Task 1: SSCI Journal Inquiry
Reference:
Kop, R., Fournier, H. & Mak, J. S. F. (2011). A pedagogy of abundance or a pedagogy to support human beings? Participant support on massive open online courses.
International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 12(7), 74-93.
Summary:
This paper aimed to examine the shift of role of educators and students in MOOCs courses and discussed the transformation from a pedagogy of abundance to a pedagogy supporting human learning through the creation of learning resources and places by both learners and course facilitators. The finding revealed the importance of the connection among learners, fellow-learners, and facilitators. In addition, different levels of learning participation and fellow outcome depended on the objectives and life context of the learning in open course. Third, the new roles of facilitators, learners, and knowledgeable learners need to adopt in net-learning environment.
Reflection:
In recent years, MOOCs has been a burning issue in E-learning because of the transformation and innovation of the higher education, making everyone have the opportunity to learn beyond the boundaries. In this studies, the focus was not on how MOOCs changed the way of education but on the difference of the interaction and the roles of the participants in MOOCs. Learners on MOOCs seemed to be more active and engaged, participating the activities for building their conceptional framework; course facilitators, on the other hand, became the people who support learning.
In addition, I found it interesting that the new term "connectivism" appeared in this article. It was my first time to see this term. After searching for the definition, I realized that the term "coonectivism", associated to Vygotsky's 'zone of proximal development' (ZPD), is the hypothesis of learning which emphasize the role of social and cultural context. In the introduction of the paper, the author mentioned that
"The Web no longer consists solely of hyperlinked text pages, but has evolved into a complicated mesh of interlinked sites, consisting of human communication, writing, and digital artifacts."(p. 75)
We can imagine that a great transformation of online learning will be coming soon since the nature of digital natives have rooted in abundant online environment to learn faster and better. In relation to the rapid shift of learning environment, the nature of learning has also changed with the advanced of online reading/information access. What we can do is to understand how the new generation learn, how to accelerate learning, and where learning happens.
Apart form learners and facilitators themselves, the study occurred to me that the focus on the video, community and learning support. In the past, open courseware learning was more structured and controlled by the course providers. That is, the course providers may produced the courses which were the videotaping of the class. In MOOCs course, however, video can vary in different forms, such as classroom video, Khan style, or slides with explanation. After watching the video clips and doing the exercise, learners will paid more attention to the social interaction in a virtual space to help them get the better understanding of the course.
In sum, it is obvious that MOOCs had many possibility of creating/transforming the way of learning. We should look close to the value of learning experience by the creation of symbiosis between social community and collaboration on online course.
Task 2: Finding Impact Factor
Journal Title: Computer Assisted Language Learning (SSCI Journal)
Introduction:
Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) is an intercontinental and interdisciplinary journal which leads the field in its dedication to all matters associated with the use of computers in language learning (L1 and L2), teaching and testing. It provides a forum to discuss the discoveries in the field and to exchange experience and information about existing techniques. The scope of the journal is intentionally wide-ranging and embraces a multitude of disciplines.
Impact factor: 1.020 (from JCR)
