The Quality of Open Online Education and Learning: A Quality Reference Framework for MOOCs

Societal, educational and personal changes are shaking economies, working and living conditions as well as the whole world. The raise of the world-wide internet and social media including online communities is affecting societies and people’s lives as well as personal learning. Open (Online) Education has experienced a major development raising awareness amongst all actors including global grass-root movements, events, communities and associations as well as international policies and implementations in national and regional educational systems. During the last years Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) became very popular: Since the year 2008 with the first MOOC the number of MOOCs is constantly increasing. The year 2012 was considered as the "Year of the MOOCs" leading to a global debate about their quality as an educational tool that is increasing since then. To address the quality issues, MOOQ, the European Alliance for the Quality of MOOCs was initiated. Based on a literature review and analysis of existing quality approaches and indicators for MOOCs, the first Global MOOC Survey was designed and conducted for three target groups (MOOC learners, designers and facilitators) with the support by the leading international associations and institutions. Afterwards the results from the survey were complemented by qualitative and semi-structured interviews with MOOC designers, facilitators and providers to gain more in-depth details and insights. The final objective is the development of the Quality Reference Framework (QRF) with quality indicators and tools in close collaboration with all interested stakeholders worldwide. This paper presents the first QRF draft for further discussion.