@article{GamageStaubitzWhiting2021, author = {Gamage, Dilrukshi and Staubitz, Thomas and Whiting, Mark}, title = {Peer assessment in MOOCs}, series = {Distance education}, volume = {42}, journal = {Distance education}, number = {2}, publisher = {Routledge, Taylor \& Francis Group}, address = {Abingdon}, issn = {0158-7919}, doi = {10.1080/01587919.2021.1911626}, pages = {268 -- 289}, year = {2021}, abstract = {We report on a systematic review of the landscape of peer assessment in massive open online courses (MOOCs) with papers from 2014 to 2020 in 20 leading education technology publication venues across four databases containing education technology-related papers, addressing three research issues: the evolution of peer assessment in MOOCs during the period 2014 to 2020, the methods used in MOOCs to assess peers, and the challenges of and future directions in MOOC peer assessment. We provide summary statistics and a review of methods across the corpus and highlight three directions for improving the use of peer assessment in MOOCs: the need for focusing on scaling learning through peer evaluations, the need for scaling and optimizing team submissions in team peer assessments, and the need for embedding a social process for peer assessment.}, language = {en} } @article{StaubitzSerthThomasetal.2023, author = {Staubitz, Thomas and Serth, Sebastian and Thomas, Max and Ebner, Martin and Koschutnig-Ebner, Markus and Rampelt, Florian and von Stetten, Alexander and Wittke, Andreas}, title = {A metastandard for the international exchange of MOOCs}, series = {EMOOCs 2023 : Post-Covid Prospects for Massive Open Online Courses - Boost or Backlash?}, journal = {EMOOCs 2023 : Post-Covid Prospects for Massive Open Online Courses - Boost or Backlash?}, editor = {Meinel, Christoph and Schweiger, Stefanie and Staubitz, Thomas and Conrad, Robert and Alario Hoyos, Carlos and Ebner, Martin and Sancassani, Susanna and Żur, Agnieszka and Friedl, Christian and Halawa, Sherif and Gamage, Dilrukshi and Scott, Jeffrey and Kristine Jonson Carlon, May and Deville, Yves and Gaebel, Michael and Delgado Kloos, Carlos and von Schmieden, Karen}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-62415}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-624154}, pages = {147 -- 161}, year = {2023}, abstract = {The MOOChub is a joined web-based catalog of all relevant German and Austrian MOOC platforms that lists well over 750 Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Automatically building such a catalog requires that all partners describe and publicly offer the metadata of their courses in the same way. The paper at hand presents the genesis of the idea to establish a common metadata standard and the story of its subsequent development. The result of this effort is, first, an open-licensed de-facto-standard, which is based on existing commonly used standards and second, a first prototypical platform that is using this standard: the MOOChub, which lists all courses of the involved partners. This catalog is searchable and provides a more comprehensive overview of basically all MOOCs that are offered by German and Austrian MOOC platforms. Finally, the upcoming developments to further optimize the catalog and the metadata standard are reported.}, language = {en} } @article{SteinbeckMeinel2023, author = {Steinbeck, Hendrik and Meinel, Christoph}, title = {What makes an educational video?}, series = {EMOOCs 2023 : Post-Covid Prospects for Massive Open Online Courses - Boost or Backlash?}, journal = {EMOOCs 2023 : Post-Covid Prospects for Massive Open Online Courses - Boost or Backlash?}, editor = {Meinel, Christoph and Schweiger, Stefanie and Staubitz, Thomas and Conrad, Robert and Alario Hoyos, Carlos and Ebner, Martin and Sancassani, Susanna and Żur, Agnieszka and Friedl, Christian and Halawa, Sherif and Gamage, Dilrukshi and Scott, Jeffrey and Kristine Jonson Carlon, May and Deville, Yves and Gaebel, Michael and Delgado Kloos, Carlos and von Schmieden, Karen}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-62208}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-622086}, pages = {47 -- 58}, year = {2023}, abstract = {In an effort to describe and produce different formats for video instruction, the research community in technology-enhanced learning, and MOOC scholars in particular, have focused on the general style of video production: whether it is a digitally scripted "talk-and-chalk" or a "talking head" version of a learning unit. Since these production styles include various sub-elements, this paper deconstructs the inherited elements of video