MOOC as a viable option to energy sustainability and technological training.

Abstract

Nowadays, due to technological advances, continuous online training has been more relevantas part of professional and personal development of individuals. Massive Open Online Course(MOOC) is now a means to education that allows participants to partake in topics of their interest. In order to conduct this research, it was necessary to carry a systematic review ofpapers related to the design and implementation of MOOCs around the world. In order to apply these findings in the development of a series of MOOCs which will be held on the topic ofenergy sustainability. This work is based on the Project 266632 “Binational Laboratory ofIntelligent Management of Energy Sustainability and Technological Training”, with funding provided by the CONACYT-SENER Energy Sustainability Fund (Announcement:S0019-2014-01). The research question that guided this study was What are the management and academic factors that influence an MOOC to be effective?. The methodology used in this research was Meta-analysis, which allows to merge results from manifold experiments or quasiexperimentswith the purpose of achieving an appraisement of the size of the effect. A comparison among 16 case studies on the design and implementation of MOOCs was made,which provided the information needed to analyze each effect size. Among the most significant findings, it was identified that the following factors influence the effectiveness of an MOOC: highquality instructors and materials must be a part of these courses to maintain the interest of the participants, prompt feedback encourages participants to make contributions, forum activities are vital for doubts clearing and sense of belonging, and the implementation of an achievement board encourages participants to seek to reach their course goals. The results were applied in the instructional design of 10 MOOCs related to energy sustainability (http://www.energialab.com/demo3/cursos/) that are imparted in Mexico EDX platform within the project “Binational Laboratory of Intelligent Management of Energy Sustainability and Technological Training”.