: Charting Flexible Pathways in Open, Mobile and Distance Education: DEANZ 2016 Conference Proceedings. University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand, pp. 92-96.

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Abstract

The term GROOC has recently been defined, by Professor Mintzberg of McGill University (McGill, 2015), to describe group-oriented MOOCs, based on one he has developed on social activism. He has also made it clear that he sees no requirement to provide additional support to address group dynamics, stating that groups should be able to handle losing a few members and still function appropriately (Poets & Quants, 2015). However, the existing research in this area, building from a massive research base in traditional group work theory (Cohen & Lotan, 2014), has identified that group formation and maintenance require considerable extra planning and support. The authors have recently completed the first instantiation of a MOOC, on Entrepreneurship and Innovation in IT, as part of the dCCD-FLITE (distributed Concurrent Design Framework for eLearning in IT Entrepreneurship) research project (dCCD-FLITE, 2015), and their research has confirmed the difficulties in both forming and maintaining groups, and student reluctance to engage in group-based activities. In this paper we discuss the existing research on establishing group dynamics in MOOCs, identifying the key factors influencing success and failure, and then consider the outcomes from the dCCD-FLITE MOOC. The authors have already reported on this work, and have now further analysed the data gathered from the MOOC to consider alternative approaches to establishing Group Dynamics in MOOCs, and are currently planning to run the course once more utilising social media as a catalyst for group formation and maintenance.

Item Type:	Conference Proceedings
Title of Proceedings:	There and Back: Charting Flexible Pathways in Open, Mobile and Distance Education: DEANZ 2016 Conference Proceedings
Additional Information:	Paper presented at the DEANZ Biennial Conference, The University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand, 17-20 April 2016
Subjects:	Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Liberal Arts & Sciences > eCentre Greenwich Research into Innovative Pedagogies (GRIP) Faculty of Engineering & Science > School of Computing & Mathematical Sciences (CMS) Faculty of Engineering & Science
Last Modified:	04 Mar 2022 13:07
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/17250

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