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Fostering effective collaboration in MOOCs through mobile apps

Abstract:

One of the characteristics of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) is the huge amount of participants. However, participants do not collaborate among them. Moreover, the results show that despite the existence of tools like forums and peer review activities, current MOOC platforms do not have mechanisms to support collaboration. According to the literature, there are 6 aspects to promote effective collaboration: (1) having a common objective, (2) positive interdependence, (3) coordination and communication, (4) individual responsability, (5) awareness and positive interaction, and (6) joint rewards. This article presents MyMOOCSpace, a first prototype of a mobile game that has been designed to foster collaboration in MOOCs considering three of the six aspects mentioned: the common objective, positive interdependence and individual responsability. Fourteen students participated in a controlled study to assess the usability, the game mechanisms and the use of MyMOOCSpace. The results show that the application is usable and that participants understand the dynamics of the game, but there are aspects of design that must be changed for future releases.