production in the context of educational live-streams. Using over 700 videos - both from synchronous and asynchronous modalities of large video-based platforms (YouTube and Twitch), 92 features were found in eight categories of video production. These include commonly analyzed features such as the use of green screen and a visible instructor, but also less studied features such as social media connections and changing camera perspective depending on the topic being covered. Overall, the research results enable an analysis of common video production styles and a toolbox for categorizing new formats - independent of their final (a)synchronous use in MOOCs. Keywords: video production, MOOC video styles, live-streaming.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{EsveldVriesBecchettietal.2023, author = {Esveld, Selma van and Vries, Nardo de and Becchetti, Sibilla and Dopper, Sofia and Valkenburg, Willem van and Carlon, May Kristine Jonson and Yokoi, Kensuke and Gayed, John Maurice and Suyama, Hiroshi and Cross, Jeffrey Scott and Jin, Tonje and Xue, Wei and Bruillard, {\´E}ric and Steinbeck, Hendrik and Meinel, Christoph and {\"O}zdemir, Paker Doğu and Can Bayer, Burak and Mercan, Duygu and Buyurucu, Gamze and Haugsbakken, Halvdan and Hagelia, Marianne and Ebner, Martin and Edelsbrunner, Sarah and Hohla-Sejkora, Katharina and Lipp, Silvia and Sch{\"o}n, Sandra and Xiaoxiao, Wang and Shuangshuang, Guo and Morales-Chan, Miguel and Amado-Salvatierra, H{\´e}ctor R. and Hern{\´a}ndez-Rizzardini, Rocael and Egloffstein, Marc and H{\"u}nemohr, Holger and Ifenthaler, Dirk and Dixon, Fred and Trabucchi, Stefania and Khaneboubi, Mehdi and Giannatelli, Ada and Tomasini, Alessandra and Staubitz, Thomas and Serth, Sebastian and Thomas, Max and Koschutnig-Ebner, Markus and Rampelt, Florian and Stetten, Alexander von and Wittke, Andreas and Theeraroungchaisri, Anuchai and Thammetar, Thapanee and Duangchinda, Vorasuang and Khlaisang, Jintavee and Mair, Bettina and Steinkellner, Iris and Stojcevic, Ivana and Zwiauer, Charlotte and Thirouard, Maria and Vill{\`e}sbrunne, Marie de la and Bernaert, Oliver and Nohr, Magnus and Alario Hoyos, Carlos and Delgado Kloos, Carlos and Kiendl, Doris and Terzieva, Liliya and Concia, Francesca and Distler, Petr and Law, Gareth and Macerata, Elena and Mariani, Mario and Mossini, Eros and Negrin, Maddalena and Štrok, Marko and Neub{\"o}ck, Kristina and Linschinger, Nadine and Lorenz, Anja and Bock, Stefanie and Schulte-Ostermann, Juleka and Moura Santos, Ana and Corti, Paola and Costa, Luis Felipe Coimbra and Utunen, Heini and Attias, Melissa and Tokar, Anna and Kennedy, Eileen and Laurillard, Diana and Zeitoun, Samar and Wasilewski, Julie and Shlaka, Souhad and Ouahib, Sara and Berrada, Khalid and Dietz, Michael and Roth, Dennis}, title = {EMOOCs 2023}, editor = {Meinel, Christoph and Schweiger, Stefanie and Staubitz, Thomas and Conrad, Robert and Alario Hoyos, Carlos and Ebner, Martin and Sancassani, Susanna and Żur, Agnieszka and Friedl, Christian and Halawa, Sherif and Gamage, Dilrukshi and Cross, Jeffrey and Jonson Carlon, May Kristine and Deville, Yves and Gaebel, Michael and Delgado Kloos, Carlos and von Schmieden, Karen}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-57645}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-576450}, year = {2023}, abstract = {From June 14 to June 16, 2023, Hasso Plattner Institute, Potsdam, hosted the eighth European MOOC Stakeholder Summit (EMOOCs 2023). The pandemic is fortunately over. It has once again shown how important digital education is. How well-prepared a country was could be seen in our schools, universities, and companies. In different countries, the problems manifested themselves differently. The measures and approaches to solving the problems varied accordingly. Digital education, whether micro-credentials, MOOCs, blended learning formats, or other e-learning tools, received a major boost. EMOOCs 2023 focusses on the effects of this emergency situation. How has it affected the development and delivery of MOOCs and other e-learning offerings all over Europe? Which projects can serve as models for successful digital learning and teaching? Which roles can MOOCs and micro-credentials bear in the current business transformation? Is there a backlash to the routine we knew from pre-Corona times? Or have many things become firmly established in the meantime, e.g. remote work, hybrid conferences, etc.? Furthermore, EMOOCs 2023 has a closer look at the development and formalization of digital learning. Micro-credentials are just the starting point. Further steps in this direction would be complete online study programs or full online universities. Another main topic is the networking of learning offers and the standardization of formats and metadata. Examples of fruitful cooperations are the MOOChub, the European MOOC Consortium, and the Common Micro-Credential Framework. The learnings, derived from practical experience and research, are explored in EMOOCs 2023 in four tracks and additional workshops, covering various aspects of this field. In this publication, we present papers from the conference's Research \& Experience Track, the Business Track and the International Track.