Understanding MOOCs Through Connectivist and Social Constructivist Approaches

During only a few years, MOOCs have been widespread adopted and accepted
as part of the educational agenda. The massive aspect, the social networking,
and the idea of new student roles where the student is the main responsible for selforganizing her or his participation are main drivers in the learning processes. The current development of MOOCs can be seen as having two distinct directions; cMOOCs, defined by a participative pedagogical model based on the principles of connectivism, which is introduced as a new learning theory; and xMOOCS, developed as extensions of traditional courses, and to a higher degree based on an instructional model. However, as MOOCs have spread globally and developed, this dichotomy is no longer sufficient. From a mapping of UK MOOCs, Bayne and Ross suggest that the emergence of MOOCs gives rise to discussions of central pedagogical questions of What, How and Whom, which are well-known and not yet solved issues in e-learning (Bayne and Ross, 2013, p. 8). We therefore wish to discuss MOOCs from more multiple perspectives and raise issues which emerge from the current reports on practices with MOOCs. A social constructivist perspective on learning acknowledges both the participatory approach to learning and the role of the teacher as an important moderator
of students’ learning processes.