Abstract
In populous countries with continental dimensions and a series of economic and infrastructure difficulties, such as Brazil, guaranteeing the quality of initial and continuing teacher education is a challenge. Therefore, researchers have been continually invited to think about new educational models. This chapter describes the theoretical and practical principles considered fundamental for teacher training that was carried out through massive open online courses (MOOCs) in a public higher education institution. Design-based research, a process that integrates design, quantitative, and qualitative methods to generate educational interventions, was the methodological path used to develop the MOOC. The principles are organized into five categories: human, pedagogical, structural and technological, regulatory, and analytical. Without pretending that they will function as protocols for planning, developing, offering, and evaluating MOOC-based courses, the authors hope that the results presented can be reconfigured, improved, and tried out in other educational offerings in varied contexts.
TopBackground
Before presenting the research developed and its results, the authors consider it essential to summarize the challenges faced in Brazil for teacher professional development and present the main concepts that involve the MOOCs.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Non-Linearity: The course content did not need to be accessed logically and sequentially, but according to the participants' learning needs.
Self-Directed Study: A form of learning in which students identify their needs and learning objectives, as well as define the strategies and resources they will use for learning, and evaluate their performance on their own.
Lifelong Learning: Involves all the learning activities that people experience during their lives and that do not occur only in the formal teaching-learning spaces, aimed at improving knowledge, skills, and competencies, whether from a personal, civic, social, or professional point of view.
Contextual Analysis Report: It seeks to understand the course public, why the educational offer is necessary, how it differs from other educational offerings in the institution, and why the course is being suggested. Still, it seeks to know how the course is expected to be seen by the people who participate in it; what the course participants needed to know; which psychological, cultural, and demographic aspects should be considered in the development of the content; and how the knowledge, skills, and attitudes presented in the course will be applied. Finally, the restrictions are identified, such as budgetary, technical, human resources, cultural issues, critical deadlines, and legal issues involved; the type of educational action is recommended in light of the information previously described.
Dropout Rates: Number of students who do not complete a training activity such as a course. From the number of course participants who effectively started their studies, the number of graduates is subtracted. The value found refers to the number of students who dropped out.
Flexibility: Autonomy of course participants to define their study routine according to their learning needs.
Open Educational Resources (OER): The term refers to free teaching, learning, or research resources offered to users, whether in the public domain or with an open copyright license, which allows the use, reuse, modification, sharing, and remixing, always referring to the authors who produce the resources.