}, language = {en} } @misc{StaubitzWilkinsHagedornetal.2017, author = {Staubitz, Thomas and Wilkins, Christian and Hagedorn, Christiane and Meinel, Christoph}, title = {The Gamification of a MOOC Platform}, series = {Proceedings of 2017 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON)}, journal = {Proceedings of 2017 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON)}, publisher = {IEEE}, address = {New York}, isbn = {978-1-5090-5467-1}, issn = {2165-9567}, doi = {10.1109/EDUCON.2017.7942952}, pages = {883 -- 892}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have left their mark on the face of education during the recent years. At the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) in Potsdam, Germany, we are actively developing a MOOC platform, which provides our research with a plethora of e-learning topics, such as learning analytics, automated assessment, peer assessment, team-work, online proctoring, and gamification. We run several instances of this platform. On openHPI, we provide our own courses from within the HPI context. Further instances are openSAP, openWHO, and mooc.HOUSE, which is the smallest of these platforms, targeting customers with a less extensive course portfolio. In 2013, we started to work on the gamification of our platform. By now, we have implemented about two thirds of the features that we initially have evaluated as useful for our purposes. About a year ago we activated the implemented gamification features on mooc.HOUSE. Before activating the features on openHPI as well, we examined, and re-evaluated our initial considerations based on the data we collected so far and the changes in other contexts of our platforms.}, language = {en} } @book{MeinelWillemsStaubitzetal.2022, author = {Meinel, Christoph and Willems, Christian and Staubitz, Thomas and Sauer, Dominic and Hagedorn, Christiane}, title = {openHPI}, number = {150}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, isbn = {978-3-86956-546-0}, issn = {1613-5652}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-56179}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-561792}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {86}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Anl{\"a}sslich des 10-j{\"a}hrigen Jubil{\"a}ums von openHPI informiert dieser technische Bericht {\"u}ber die HPI-MOOC-Plattform einschließlich ihrer Kernfunktionen, Technologie und Architektur. In einer Einleitung wird die Plattformfamilie mit allen Partnerplattformen vorgestellt; diese belaufen sich inklusive openHPI aktuell auf neun Plattformen. In diesem Abschnitt wird außerdem gezeigt, wie openHPI als Berater und Forschungspartner in verschiedenen Projekten fungiert. Im zweiten Kapitel werden die Funktionalit{\"a}ten und g{\"a}ngigen Kursformate der Plattform pr{\"a}sentiert. Die Funktionalit{\"a}ten sind in Lerner- und Admin-Funktionen unterteilt. Der Bereich Lernerfunktionen bietet detaillierte Informationen zu Leistungsnachweisen, Kursen und den Lernmaterialien, aus denen sich ein Kurs zusammensetzt: Videos, Texte und Quiz. Dar{\"u}ber hinaus k{\"o}nnen die Lernmaterialien durch externe {\"U}bungstools angereichert werden, die {\"u}ber den Standard Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) mit der HPI MOOC-Plattform kommunizieren. Das Konzept der Peer-Assessments rundet die m{\"o}glichen Lernmaterialien ab. Der Abschnitt geht dann weiter auf das Diskussionsforum ein, das einen grundlegenden Unterschied von MOOCs im Vergleich zu traditionellen E-Learning-Angeboten darstellt. Zum Abschluss des Abschnitts folgen eine Beschreibung von Quiz-Recap, Lernzielen, mobilen Anwendungen, spielerischen Lernens und dem Helpdesk. Der n{\"a}chste Teil dieses Kapitels besch{\"a}ftigt sich mit den Admin-Funktionen. Die Funktionalit{\"a}tsbeschreibung beschr{\"a}nkt sich Neuigkeiten und Ank{\"u}ndigungen, Dashboards und Statistiken, Berichtsfunktionen, Forschungsoptionen mit A/B-Tests, den Kurs-Feed und das TransPipe-Tool zur