Massive Open Online Courses in Software Engineering Education

Despite the popularity of MOOCs in providing opportunities for socialization, collaboration, and professional improvement, there has been little research exploring them in the context of Software Engineering Education (SEE). The purpose of this study is to provide a better understanding of practices and challenges when developing academic software engineering MOOCs. To this end, we research (i) how MOOCs in SEE are designed and (ii) what learning design considerations educators and learning designers have when developing SEE-related MOOCs. To address the first research question, a systematic mapping is performed to outline the current landscape. The second research question is answered by analyzing and reflecting on practical experiences acquired during the design of a MOOC on Agile Software Development. The design of the course was based on the Pedagogical Design Pattern Framework for MOOCs, an approach to design for learning that was defined in our previous studies. For this course, two environments were considered: (a) course-time on the Tim Tec MOOC platform for deeper engagement with active learning activities, such as Project-based learning; (b) a Facebook group as a social and collaborative learning space, including scenarios based on problem-based learning to activate prior knowledge. Some of the pedagogical strategies adopted to motivate self-regulated learning included self-introduction video, diary, diagnostic self-assessments, development of small projects alone and in pairs. Our findings provide evidence that there are still several technological and pedagogical challenges that need to be addressed so as to enhance the MOOCs learning experience for SEE. Technological issues identified include the development of tools and educational games, which should be integrated into MOOCs, and the use of learning analytics to support motivation, user experience, and more active learning in specific topics, such as Project Management, Agile Methods, and Requirements Engineering. In turn, the most significant and needed improvement to the pedagogical aspects is a re-thinking of the virtual moment in the MOOC platform so as to optimize it through activities that promote active learning and contextualized assessments.