Page - 130 - in Radical Solutions and Open Science - An Open Approach to Boost Higher Education

9 IntegrationofFormal,Non-formal and InformalLearning… 137 beenderivedfromdistanceeducationbuthavemoredistinctivefeaturesascoursesare completelyonline,freeandopentoanyone,andavailabletomassiveaudiences(Ati- aja&Gueerero, 2016; Iniesto,McAndrew,Minocha,&Coughlan, 2017).MOOCs wereoriginatedfromtheOpenEducationalResources(OER)movement,whichisa philosophytooffereducationalopportunities toall throughfreecontentandcourses (Atiaja&Guerrero, 2016). The original notion of this innovative approach is for openaccess to learning.Moreover, thesocio-cultural trendsaccelerated through the development ofweb 2.0 technology and social networks promoted the emergence of connectivism as a new pedagogical phenomenon that emphasizes participating andinteracting,sharingideas,anddevelopingnewknowledgethroughthecontinual improvementofknowledgeamong learnerson theopen learningplatforms. MOOCsastheinnovativeeducationalstreamhaveattractedmuchpublicattention sincediverse groupsof learners canbenefit fromopenaccesswith a formal educa- tional structure, free or lowcost, flexible learning processwith preferred pace and place, social learning opportunities, and even earning certificates and credits from prestigiousuniversities (Iniesto et al., 2017). From learners’ perspectives, there are avarietyofmotivations to takeMOOCcourses: togainbetterunderstandingabouta certain subjector topic, toexplorea specificfieldof interest, toparticipate in social interactions, and tohave funandenjoyable experienceswithout anyexpectationof achievement andcompletion (Belanger&Thornton,2013). MOOCshavemanyadvantagesovertraditionalbrick-and-mortaruniversitymod- els.First,MOOCsprovidemassiveanddiverse learnersfromallover theworldwith anopportunitytoaccessopen,free,andhigh-qualitylearningcontent(Abdelrahman, 2016). Second,MOOCsprovide individual learnerswith anopportunity toperson- alize their learning in terms of topics, time, place, and methods (Morris, 2014). MOOClearnershavedifferent learningobjectivesandplan toutilizeonlinecourses according to theirpersonalneeds. InMOOCs,whilesomestudentsaimtoachievea certificateby studying theentireweeksof contentwith assignments, other students plan to study a specific element and content that they are interested in. To support suchdifferent student needs,MOOCshave taken anopen approach to increase the availability of on-demand course videos and flexible schedules (Lapworth, 2018). Third, at an institutional level, MOOCs can be a strategic driver to increase stu- dentrecruitments throughtheincreasedvisibilityof institutionsandcanpromotethe accessibilityoflifelonglearningopportunitieswithflexiblepathwaystointernational alliances(Brown,2018).Universitiescanexpandcurriculumsandopportunitieswith cross-culturalknowledgeandfriendshiparoundtheglobefor their students.Finally, MOOCs have recently evolved to use learning analytics to better identify student profiles and learning paths. As big data and intelligent technologies are advanc- ing, learners’ self-regulationcanbepromoted through theautomatic trackingof the frequencyandpatternsof learner engagement inMOOCs(Cha&Park,2019).