Unterst{\"u}tzung beim Erstellen von automatischen oder manuellen Untertiteln. Die Plattform unterst{\"u}tzt außerdem eine Vielzahl zus{\"a}tzlicher Funktionen, doch eine detaillierte Beschreibung dieser Funktionen w{\"u}rde den Rahmen des Berichts sprengen. Das Kapitel geht dann auf g{\"a}ngige Kursformate und openHPI-Lehrveranstaltungen am HPI ein, bevor es mit einigen Best Practices f{\"u}r die Gestaltung und Durchf{\"u}hrung von Kursen schließt. Zum Abschluss des technischen Berichts gibt das letzte Kapitel eine Zusammenfassung und einen Ausblick auf die Zukunft der digitalen Bildung. Ein besonderes Merkmal des openHPI-Projekts ist die bewusste Entscheidung, die komplette Anwendung von den physischen Netzwerkkomponenten bis zur Plattformentwicklung eigenst{\"a}ndig zu betreiben. Bei der vorliegenden deutschen Variante handelt es sich um eine gek{\"u}rzte {\"U}bersetzung des technischen Berichts 148, bei der kein Einblick in die Technologien und Architektur von openHPI gegeben wird. Interessierte Leser:innen k{\"o}nnen im technischen Bericht 148 (vollst{\"a}ndige englische Version) detaillierte Informationen zum Rechenzentrum und den Ger{\"a}ten, der Cloud-Software und dem openHPI Cloud Service aber auch zu Infrastruktur-Anwendungskomponenten wie Entwicklungstools, Automatisierung, Deployment-Pipeline und Monitoring erhalten. Außerdem finden sich dort weitere Informationen {\"u}ber den Technologiestack und konkrete Implementierungsdetails der Plattform inklusive der serviceorientierten Ruby on Rails-Anwendung, die Kommunikation zwischen den Diensten, {\"o}ffentliche APIs, sowie Designsystem und -komponenten. Der Abschnitt schließt mit einer Diskussion {\"u}ber die urspr{\"u}ngliche Microservice-Architektur und die Migration zu einer monolithischen Anwendung.}, language = {de} } @book{MeinelWillemsStaubitzetal.2022, author = {Meinel, Christoph and Willems, Christian and Staubitz, Thomas and Sauer, Dominic and Hagedorn, Christiane}, title = {openHPI}, number = {148}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, isbn = {978-3-86956-544-6}, issn = {1613-5652}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-56020}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-560208}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {125}, year = {2022}, abstract = {On the occasion of the 10th openHPI anniversary, this technical report provides information about the HPI MOOC platform, including its core features, technology, and architecture. In an introduction, the platform family with all partner platforms is presented; these now amount to nine platforms, including openHPI. This section introduces openHPI as an advisor and research partner in various projects. In the second chapter, the functionalities and common course formats of the platform are presented. The functionalities are divided into learner and admin features. The learner features section provides detailed information about performance records, courses, and the learning materials of which a course is composed: videos, texts, and quizzes. In addition, the learning materials can be enriched by adding external exercise tools that communicate with the HPI MOOC platform via the Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) standard. Furthermore, the concept of peer assessments completed the possible learning materials. The section then proceeds with further information on the discussion forum, a fundamental concept of MOOCs compared to traditional e-learning offers. The section is concluded with a description of the quiz recap, learning objectives, mobile applications, gameful learning, and the help desk. The next part of this chapter deals with the admin features. The described functionality is restricted to describing the news and announcements, dashboards and statistics, reporting capabilities, research options with A/B testing, the course feed, and the TransPipe tool to support the process of creating automated or manual subtitles. The platform supports a large variety of additional features, but a detailed description of these features goes beyond the scope of this report. The chapter then elaborates on common course formats and openHPI teaching activities at the HPI. The chapter concludes with some best practices for course design and delivery. The third chapter provides insights into the technology and architecture behind openHPI. A special characteristic of the openHPI project is the conscious decision to operate the complete application from bare metal to platform development. Hence, the chapter starts with a section about the openHPI Cloud, including detailed