MOOCs e interazioni collaborative: l’esperienza in «Sapienza»

Abstract

MOOCs and Collaborative Interactions: the Experience at «Sapienza» University

Nowadays, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are a means to reach, inform and train a large number of users. In the last few years several universities around the world have begun to provide free online courses on very different topics. «Sapienza» University has started up a collaboration with «Coursera», by delivering two MOOCs in the «Coursera» platform last year. Early educational research on this field identified two different MOOC typologies, based on the pedagogical approach adopted: connectivist versus behavioral; courses delivered by the major MOOC companies were charged to adopt a behavioral approach, considering learning as mere knowledge transmission instead of knowledge building. In this paper we wish to present the two courses delivered by «Sapienza» University, analyzing both participation and results, with particular emphasis on forum interactions and tutoring styles among teachers. Courses supposedly designed to deliver content and assess knowledge acquisition proved to be able to encourage and support students’ active and collaborative knowledge building, simply by adding forums with or without teacher management. In this way, the courses could change from being mere knowledge providers to real collaborative learning environments.