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Teaching Assistants in MOOCs Forums: Omnipresent Interlocutors or Knowledge Facilitators

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Transforming Learning with Meaningful Technologies (EC-TEL 2019)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 11722))

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Abstract

Α major issue that concerns course instructors of massive open online courses (MOOCs) is the low retention ratio of learners. One of the key factors of this problem is the lack of support and interactivity in MOOC discussion forums. The support provided to learners in MOOC forums is critical to retain their motivation. Teaching assistants (TAs) play a crucial role in providing support to learners within the discussion forums, so an interesting research subject is to study the approaches they follow. In this study, we investigate the TAs’ instructional approaches through a mixed-methods approach. This has been performed on two MOOCs delivered through the OpenEdX platform. The goal was to assess the main characteristics of their interventions by using an evaluation framework derived from social constructivism theory and to capture the main issues of their approaches. The results of this study reveal that TAs did not promote problem-centered learning and collaboration, and they acted more as ‘omniscient interlocutors’ rather than as facilitators. Thus, these issues should be addressed, through either a guided learning design process by the instructors, and support to the TAs, regarding their intervention strategy in forums.

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Acknowledgements

This research is performed in the frame of collaboration of the University of Patras with online platform mathesis.cup.gr. Supply of MOOCs data, by Mathesis is gratefully acknowledged. Doctoral scholarship “Strengthening Human Resources Research Potential via Doctorate Research – 2nd Cycle” (MIS-5000432), implemented by the State Scholarships Foundation (ΙΚY) is also gratefully acknowledged. This research has also been partially funded by the Spanish State Research Agency (AEI) under project grants TIN2014-53199-C3-2-R and TIN2017-85179-C3-2-R, the Regional Government of Castilla y León grant VA082U16, the ΕC grant 588438-EPP-1-2017-1-EL-EPPKA2-KA.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Patras, Patras, Greece

    Anastasios Ntourmas, Nikolaos Avouris & Sophia Daskalaki

  2. Universidad de Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain

    Yannis Dimitriadis

Authors
  1. Anastasios Ntourmas
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  2. Nikolaos Avouris
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  3. Sophia Daskalaki
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  4. Yannis Dimitriadis
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anastasios Ntourmas .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Open University Netherlands, Heerlen, The Netherlands

    Maren Scheffel

  2. Paul Sabatier University, Toulouse, France

    Julien Broisin

  3. Know-Center GmbH, Graz, Austria

    Viktoria Pammer-Schindler

  4. Cyprus University of Technology, Limassol, Cyprus

    Andri Ioannou

  5. DIPF, Frankfurt/Main, Germany

    Jan Schneider

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Ntourmas, A., Avouris, N., Daskalaki, S., Dimitriadis, Y. (2019). Teaching Assistants in MOOCs Forums: Omnipresent Interlocutors or Knowledge Facilitators. In: Scheffel, M., Broisin, J., Pammer-Schindler, V., Ioannou, A., Schneider, J. (eds) Transforming Learning with Meaningful Technologies. EC-TEL 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11722. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29736-7_18

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29736-7_18

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-29735-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-29736-7

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