information about the data center and devices, the used cloud software OpenStack and Ceph, as well as the openHPI Cloud Service provided for the HPI. Afterward, a section on the application technology stack and development tooling describes the application infrastructure components, the used automation, the deployment pipeline, and the tools used for monitoring and alerting. The chapter is concluded with detailed information about the technology stack and concrete platform implementation details. The section describes the service-oriented Ruby on Rails application, inter-service communication, and public APIs. It also provides more information on the design system and components used in the application. The section concludes with a discussion of the original microservice architecture, where we share our insights and reasoning for migrating back to a monolithic application. The last chapter provides a summary and an outlook on the future of digital education.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{RuedianHaasePinkwart2021, author = {R{\"u}dian, Sylvio Leo and Haase, Jennifer and Pinkwart, Niels}, title = {The relation of convergent thinking and trace data in an online course}, series = {Die 19. Fachtagung Bildungstechnologien (DELFI) / Lecture Notes in Informatics (LNI)}, booktitle = {Die 19. Fachtagung Bildungstechnologien (DELFI) / Lecture Notes in Informatics (LNI)}, publisher = {Gesellschaft f{\"u}r Informatik}, address = {Bonn}, pages = {181 -- 186}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Many prediction tasks can be done based on users' trace data. In this paper, we explored convergent thinking as a personality-related attribute and its relation to features gathered in interactive and non-interactive tasks of an online course. This is an under-utilized attribute that could be used for adapting online courses according to the creativity level to enhance the motivation of learners. Therefore, we used the logfile data of a 60 minutes Moodle course with N=128 learners, combined with the Remote Associates Test (RAT). We explored the trace data and found a weak correlation between interactive tasks and the RAT score, which was the highest considering the overall dataset. We trained a Random Forest Regressor to predict convergent thinking based on the trace data and analyzed the feature importance. The result has shown that the interactive tasks have the highest importance in prediction, but the accuracy is very low. We discuss the potential for personalizing online courses and address further steps to improve the applicability.}, language = {en} } @misc{RenzShamsMeinel2017, author = {Renz, Jan and Shams, Ahmed and Meinel, Christoph}, title = {Offline-Enabled Web-based E-Learning for Improved User Experience in Africa}, series = {2017 IEEE Africon}, journal = {2017 IEEE Africon}, publisher = {IEEE}, address = {New York}, isbn = {978-1-5386-2775-4}, issn = {2153-0025}, doi = {10.1109/AFRCON.2017.8095574}, pages = {736 -- 742}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Web-based E-Learning uses Internet technologies and digital media to deliver education content to learners. Many universities in recent years apply their capacity in producing Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). They have been offering MOOCs with an expectation of rendering a comprehensive online apprenticeship. Typically, an online content delivery process requires an Internet connection. However, access to the broadband has never been a readily available resource in many regions. In Africa, poor and no networks are yet predominantly experienced by Internet users, frequently causing offline each moment a digital device disconnect from a network. As a result, a learning process is always disrupted, delayed and terminated in such regions. This paper raises the concern of E-Learning in poor and low bandwidths, in fact, it highlights the needs for an Offline-Enabled mode. The paper also explores technical approaches beamed to enhance the user experience inWeb-based E-Learning, particular in Africa.