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The educational problem that MOOCs could solve: Professional development for teachers of disadvantaged students

Laurillard, D; (2016) The educational problem that MOOCs could solve: Professional development for teachers of disadvantaged students. Research on Learning Technology , 24 , Article 29369. 10.3402/rlt.v24.29369. Green open access

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Abstract

The demographics of MOOC analytics show that the great majority of learners are highly qualified professionals, and not, as originally envisaged, the global community of disadvantaged learners who have no access to good higher education. MOOC pedagogy fits well with the combination of instruction and peer community learning found in most professional development. A UNESCO study therefore set out to test the efficacy of an experimental course for teachers who need but do not receive high quality CPD, as a way of exploiting what MOOCs can do indirectly to serve disadvantaged students. The course was based on case studies around the world of ICT in primary education, and was carried out to contribute to the UNESCO Education for All goal. It used a co-learning approach to engage the primary teaching community in exploring ways of using ICT in primary education. Course analytics, forums and participant surveys demonstrated that it worked well. The paper concludes by arguing that this technology has the power to tackle the large-scale educational problem of developing the primary-level teachers needed to meet the goal of universal education.

Type: Article
Title: The educational problem that MOOCs could solve: Professional development for teachers of disadvantaged students
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.3402/rlt.v24.29369
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/rlt.v24.29369
Language: English
Additional information: Copyright © 2016 D. Laurillard. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license.
Keywords: MOOCs, blended learning, disadvantaged students, teaching designers, peer learning, learning community, professional development
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Culture, Communication and Media
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1474982
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