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The paper describes empirical investigations of how participants in a MOOC learn, and the implications for MOOC design. A learner capability to generate higher order learning in MOOCs--called crowd-sourced learning (C-SL) capability--was defined from learning science literature. The capability comprised a complex yet interrelated array of attitudes, beliefs, and understandings about learning that participants bring to a MOOC and which shape their behaviour and explain why individuals differ in their ability to generate higher order learning. The capability was formulated as a developmental progression describing behaviours associated with five levels, from novice to expert, charting the degree to which learners regulate their own learning, effectively exploit the scale and diversity of MOOCs, and harness opportunities for distributed teaching. Item response theory was applied to log stream data in two MOOCs to construct empirically validated measures of this capability, enabling each MOOC learner to be assessed for learning capability on a scale from novice to expert. The majority of participants did not behave in ways conducive to the generation of higher order learning, but the C-SL progression suggested principles to guide MOOC design to make them more efficacious, which, when empirically investigated, were found to be efficacious.

1Boy Crusoe

By Allan Eric

Also published as" A Yankee Crusoe" . A 15 year old hard working and studious farm boy finds the lure of adventure on the seas as a merchant seaman more than he can resist. This is his story. " I was born in a little town in the State of Maine, near the close of the Civil War. My boyhood life did not differ materially from that of the average farmer's son in the remote country districts of New England--except, perhaps, that I read more and thought more. Hard work on the rugged soil, two terms each year in the little yellow country schoolhouse, a day's fishing now and then filled the early years of my life full to over-flowing. " What he gets is enough excitement and adventure to overflow his wildest dreams. How he experiences disaster and uses his wits and knowledge to overcome every problem makes for a great read. - Summary by Phil Chenevert