}, language = {en} } @misc{StaubitzMeinel2018, author = {Staubitz, Thomas and Meinel, Christoph}, title = {Collaborative Learning in MOOCs - Approaches and Experiments}, series = {2018 IEEE Frontiers in Education (FIE) Conference}, journal = {2018 IEEE Frontiers in Education (FIE) Conference}, publisher = {IEEE}, address = {New York}, isbn = {978-1-5386-1174-6}, issn = {0190-5848}, pages = {9}, year = {2018}, abstract = {This Research-to-Practice paper examines the practical application of various forms of collaborative learning in MOOCs. Since 2012, about 60 MOOCs in the wider context of Information Technology and Computer Science have been conducted on our self-developed MOOC platform. The platform is also used by several customers, who either run their own platform instances or use our white label platform. We, as well as some of our partners, have experimented with different approaches in collaborative learning in these courses. Based on the results of early experiments, surveys amongst our participants, and requests by our business partners we have integrated several options to offer forms of collaborative learning to the system. The results of our experiments are directly fed back to the platform development, allowing to fine tune existing and to add new tools where necessary. In the paper at hand, we discuss the benefits and disadvantages of decisions in the design of a MOOC with regard to the various forms of collaborative learning. While the focus of the paper at hand is on forms of large group collaboration, two types of small group collaboration on our platforms are briefly introduced.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{JacqminOezdemirFellKurbanetal.2021, author = {Jacqmin, Julien and {\"O}zdemir, Paker Doğu and Fell Kurban, Caroline and Tun{\c{c}} Pekkan, Zelha and Koskinen, Johanna and Suonp{\"a}{\"a}, Maija and Seng, Cheyvuth and Carlon, May Kristine Jonson and Gayed, John Maurice and Cross, Jeffrey S. and Langseth, Inger and Jacobsen, Dan Yngve and Haugsbakken, Halvdan and Bethge, Joseph and Serth, Sebastian and Staubitz, Thomas and Wuttke, Tobias and Nordemann, Oliver and Das, Partha-Pratim and Meinel, Christoph and Ponce, Eva and Srinath, Sindhu and Allegue, Laura and Perach, Shai and Alexandron, Giora and Corti, Paola and Baudo, Valeria and Turr{\´o}, Carlos and Moura Santos, Ana and Nilsson, Charlotta and Maldonado-Mahauad, Jorge and Valdiviezo, Javier and Carvallo, Juan Pablo and Samaniego-Erazo, Nicolay and Poce, Antonella and Re, Maria Rosaria and Valente, Mara and Karp Gershon, Sa'ar and Ruip{\´e}rez-Valiente, Jos{\´e} A. and Despujol, Ignacio and Busquets, Jaime and Kerr, John and Lorenz, Anja and Sch{\"o}n, Sandra and Ebner, Martin and Wittke, Andreas and Beirne, Elaine and Nic Giolla Mhich{\´i}l, Mair{\´e}ad and Brown, Mark and Mac Lochlainn, Conch{\´u}r and Topali, Paraskevi and Chounta, Irene-Angelica and Ortega-Arranz, Alejandro and Villagr{\´a}-Sobrino, Sara L. and Mart{\´i}nez-Mon{\´e}s, Alejandra and Blackwell, Virginia Katherine and Wiltrout, Mary Ellen and Rami Gaddem, Mohamed and Hern{\´a}ndez Reyes, C{\´e}sar Augusto and Nagahama, Toru and Buchem, Ilona and Okatan, Ebru and Khalil, Mohammad and Casiraghi, Daniela and Sancassani, Susanna and Brambilla, Federica and Mihaescu, Vlad and Andone, Diana and Vasiu, Radu and Şahin, Muhittin and Egloffstein, Marc and Bothe, Max and Rohloff, Tobias and Schenk, Nathanael and Schwerer, Florian and Ifenthaler, Dirk and Hense, Julia and Bernd, Mike}, title = {EMOOCs 2021}, editor = {Meinel, Christoph and Staubitz, Thomas and Schweiger, Stefanie and Friedl, Christian and Kiers, Janine and Ebner, Martin and Lorenz, Anja and Ubachs, George and Mongenet, Catherine and Ruip{\´e}rez-Valiente, Jos{\´e} A. and Cortes Mendez, Manoel}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, isbn = {978-3-86956-512-5}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-51030}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-510300}, pages = {vii, 295}, year = {2021}, abstract = {From June 22 to June 24, 2021, Hasso Plattner Institute, Potsdam, hosted the seventh European MOOC Stakeholder Summit (EMOOCs 2021) together with the eighth ACM Learning@Scale Conference. Due to the COVID-19 situation, the conference was held fully online. The boost in digital education worldwide as a result of the pandemic was also one of the main topics of this year's EMOOCs. All institutions of learning have been forced to transform and redesign their educational methods, moving from traditional models to hybrid or completely online models at scale. The learnings, derived from practical experience and research, have been explored in EMOOCs 2021 in six tracks and additional workshops, covering various aspects of this field. In this publication, we present papers from the conference's Experience Track, the Policy Track, the Business Track, the International Track, and the Workshops.