Olga Firssova

Mobile inquiry-based learning for sustainability education in secondary schools

This paper reports about experiences and lessons learned from a recently conducted pilot study about sustainability education with mobile inquiry-based learning in a secondary school in the Netherlands. In the pilot study learners were involved in a mobile location-based game that was conducted in reserved time-slots over 5 weeks. Mobile devices of the school and of learners have been combined with a smart-energy meter network to support learning activities covering the full inquiry cycle. Analysis of data collected shows that the implementation was beneficial for learners with a low prior knowledge level and that future designs should take into account gender aspects in the design phase.

Mobile Inquiry-Based Learning with Sensor-Data in the School: Effects on Student Motivation

The paper discusses the design, implementation and evaluation of a pilot project that integrated inquiry-based learning with mobile game design and introduced mobile devices and sensors into classroom learning. A 5-week classroom inquiry learning project on energy consumption was designed and implemented as a mobile serious game. While engaging in the game and training inquiry skills, students were introduced to basic concepts in the energy domain and to everyday practices of energy consumption in their direct environment. The design was based on a model of inquiry-based science learning with social and open mobile tools developed in the European research project weSPOT. The pilot indicated that using an ubiquitous tool does not necessarily help sustain student motivation. There are indications of gender differences in motivation related to use of mobile devices for learning. These differences should be taken into account in the design of activities. Implementation of the inquiry-based learning model in conjunction with a mobile game scenario into the school practice confirmed the importance of good design with sufficient testing and teacher ownership.

Designing for Open Learning: Design Principles and Scalability Affordances in Practice

This work-in-progress paper elaborates on a gradually evolving approach to design of open learning and the design principles used by the Open University of the Netherlands in short open courses - online masterclasses and in Massive Open Online Courses -- delivered in the learning environment of the Open University and in the experimental multilingual MOOC aggregator EMMA as part of a European project. As the paper will demonstrate, these principles can be seen as building blocks of open scalable design of active and engaging learning.

Towards ‘MOOCs with a Purpose’: Crowdsourcing and analysing scalable design solutions with MOOC learners

In this study we explored the use of a research assignment on instructional design of MOOCs by MOOC students. The use of a research assignment was expected to be of interest for both students and the designer. The assignment is based on a framework to analyse MOOC designs with the objective to identify best practices. It builds on four principles: constructive alignment, task complexity, interaction and formative feedback. The exploration indicates that students positively appreciate this kind of assignments. Moreover, the crowdsourcing alike approach showed to be a valuable way for MOOC designers to get awarded with data gathered by their participants. The participants, be it a small sample, were able to apply the framework to analyse MOOCs and identify best practices. We will discuss the framework and the results of its application. Finally, we will conclude with the experiences of the users.