MOOC design analysis - Constructive alignment, interactions, task complexity, formative assessment & feedback

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) hold the potential of providing education at large scale. However, the challenge lies in the scalability of their educational design. It is unclear whether and to what extent MOOCs to provide active and complex learning activities, support and feedback to large numbers of students without increasing teacher (time) costs. This study identifies scalable best practices of MOOC design elements regarding: constructive alignment, interaction, task complexity and formative assessment and feedback. At the moment of writing, five semi-randomly selected MOOCs of different scientific domains were qualitatively analysed by means of our design survey instrument. Preliminary results indicate that most MOOCs lack constructive alignment in their design. Interaction took mostly place between students, however no major differences were found. Formative assessment and feedback was provided at low complexity levels. Additionally, no variation in feedback types was provided, with ‘feedback’ as the main source of support. We did not find higher complexity learning activities and therefore can nothing conclude about the scalable best practices at high complexity