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Teusner2021, author = {Teusner, Ralf}, title = {Situational interventions and peer feedback in massive open online courses}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-50758}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-507587}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {178}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) open up new opportunities to learn a wide variety of skills online and are thus well suited for individual education, especially where proffcient teachers are not available locally. At the same time, modern society is undergoing a digital transformation, requiring the training of large numbers of current and future employees. Abstract thinking, logical reasoning, and the need to formulate instructions for computers are becoming increasingly relevant. A holistic way to train these skills is to learn how to program. Programming, in addition to being a mental discipline, is also considered a craft, and practical training is required to achieve mastery. In order to effectively convey programming skills in MOOCs, practical exercises are incorporated into the course curriculum to offer students the necessary hands-on experience to reach an in-depth understanding of the programming concepts presented. Our preliminary analysis showed that while being an integral and rewarding part of courses, practical exercises bear the risk of overburdening students who are struggling with conceptual misunderstandings and unknown syntax. In this thesis, we develop, implement, and evaluate different interventions with the aim to improve the learning experience, sustainability, and success of online programming courses. Data from four programming MOOCs, with a total of over 60,000 participants, are employed to determine criteria for practical programming exercises best suited for a given audience. Based on over five million executions and scoring runs from students' task submissions, we deduce exercise difficulties, students' patterns in approaching the exercises, and potential flaws in exercise descriptions as well as preparatory videos. The primary issue in online learning is that students face a social gap caused by their isolated physical situation. Each individual student usually learns alone in front of a computer and suffers from the absence of a pre-determined time structure as provided in traditional school classes. Furthermore, online learning usually presses students into a one-size-fits-all curriculum, which presents the same content to all students, regardless of their individual needs and learning styles. Any means of a personalization of content or individual feedback regarding problems they encounter are mostly ruled out by the discrepancy between the number of learners and the number of instructors. This results in a high demand for self-motivation and determination of MOOC participants. Social distance exists between individual students as well as between students and course instructors. It decreases engagement and poses a threat to learning success. Within this research, we approach the identified issues within MOOCs and suggest scalable technical solutions, improving social interaction and balancing content difficulty. Our contributions include situational interventions, approaches for personalizing educational content as well as concepts for fostering collaborative problem-solving. With these approaches, we reduce counterproductive struggles and create a universal improvement for future programming MOOCs. We evaluate our approaches and methods in detail to improve programming courses for students as well as instructors and to advance the state of knowledge in online education. Data gathered from our experiments show that receiving peer feedback on one's programming problems improves overall course scores by up to 17\%. Merely the act of phrasing a question about one's problem improved overall scores by about 14\%. The rate of students reaching out for help was significantly improved by situational just-in-time interventions. Request for Comment interventions increased the share of students asking for help by up to 158\%. Data from our four MOOCs further provide detailed insight into the learning behavior of students. We outline additional significant findings with regard to student behavior and demographic factors. Our approaches, the technical infrastructure, the numerous educational resources developed, and the data collected provide a solid foundation for future research.