The DOI matches its Crossref record; 25 of the 76 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
In Search of Quality: Using Quality Matters to Analyze the Quality of Massive, Open, Online Courses (MOOCs)
Open accessAbstract
The concept of the massive, open, online course (MOOC) is not new, but high-profile initiatives have moved MOOCs into the forefront of higher education news over the past few years. Members of institutions of higher education have mixed feelings about MOOCs, ranging from those who want to offer college credit for the successful completion of MOOCs to those who fear MOOCs are the end of the university as we know it. We set forth to investigate the quality of MOOCs by using the Quality Matters quality control framework. In this article, we present the results of our inquiry, with a specific focus on the implications the results have on day-to-day practice of designing online courses.
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“The use of performance objectives can result in fewer examples of creativity in the delivery of the instruction, a finding identified by Lowenthal and Hodges (2015).”
From Students' Perceptions of Quality Across Four Course Development Models (2018) · cites this paper as Lowenthal and Hodges (2015)
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Cites
Bernard, R. M., Abrami, P. C., Lou, Y., Borokhovski, E., Wade, A., Wozney, L., Wallet, P. A., Fiset, M., & Huang, B. (2004) · Review of Educational Research · doi:10.3102/00346543074003379 · Cited by 1,761
E-Moderating: The Key to Teaching and Learning Online
Eastmond, D. V. (2003) · The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning · doi:10.19173/irrodl.v4i1.125 · Cited by 1,445 · cited 1×
“, instructors teach differently online (Palloff & Pratt, 1999; Salmon, 2000; Wiley, 2002), and this line of inquiry typically places face-to-face instruction inappropriately as the gold standard (Duffy & Kirkley, 2004; McDonald, 2002).”
BackgroundErtmer, P. A., & Newby, T. J. (1993) · Performance Improvement Quarterly · doi:10.1111/j.1937-8327.1993.tb00605.x · Cited by 1,410
Palloff, R., & Pratt, K. (1999) · doi:10.1177/009155210002700407 · Cited by 1,378 · cited 1×
“, instructors teach differently online (Palloff & Pratt, 1999; Salmon, 2000; Wiley, 2002), and this line of inquiry typically places face-to-face instruction inappropriately as the gold standard (Duffy & Kirkley, 2004; McDonald, 2002).”
BackgroundInitial trends in enrolment and completion of massive open online courses
Jordan, K. (2014) · The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning · doi:10.19173/irrodl.v15i1.1651 · Cited by 978 · cited 2×
“The alluring promise of MOOCs and what keeps people interested in them is their ability to offer free or low-cost education to anyone, anytime, anywhere, and on a massive scale (Delbanco, 2013; Jordan, 2014; Yang et al., 2013).”
BackgroundInstructional quality of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)
Margaryan, A., Bianco, M., & Littlejohn, A. H. (2014) · Computers & Education · doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2014.08.005 · Cited by 794 · cited 1×
“It is important to note that our findings suggest something different than the work of Margaryan et al. (2015) Margaryan et al.”
ResultMeta-Analysis of Research on Class Size and Achievement
Glass, G., & Smith, M. (1979) · Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis · doi:10.3102/01623737001001002 · Cited by 599 · cited 1×
“Among other things, they question whether meaningful and effective educational experiences are even possible in large enrollment courses (see Glass & Smith, 1979; Lederman & Barwick, 2007; Mulryan-Kyne, 2010), let alone completely online courses with massive enrollments (see Leddy, 2013; Mazoue,…”
BackgroundConole, G. (2016) · Revista de Educación a Distancia (RED) · doi:10.6018/red/50/2 · Cited by 426
Teaching large classes at college and university level: challenges and opportunities
Mulryan-Kyne, C. (2010) · Teaching in Higher Education · doi:10.1080/13562511003620001 · Cited by 387 · cited 1×
“Among other things, they question whether meaningful and effective educational experiences are even possible in large enrollment courses (see Glass & Smith, 1979; Lederman & Barwick, 2007; MulryanKyne, 2010), let alone completely online courses with massive enrollments (see Leddy, 2013; Mazoue, 2013; Rees, 2013).”
BackgroundJaggars, S., & Bailey, T. R. (2010) · Columbia University · doi:10.7916/d85m63sm · Cited by 222 · cited 1×
“But for every study that suggested no significant difference or that students possibly might learn better online (e.g., Means, Toyama, Murphy, Bakia, & Jones, 2010), another study suggested the opposite (see Jaggars, 2011; Jaggars & Bailey, 2010; Jaggars & Xu, 2010; Xu & Jaggars, 2011).”
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51 of the 76 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.
Cited by
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Feitosa de Moura, V., Alexandre de Souza, C., & Noronha Viana, A. B. (2021) · Computers & Education · doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2020.104077 · Cited by 135
Learner support in MOOCs: Identifying variables linked to completion
Barberà, E., Zhang, J., Fernández, C. G., & Fernández‐Navarro, F. (2018) · Computers & Education · doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2018.03.014 · Cited by 147
Learner Behaviour in a MOOC Practice-oriented Course: In Empirical Study Integrating TAM and TPB
Yang, H.-H., & Su, C.-H. (2017) · The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning · doi:10.19173/irrodl.v18i5.2991 · Cited by 111
“These issues, as they relate to MOOCs, have been fully discussed and studied by numerous researchers (Lowenthal & Hodges, 2015; Rodriguez, 2012; Margaryan, Bianco, & Littlejohn, 2015; Jordan, 2015).”
BackgroundOnline Course Design in Higher Education: A Review of National and Statewide Evaluation Instruments
Baldwin, S., Ching, Y., & Hsu, Y. (2017) · TechTrends · doi:10.1007/s11528-017-0215-z · Cited by 124
“The QM Rubric is frequently linked to quality in higher education online course literature (e.g., Legon 2015; Lowenthal and Hodges 2015; Shattuck 2010).”
BackgroundDesign review of MOOCs: application of e-learning design principles
Oh, E. G., Chang, Y., & Park, S. W. (2019) · Journal of Computing in Higher Education · doi:10.1007/s12528-019-09243-w · Cited by 82
Metadata
- Authors
- Lowenthal, P., & Hodges, C.
- Affiliations
- Boise State University (US)
- Georgia Southern University (US)
- Venue
- The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning
- Publisher
- Athabasca University Press
- Published
- 2015-09-29
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 5
- ISSN
- 1492-3831 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1799316639
- Cited by
- 116
- References
- 76
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 20 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 5
- FWCI
- 15.01
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- ScholarWorks (Boise State University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Érudit (Université de Montréal) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Science Applications › Online Learning and Analytics
- Social Sciences › Education › Open Education and E-Learning
- Social Sciences › Education › Online and Blended Learning
- Keywords
- massive open online courses, MOOC quality, Quality Matters, online course design, online course evaluation, higher education
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