Online education is becoming the norm in higher education. Effective instructional design methods are required to ensure that "ever-connected" students' needs are being met. One potential method is design thinking: an agile methodology that stresses the importance of empathy with the student. The #OpenTeach fully online course was…

The experiences of course facilitators in connectivist-type MOOCs are poorly reported. Yet there is evidence that the values and beliefs of facilitators have an important impact on the learning experiences of participants, and that reducing their interactions with students may also reduce the effectiveness of the course. This study aimed to…

This paper presents the methodology for strategic decision making in higher education (HE). The methodology is structured as a cycle of strategic decision making with four phases, and it is focused on institutional and national perspective, i.e. on decision making that takes place at institutions of HE and relevant national authorities, in case…

This paper will share Discover Palestine, an interdisciplinary Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) and the first MOOC to be created in Palestine, by the E-Learning Centre, Faculty from the Department of Geography, and Department of Tourism and Archaeology from An-Najah National University in Palestine. The paper traces the process of development of…

"Open Educational Resources" (OER) have the potential to replace traditional textbooks in higher education. Previous studies indicate that use of OER results in high student and faculty satisfaction, lower costs, and similar or better educational outcomes. In this case study, we compared students using traditional textbooks with those…

Open education has revolutionized the educational environment. Massive open online courses have become the main showcase for open educational resources, but the competition to establish a position in this movement has led to the rapid publication of many courses of arguable quality. This paper presents and analyzes the process of creating a small…

This case study describes the process that the Humanities Programme Team, in Dublin City University's Open Education Unit, has undertaken with regard to developing a systematic, programme-focused assessment strategy. It charts the development of an Assessment Matrix that facilitated the enhancement of programme coherence in the context of a…

Re-engineering technological strategies in teaching and learning in an open distance learning (ODL) environment is paramount as the demand for access to quality higher education escalates drastically on a year to year basis. The organisational framework requires change in order to accommodate the increasing number of students. In view of the…

Digital media and open educational resources (OER) are said to redraw the boundaries between learners and teachers, by weakening the centralization of expertise and the distribution of subject-matter authority. This paper presents the findings of an ethnographic study of how the use of OER mediates the relations between self-directed learners and…

This paper explores the ways in which module and curriculum development in the context of a distance education (DE) programme play an important role in "constructing" a discipline's object of study, thus contributing to the ways in which knowledge is understood in society. The paper examines how the process of module production both…

The article addresses the question of how the assessment process with large-scale data derived from online learning environments will be different from the assessment process without it. Following an explanation of big data and how it is different from previously available learner data, we describe three notable features that characterize…

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have been the subject of much polarised debate around their potential to transform higher education in terms of opening access. Although MOOCs have been attracting large learner cohorts, concerns have emerged from the early evidence base centring upon issues of quality in learning and teaching provision, and…

This paper reports on the current experience of one higher education institution in Australia embarking on the path towards mainstreaming online learning opportunities by providing three complementary academic development initiatives that can inform strategies undertaken by other institutions internationally. First, an academic development program…

This paper explores the methodological approaches most commonly adopted in the scholarly literature on Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), published during the period January 2008-May 2014. In order to identify trends, gaps and criticalities related to the methodological approaches of this emerging field of research, we analysed 60 papers…

The first implementation of complete high school, open on-line courses (HOOC) aiming to support the training and basic scientific knowledge of young students from the Liceo Ginnasio Dante Alighieri in Gorizia, Italy, is discussed. Using the open source and automated recording system openEyA, HOOC give a student the opportunity to watch on-line, at…