Experiences With the Integration of MOOCs Into Online Courses Through E-tivity

MOOCs have many benefits for higher education, which is why many universities are incorporating them into their curricula. The University of Rijeka, Croatia, has joined the Coursera for Campus program to provide students and teachers with the opportunity to gain skills, competencies, and certificates for completed courses. There are several models of how a MOOC can be integrated into an online or hybrid course. This paper proposes the integration of MOOCs into online courses through an e-tivity approach, that requires students to collaborate in an online environment to complete a specific task and achieve learning outcomes. A didactic model for the course “E-Learning for Education and Business” is presented that uses MOOC courses in the context of e-tivity. To become familiar with MOOCs and prepare to design their own courses, students first enroll in a Coursera course, keep an individual learning diary of their participation, and are then expected to collaborate on course analysis. Evaluation of the model has shown that students are positive about this approach. The e-activity involving MOOCs was found to be interesting, and useful for creating their own online courses. This e-activity also encouraged students to enroll in a Coursera course and learn about the possibilities of MOOC courses, which they found useful for their studies and future work.