Fostering psychological ownership in MOOC through a self-regulation design layer

Abstract

The paper presents the design of a self-regulated learning support layer which focuses on fostering learning agency awareness and student ownership in MOOC as quality deep learning indicators. Rooted in self-regulated learning ownership provides remarkable learning factors such as a sense of belongingness, increased commitment and perception of self-efficacy. These qualities are rather scarce in MOOC, as shown by the predominant techno-pedagogical design of these courses. The self-regulation support layer was developed in two phases: first, a literature review on the field and the analysis of several MOOC provided relevant insights for the theoretical approach of the layer and, second, different types of prompts in the form of self-questions were contextualized and placed throughout an existing MOOC with the involvement of researchers, teachers and MOOC content developers. Finally, in order to refine the design and include elements to enhance a more psychological-ownership-oriented approach, interviews and a co-design workshop were carried out with MOOC participants. Some of the contributions made by the different actors are presented and so is the layer proposal. “Regulation activators” which act as a link between self-regulation and psychological ownership approaches are inferred, and correspondent “learning design effects” are identified to be incorporated into MOOC to promote learning ownership.