Software Agents in Large Scale Open E-learning: A Critical Component for the Future of Massive Online Courses (MOOCs)

Author

Bassi, Roxana ; Daradoumis, Thanasis ; Xhafa, Fatos ; Caballe, Santi ; Sula, Ardiana

Author_Institution

Dept. of Comput. Sci., Multimedia, & Telecommun., Open Univ. of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain

fYear

2014

Firstpage

184

Lastpage

188

Abstract

MOOCs or massive open online courses are a recent trend in online education. They combine online resources with social tools and have unique challenges due to the large number of simultaneous participants. This paper analyzes some of the challenges in the areas of MOOC design, delivery and assessment. Then the authors present an approach using software agents to overcome some of the challenges that have been identified, as well as optimize efficiency, reduce costs, and ensure the pedagogical effectiveness and educational quality of large scale online learning courses. This paper is a first step towards research in the usage of software agents in massive online courses that we hope will shed more light on potential real life applications.

Keywords

computer aided instruction; software agents; MOOC design; critical component; educational quality; large scale open e-learning; massive open online courses; online education; online resources; pedagogical effectiveness; social tools; software agents; Communities; Cultural differences; Electronic learning; Market research; Software agents; Artificial Intelligence; E-learning; MOOC; OER; Software Agents; Virtual Learning Environment;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Intelligent Networking and Collaborative Systems (INCoS), 2014 International Conference on

Print_ISBN

978-1-4799-6386-7

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/INCoS.2014.15

Filename

7057089