Page - 142 - in Radical Solutions and Open Science - An Open Approach to Boost Higher Education

9 IntegrationofFormal,Non-formal and InformalLearning… 149 to formal recognition suchasdegreesor certification.While someMOOCcontents provide students with a structured syllabus, schedule, and certification, generally MOOCsdonot force learners to suchstructuredandcertified learningexperiences. Rather,MOOCssupport learners tochoosehow,when,and inwhatways theywant toengagewithflexible learningpathsandgoals.Withtheflexiblenatureof learning, MOOCshaveattractedlearnerswhohaveavarietyoflearningpurposesandlearning paths. Table 9.6 summarizes previous studies related to the third integration approach. Earlierstudiesrelatedtoinformallearningandnon-formallearningthroughMOOCs focusedonwhostudies,whyandhowlearnersstudy.Forinstance,GillaniandEynon (2014) investigatedthedemographiccharacteristicsof learnerswhowerestudyinga Coursera-basedMOOC.Theyfoundthatthemajorityoflearnerswerewell-educated, young adults from developed countries, and had prior knowledge of the selected course.Amongthem,only62.7%wanted tohaveaformalacknowledgmentof their learningexperiences.Similarly,Hoet al. (2015) investigated68courses from2012 to 2014 throughMOOCsbyHarvard andMITuniversities and found that 71%of leaners had a degree, 50%were younger than 30 years old, and 32%were from theUSA. Itwasconcluded thatMOOCsmightbeutilizedas ameans forwidening educationalopportunitiesandfor re-skillingandup-skillingpurposeswithadiverse rangeofgoals (Sfiri,Pietkiewicz,&Jansen,2016).Suchdiversity in learninggoals ledtodiverselearner’sparticipationbehaviorssuchasno-shows,observers,drop-ins, passiveparticipants, andactiveparticipants (Hill, 2013). Theabsenceof instructorsandpre-determinedstructure innon-formaland infor- mal learning settings requires learners to self-regulate own learning experiences (Hood, Littlejohn, & Milligan, 2015). Low completion rate is one of the main challenges that MOOCs faced (Jordan, 2014; Perna et al., 2014; Weller, 2014). Recently,researchersattemptedtofindfactorsthatimpactthecompletionofMOOCs and learner retention and to improveSelf-RegulatedLearning (SRL). For instance, Alraimietal. (2014) found thatperceivedreputationandopennessofMOOCswere stronger predictors for learner retention than perceived usefulness and enjoyment. On the other hand,Hone andSaid (2016) focusedon the factors related toMOOC featuresanduserexperiences that influenced learner retention inMOOCsand iden- tified thatperceivedeffectivenessof theMOOCcontents affected learner retention. Another lineof research intoMOOC-integrated learninghas focusedon increasing thecompletionand retention ratesby improvingSRLstrategies.Hoodet al. (2015) found that learner’s current contexts and learningpurposes influenced theirSRL in aMOOCabout data science byCoursera. Itwas revealed that studentswhoaimed to receive aHigherEducation (HE)qualificationhad significantlyhigherSRL than thosewhowere not studying for aHEqualification. Further, studentswith exper- tise in the data science area showed higher self-efficacy andmeaningful learning approachesandstrategies than thosewithout expertise in thearea. Littlejohn, Hood, Milligan, andMustain (2015) compared behaviors between learners with high and low self-reported SRL scores. They found that the intrin- sicmotivation and goals for high SRL-scored learners to develop knowledge and expertiseintheirworkplacecouldleadtonon-formallearningopportunities toselect