}, language = {en} } @misc{StaubitzTeusnerMeinel2019, author = {Staubitz, Thomas and Teusner, Ralf and Meinel, Christoph}, title = {MOOCs in Secondary Education}, series = {2019 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON)}, journal = {2019 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON)}, publisher = {IEEE}, address = {New York}, isbn = {978-1-5386-9506-7}, issn = {2165-9567}, doi = {10.1109/EDUCON.2019.8725138}, pages = {173 -- 182}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Computer science education in German schools is often less than optimal. It is only mandatory in a few of the federal states and there is a lack of qualified teachers. As a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) provider with a German background, we developed the idea to implement a MOOC addressing pupils in secondary schools to fill this gap. The course targeted high school pupils and enabled them to learn the Python programming language. In 2014, we successfully conducted the first iteration of this MOOC with more than 7000 participants. However, the share of pupils in the course was not quite satisfactory. So we conducted several workshops with teachers to find out why they had not used the course to the extent that we had imagined. The paper at hand explores and discusses the steps we have taken in the following years as a result of these workshops.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Staubitz2020, author = {Staubitz, Thomas}, title = {Gradable team assignments in large scale learning environments}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-47183}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-471830}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {122}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Lifelong learning plays an increasingly important role in many societies. Technology is changing faster than ever and what has been important to learn today, may be obsolete tomorrow. The role of informal programs is becoming increasingly important. Particularly, Massive Open Online Courses have become popular among learners and instructors. In 2008, a group of Canadian education enthusiasts started the first Massive Open Online Courses or MOOCs to prove their cognitive theory of Connectivism. Around 2012, a variety of American start-ups redefined the concept of MOOCs. Instead of following the connectivist doctrine they returned to a more traditional approach. They focussed on video lecturing and combined this with a course forum that allowed the participants to discuss with each other and the teaching team. While this new version of the concept was enormously successful in terms of massiveness—hundreds of thousands of participants from all over the world joined the first of these courses—many educators criticized the re-lapse to the cognitivist model. In the early days, the evolving platforms often did not have more features than a video player, simple multiple-choice quizzes, and the course forum. It soon became a major interest of research to allow the scaling of more modern approaches of learning and teaching for the massiveness of these courses. Hands-on exercises, alternative forms of assessment, collaboration, and teamwork are some of the topics on the agenda. The insights provided by cognitive and pedagogical theories, however, do not necessarily always run in sync with the needs and the preferences of the majority of participants. While the former promote action-learning, hands-on-learning, competence-based-learning, project-based-learning, team-based-learning as the holy grail, many of the latter often rather prefer a more laid-back style of learning, sometimes referred to as edutainment. Obviously, given the large numbers of participants in these courses, there is not just one type of learners. Participants are not a homogeneous mass but a potpourri of individuals with a wildly heterogeneous mix of backgrounds, previous knowledge, familial and professional circumstances, countries of origin, gender, age, and so on. For the majority of participants, a full-time job and/or a family often just does not leave enough room for more time intensive tasks, such as practical exercises or teamwork. Others, however, particularly enjoy these hands-on or collaborative aspects of MOOCs. Furthermore, many subjects particularly require these possibilities and simply cannot be taught or learned in courses that lack collaborative or hands-on features. In this context, the thesis discusses how team assignments have been implemented on the HPI MOOC platform. During the recent years, several experiments have been conducted and a great amount of experience has been gained by employing team assignments in courses in areas, such as Object-Oriented Programming, Design Thinking, and Business Innovation on various instances of this platform: openHPI, openSAP, and mooc.house}, language = {en} }