Learning and Knowledge Analytics in Open Education

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the process and effectiveness of Open Educational Resources (OER)-based flipped classroom practice in an undergraduate course named " Internet and Distance Education. " The course was taught in Winter Semester, 2013 at the Zhejiang University, China to 15 under-graduate students majoring in education. The course was designed as a Web-based and blended course, which mainly included two parts. In the first 5 weeks of the course, students were invited to take a Coursera course named " Emerging Trends & Technologies in the Virtual K-12 Classroom. " In the last 6 weeks of the course, students were invited to learn Sakai-based course chapter contents and complete an OER-related assignment. Flipped classroom practices were utilized during the whole course. Data analysis found that participating students generally progressed through four stages in the OER-based flipped classroom: (1) being unfamiliar, (2) understanding, (3) adapting, and (4) becoming skilled. At the same time, stu-dents emotionally shifted from excitement and nervousness to relaxation, happi-ness, and confidence. Diary analysis and a general e-learner satisfaction survey found that students were generally satisfied with the OER-based flipped classroom practice. In their diaries, some students also put forward several suggestions for this form of instruction. Based on the findings, several suggestions to improve OER-based flipped classroom practices are offered.