Blending MOOCs into Higher Education Courses - a Case Study

Since 2014 one focus of our research is looking into the effects of integrating Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in traditional education. We have developed in the past different methods of integration: as a full course recognition, partial course recognition, or project/activity based recognition of a MOOCs course completion, into a traditional higher education face-to-face course. The experience on integrating MOOCs in courses at Master level is presented and discussed in this paper. The analyse is based on questionnaires, reports and live discussions with students, during the whole academic semester. Studying online, open education and MOOCs still represent terms students are not familiar with, in Romania in particular. Still, we consider that the Open Life Long Learning Student need to acquire a new set of skills in an independent and self-determined manner as to identify, access, learn, analyse, apply and practice new knowledge using different media, information channels, and communication tools to enhance their skills and develop their careers. The authors proposed an asynchronous online course work to be integrated with the traditional in-class instruction. We looked into the students' interaction with MOOCs, the use of different tools, the educational value of learning online and the MOOCs impact. The conclusions present both strengths and deficiencies of integrating MOOCs based on this blended learning study case.