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Brahimi 2015
Brahimi 2015
Brahimi 2015
articleinfo abstract
Article history: The rapid increase use of information technologies throughout educational institutions is changing the
Available online xxxx way teachers and students learn, work, and establish collaboration. The learning cycle is an ongoing pro -
cess that is designed to improve the quality of, as well as collaboration among learners. Recent announce-
Keywords: ments from top Universities to turn to new forms of educational delivery called ‘‘MOOCs’’ (Massive Open
MOOCs Online Courses), have not only captured the interest of academics and st udents in higher education, but
Collaborative learning also the interest of students and teachers in the K-12 environment, in home schooling, or outside the
Learning outside the classroom
classroom in general. With MOOCs, the teaching method is moving from the traditional transfer learning
Social media
model where the teacher serves as the repository and transmitter of knowledge to the flipped classroom
model where the learner interacts with other students, peers, and has flexible access to all information
and resources around him before coming to the classroom. With the huge amount of online educational
material this has become a useful and beneficial method in teaching. Speaking at the Association of
Community College Trustees’ leadership meeting in Seattle, October 2013 (gatesfoundation.org), Bil l
Gates said ‘‘The value of MOOCs comes when you use them to create hybrids that are the best of both
worlds. Rather than having the instructor lectures during class and then send the students home with
assignments, many instructors are now using MOOCs to flip the classroom’’. He also added ‘‘I’d be the first
to say this is a period of experimentation, but we’ll learn much faster if people jump in and engage’’.
Hester Tinti-KaneVice President of Marketing and Social Media Strategy, Pearson (Seaman & Tinti-Kane
(2013)), said ‘‘The more we know about effective uses of technologies for teaching and learning, the faster
we can adopt these new practices, facilitate their proliferation across higher education, and increase stu -
dent success’’. These massive open online courses which have global reach, unlimited participation, and
open access over the internet via a combination of social networking and video podcasts is attracting a
huge variety of students of different ages, nationalities, backgrounds, abilities, interests, etc. It’s all based
on connection where you have the ability to learn, interact, and collaborat e not only locally and globally
but also universally from anywhere and at any time. With MOOCs providers in the USA (Coursera, edX,
Udacity), Europe (FUN, Iversity), UK (FutureLearn), Middle East (Rwaq, Edraak), or in Australia
(Open2study) students can work on learning content outside of the classroom, at their own pace, and
practice the application of what they learned in class. While some educators consider MOOCs as the
future of higher education, others said they represent the beginning of education do wnfall. According
to many surveys, it has been found that faculty members are not rejecting technology, in fact most of
them believe in the ability of technology to bring transformative change to education but at the same
time they feel that commercial considerations, rather than pedagogical considerations are driving the
phenomenon of MOOCs. The objective of this study is to provide insights into recent developments of
MOOCs and how they can be incorporated into high school curriculum. While it’s too soo n to say if
MOOCs represent a substitution to traditional courses, they certainly bring a transformative change to
our actual education in general and to the way our academic institutions are working. For high school
for example MOOCs could be used as blended-learning approach particularly in math and science. In
higher education there is a lot of excitement about MOOCs and universities are still working hard on
how to use them and what impact they could have on the value of a degree. A survey has been con ducted
to understand how students perceive learning outside the classroom through social media, online
courses, school website, and private tutoring. 310 students have been surveyed during their end of the
year exams at Global International School, an international school licensed by the Saudi Arabian
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: tbrahimi@effatuniversity.edu.sa (T. Brahimi), ak94@yahoo.
com, asarirete@effatuniversity.edu.sa (A. Sarirete).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.03.013
0747-5632/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Please cite this article in press as: Brahimi, T., & Sarirete, A. Learning outside the classroom through MOOCs. Computers in Human Behavior (2015), http://
dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.03.013
2 T. Brahimi, A. Sarirete / Computers in Human Behavior xxx (2015) xxx–xxx
Ministry of Education and open to all expatriates in the Jeddah community, and accredited by the
International Accreditation body ‘‘Advanced’’ (http://www.advanc-ed.org/). On the question ‘‘Learning
outside the Classroom has a Positive Impact on my Education’’ 44.52% said they strongly agree with the
statement and 51.61% said they agree while 2.58% neither agree nor disagree.
© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Please cite this article in press as: Brahimi, T., & Sarirete, A. Learning outside the classroom through MOOCs. Computers in Human Behavior (2015), http://
dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.03.013
T. Brahimi, A. Sarirete / Computers in Human Behavior xxx (2015) xxx–xxx 3
Please cite this article in press as: Brahimi, T., & Sarirete, A. Learning outside the classroom through MOOCs. Computers in Human Behavior (2015), http://
dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.03.013
4 T. Brahimi, A. Sarirete / Computers in Human Behavior xxx (2015) xxx–xxx
4. Popular MOOCs
Table 1
Most popular MOOCs providers.
Udacity (USA) https://www.udacity.com/ An outgrowth of a Stanford University experiment founded by Sebastian Thrun, David Stavens, and Mike Sokolsky.
Launched in January 2012
Coursera (USA) https://www.coursera. A for-profit educational technology company founded by two former Stanford University computer science professors
org/ Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller. Launched in April 2012
edX (USA) http://edx.org/ A Not-for-profit enterprise with MIT and Harvard universities as founding partners. Also conducts research learning based
on how users use its platform. Launched in May 2012
Open2Study https://www. Open2Study developed by Open Universities Australia. Launched in April 2013
open2study.com
FutureLearn (UK) http://futurelearn.com/ A private company owned by the Open University. The first UK-led multi-institutional platform. Launched in September
2013
Rwaq (KSA) http://www.rwaq.org/ A Riyadh-based company in Saudi Arabia launched in September 2013 a fully native, fully Arabic massive open online
course
Iversity (Germany) http://www.iversity. A company with a diverse interdisciplinary team from Berlin offering MOOC and collaboration network for academia.
org/ Launched in October 2013
FUN (France) http://www.france- France Université Numérique (FUN) provides a wide audience, notably in French-speaking countries, with numerous free
universite-numerique.fr/ classes in every discipline. Launched in October 2013
Edraak (Jordan) https://www.edraak.org/ An initiative of the Queen Rania Foundation for Education and Development (QRF). Powered by the Open edX platform.
Launched in May 2014
Please cite this article in press as: Brahimi, T., & Sarirete, A. Learning outside the classroom through MOOCs. Computers in Human Behavior (2015), http://
dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.03.013
T. Brahimi, A. Sarirete / Computers in Human Behavior xxx (2015) xxx–xxx 5
Please cite this article in press as: Brahimi, T., & Sarirete, A. Learning outside the classroom through MOOCs. Computers in Human Behavior (2015), http://
dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.03.013
6 T. Brahimi, A. Sarirete / Computers in Human Behavior xxx (2015) xxx–xxx
MOOCs, and begin to re-think and re-shape our curriculum and Dodd, T. (2013). Local MOOCs record high completion rate. Financial review, May 27,
2013.
instructional strategies to prepare for MOOCs in K-12 and help
EMOOCs (2014). European MOOCs Stakeholders Summit. In Proceedings of the
our students to prepare for the challenges of the 21st century European MOOCS, Switzerland, February 2014.
and beyond. Hellers, N. (2013). The Pros and Cons of MOOCS, ‘‘Laptop U,’’ The New Yorker.
Retrieved from <http://adulted.about.com/od/Adult-Education-in-the-U.S./a/
The-Pros-And-Cons-Of Moocs.htm>.
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Please cite this article in press as: Brahimi, T., & Sarirete, A. Learning outside the classroom through MOOCs. Computers in Human Behavior (2015), http://
dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.03.013