MOOCs’ Structure and Knowledge Management

Abstract

This is a reflection paper that discusses the notion of knowledge management in massive online open courses (MOOCs). We explain MOOCs’ structure in terms of representations of participants’ minds (both designers and learners), where knowing is understood as a process and a result of sociotechnical construction, rather than purely social construction mediated by users and learning tools.By applying Walsham’s human-centered view of knowledge (2001) we problematise the nature of MOOCs in relation to individuals’ knowledge management. Such a view emphasises issues of representations in relation to humans’ know ledge construction. This paper is organised as follows: firstly, pedagogical assumptions of MOOCs are discussed; secondly, the notion of sense making in a MOOC context is focused; thirdly, social learning analytics (SLA) is suggested as a key institutional asset to approach individuals’ knowledge management. Our analysis suggests that the distributed and fragmented nature of MOOCs sets the scene for a number of challenges in regard to assessment, knowledge management and pedagogy in MOOCs. Due to the diverse social contexts and learners’ cultural backgrounds, we believe that it is a rather problematic enterprise for MOOCs’ designers and learners to attempt to find a unified pedagogical model. Consequently MOOCs are understood as a part of embryonic and emerging open, social learning, which focuses learner activity in a social setting. Finally we conclude by arguing that the sense making in MOOCs is likely to take place in a liminal space, between individuals’ sense giving and sense reading processes.