Blended Design in a Regional Massive Open Online Course: The Impact of Face-to-Face Group Discussion on the Pass Rate in a History Course

• In Event: 49.069 - Online Teaching and Learning SIG Paper Session 2

Abstract

Despite the increasing public attention and successful anecdotes through mass media, MOOCs have received significant criticism by the skeptic for their low completion/engagement rates and traditional pedagogical approach. In this study, we developed two courses in the same content for history learning, one with online learning only on a MOOC platform and the other with face-to-face collaborative activities in addition to the online learning. We examined the effect of face-to-face treatment on the course pass rate adjusting for learner backgrounds between two courses. Our findings suggest that the effects of learner backgrounds on the pass rate were limited, whereas the effect of face-to-face treatment was relatively large even after adjusting for learner backgrounds.

Authors

• Hiroki Oura, Tokyo Institute of Technology

• Wakako Fushikida, Tokyo Metropolitan University

• Ryohei Ikejiri, University of Tokyo

• Yuki Anzai, University of Tokyo

• Yuhei Yamauchi, University of Tokyo