Transcultural Elements in Connectivist Massive Open Online Courses

Abstract

This study was conducted to explore the transcultural elements in connectivist massive open online courses (cMOOC). It was designed as a holistic single-case study that consists of a cMOOC which took place in the Summer term of 2016 and it was the 4th cycle of the course up to that year. It was completely online utilizing solely open and distributed environments including course website, Twitter, Google+, Blogs, and Facebook.

Data of the study were obtained via different methods and tools such as observation, semi-structured interviews, open-ended questionnaires, and document analysis. Four of the course tutors/facilitators and 10 of the active learners in the course were the primary participants of the study. Data were analyzed using the content analysis technique by means of Nvivo qualitative analysis software. Results reveal that there is some sort of transculture formed in this course. Accordingly, there is an authentic community with a participatory culture based on acceptance, sharing, openness, collaboration, kindness, and trust. However, the course itself lacks structure unlike traditional online courses, and in turn, didn't support teaching and cognitive presence for certain learners. It was challenging and confusing for some learners who were not self-regulated and didn't have enough digital literacies to learn effectively in a connectivist course since it adopted and encouraged a distributed learning approach.