What difference does openness make to the ethics of teaching and research? This paper approaches this question both from the perspective of research into the use of open educational resources (OER) in teaching and learning. An outline of the nature and importance of ethics in education research is provided before the basic principles of research…

"Sustainability" has a captivating but disingenuous simplicity: its meanings are complex, and have political and policy significance. Exploring the application of the term to adult education, this paper argues that a particular discourse of "sustainability" has become a common-sense, short-circuiting critical analysis and…

This study examined instructor and learner experiences in a Journalism for Social Change (JSC) Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) designed to introduce learners around the world to constructive, solutions-based journalism techniques, as well as engage learners in developing news stories promoting positive change about critical child welfare (CW)…

Technologies are seen to have made a strong contribution to the global spread of the English, yet their role in relation to EMI contexts has been little explored. This paper seeks to address this gap by looking at some of the ways in which EMI, internationalisation and the use of technologies are intertwined. Two specific approaches to the use of…

Millions of users around the world have registered on Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) offered by hundreds of universities (and other organizations) worldwide. Creating and offering these courses costs thousands of pounds. However, at present, revenue generated by MOOCs is not sufficient to offset these costs. The sustainability of MOOCs is a…

This paper tries to accomplish two tasks. First, it uses a critical review of the concept of differentiation to shed light on the expansion of the Mozambican higher education system, a consequence of the global neoliberal dynamics of higher education. Second, the neoliberal framework is applied to account for the development of multi-campus…

Like many other countries around the world, Turkey has faced several challenges in expanding higher education (HE) opportunities to masses. Trying to meet the ever-growing demand for HE, Turkey has implemented a bold expansion plan by establishing 51 public universities (PUs) after 2006, mostly in less-developed regions of the country. This study…

This article examines petitions submitted to the Egyptian state by students and parents over the span of a century. These sources reveal that Egyptians from across the economic spectrum were shifting their construction of schooling in response to changing political and educational policies and evolving conceptions of educational need. Over the…

Using the badged open course, "Taking your first steps into Higher Education", this case study examines how assessment on online open courses draws on concepts of assessment used within formal and informal learning. Our experience was that assessment used within open courses, such as massive open online courses, is primarily determined…

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have been a prominent topic of recent educational discussion and debate. MOOCs are, in essence, university-affiliated courses offered to large groups of online learners for little or no cost and are seen by many as a bellwether for change and reform across higher education systems. This study uses content and…

Based on case studies of China and Japan, this study undertakes comparative research on major aspects of university curriculum and instruction-teaching activities of academics, their role in curriculum development, and their perceptions of these activities--between a mass and a universal higher education system. Major findings from the APA…

Since MOOC is suffering high dropout rate, researchers try to explore the reasons and mitigate it. Focusing on this task, we employ a composite model to infer behaviors of learners in the coming weeks based on his/her history log of learning activities, including interaction with video lectures, participation in discussion forum, and performance…

This article reviews the existing Chinese language Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and points out three problems in their design: the monism-based teaching method, the non-integration of cultural elements, and the lack of learner-learner interactions. It then presents the design principles of the Introductory Chinese MOOC in an attempt to…

Lecture videos are amongst the most widely used instructional methods within present Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and other digital educational platforms. As the main form of instruction, student engagement behaviour, including interaction with videos, directly impacts the student success or failure and accordingly, in-video dropouts…

African higher education has witnessed phenomenal enrollment growth in the last decade--and this trend is expected to continue well into the future owing to the continent's youth bulge. In this "massifying" system, the academic profession faces a paradox: as the academic profession at the senior level is aging it is also concurrently…