Authors:
Ana Azevedo
1
;
Marisa Oliveira
2
;
Alcinda Barreiras
2
;
Jose Manuel Azevedo
1
;
Graça Marcos
2
and
Hermínia Ferreira
2
Affiliations:
1
CEOS.PP / ISCAP / P. PORTO, Instituto Politecnico do Porto and Portugal
;
2
Institute of Engineering of Porto, P. PORTO, Instituto Politecnico do Porto, Porto and Portugal
Keyword(s):
Mathematics, MOOC, Computer-Aided Learning, Higher Education, Learning Analytics.
Abstract:
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are online courses with an unlimited number of participants and no entry requirements. Due to their massive and open nature, MOOCs have a high potential to offer access to education to millions of people worldwide. However, there are several challenges in MOOCs such as huge drop-out rates, improper automated assessments, diverse student engagement, and attention, etc. Learning Analytics is “the measurement, collection, analysis, and reporting of data about learners and their contexts, for purposes of understanding and optimizing learning and the environments in which it occurs” (Society of Learning Analytics Research (SoLAR)) which can help us to contain such issues. This paper presents an initial analysis, using descriptive analytics, of the students’ activity in a MOOC for Mathematics. The analysis allowed the developers of the course to better understand some of the limitations and also some of the strengths of the course in order to continuousl
y adapt it to the users’ needs and interests.
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