Self Regulated Learning Self Regulation

Theoretical background

Demographical background - age and gender

Gender (Kizilcec et al., 2013)

Learning experience

As was mention above, scholars highlight the high level of previous knowledge and competencies needed to be successful in a MOOC (Santos et al., 2014). Most of the students who earn certificates for completing the MOOCs are experienced learners with strong academic background (Christensen et al., 2013; Daily, 2014; Guo & Reinecke, 2014; Hansen & Reich, 2015; Koller et al., 2013)

Outcome belief - the expected effect that your participation in the MOOC

TO ADD

Self-regulated learning

MOOCs and other forms of online open education are not only open in access, but also open in the route and the rhythm of learning that the learners

Zimmerman (2000) defines self-regulation as self-generated thoughts, feelings and actions that are planned and cyclically adapted for the attainment of personal goals. Self-regulation is a context-specific process. In the context of learning, self-regulated learning (SRL) is defined as students' proactive actions aimed at acquiring and applying information or skills that involve setting goals, self-monitoring, management time and regulating one's effort towards learning goal fulfillment (Järvelä, Malmberg, & Koivuniemi, 2016; Reimann, Markauskaite, & Bannert, 2014; Tabuenca, Kalz, Drachsler, & Specht, 2015; Zimmerman, 1990). SRL is an active theory of learning. The theory perceives the learner as an active agent. In order to define students’ learning process as self-regulated, they have to use specific strategies for attaining their goals and their learning behaviour based on their self-efficacy perception (Zimmerman,

The learner can learn when, where and how he wants, by himself or with other people without limitation of time, space or materials.

The weekly format of most MOOCs requires constant time dedication throughout the course, but the openness of MOOCs allows different learning behaviours, which substantially deviate from a linear practice. In this sense, MOOCs are not only open in access, but also open in the learning path that the learners can take. As mentioned above, learners, for example, can start the courses later than the original starting date, can watch lecture videos several times, in different order and dates than suggested by the course instructor and to take exercises and quizzes several times. As evidence, some initial findings suggest that certificate earners view only 78% learning sequences, on average, and skip 22% of the course content. Certificate earners are also more engaged in non-linear navigation-behaviour than non-certificate earners. They are jumping backward to revisit earlier lectures or assessments up to 3 times more than non-certificate earners (Guo & Reinecke, 2014). This is opposing to most of the traditional in-class courses that have a closed and defined structure and deviate from the initial design of the MOOC