RAPID: Understanding and Designing Community Dynamics in a Massively Open Online Course Platform, the Peer 2 Peer University

在这个项目中，研究人员将与最重要的开放教育平台之一Peer 2 Peer University(P2PU)合作，研究如何设计、实施和分析在线网络基础设施，以促进大规模的教育体验。随着大规模开放在线课程平台(MOOC)的兴起，我们非常需要了解如何利用这些基础设施技术来促进大规模的开放教育。具体地说，这个项目涉及(1)在P2PU平台上实施和进行设计实验，以产生关于如何改善开放学习的网络基础设施的新知识；(2)收集和分析来自P2PU平台的数据，以贡献开放学习动态和开放学习社区面临的问题的基础知识；以及(3)与P2PU合作创建和共享公开可用的数据集、实践和标准，以推动对用于学习和教育的网络基础设施的更广泛的大数据驱动的研究。在新的网络基础设施技术的支持下，快速发展的“大规模开放在线课程”(MOOC)家族具有在大规模提供互动教育体验的潜力。与此同时，研究人员、教育工作者和政策制定者对大数据驱动的学习分析的潜力越来越感兴趣，以改变设计、部署和评估教育体验的方式。总而言之，这些趋势提出了本项目将探讨的几个网络基础设施挑战：--应如何设计、部署和评估MOOC平台？哪些设计功能支持适当类型的学员参与度？徽章和团体推荐等特征如何促进有意义的参与？--如何利用开发MOOC平台来满足网络基础设施技能教育和劳动力发展日益增长的需求？MOOC是否提供了一个合适的平台来构建使用和支持新兴网络基础设施所需的技术、管理和科学技能？--需要什么样的网络基础设施来支持高影响、数据驱动的学习分析研究？需要哪些数据标准和实践来支持开放式教育和学习社区的研究？MOOC平台在增加STEM培训和更广泛的教育机会方面具有巨大的潜力。了解像P2PU这样的开放平台也有可能扩大能够参与创造和设计开放教育体验的个人和机构的人数。这个项目将帮助我们更好地理解一个迅速崛起、极具颠覆性的网络基础设施(MOOC平台)的例子。因此，该项目将有助于以下领域的多个研究议程：计算机支持的协作学习(CSCL)；人机交互(HCI)；虚拟和在线社区；更广泛地说，信息系统和组织科学。该项目首创的措施、标准和实践还将显著加快数据驱动研究和学习分析技术的发展，这些技术适用于设计、管理、评估和改进国家日益增长的教育网络基础设施。

In this project, the researchers will collaborate with one of the foremost open education platforms, the Peer 2 Peer University (P2PU), to study how online cyberinfrastructure can be designed, implemented, and analyzed to foster educational experiences at a massive scale. With the rise of massively-open online course platforms (MOOCs), there is a great need to understand how these infrastructure technologies can be used to facilitate open education at scale. Specifically, this project involves (1) implementing and conducting design experiments on the P2PU platform, to generate new knowledge about how to improve cyberinfrastructures for open learning; (2) collecting and analyzing data from the P2PU platform to contribute foundational knowledge of open learning dynamics and the issues open learning communities face; and (3) working with P2PU to create and share publicly available datasets, practices, and standards that will spur wider big-data driven research on cyberinfrastructures for learning and education.Enabled by new cyber-infrastructure technologies, a rapidly developing family of "massively open online courses" (MOOCs) hold the potential to make interactive educational experiences available at massive scale. At the same time, researchers, educators, and policy makers are increasingly interested in the potential for big-data driven learning-analytics, to transform how educational experiences are designed, deployed and evaluated. Together, these trends present several cyberinfrastructure challenges that will be explored in this project:-- How should MOOC platforms be designed, deployed and evaluated? What design features support appropriate types of learner engagement? How do features, such as badges and group recommendations, facilitate meaningful involvement?-- How can developing MOOC platforms be used to meet the growing needs for cyberinfrastructure skills education and workforce development? Do MOOCs provide a suitable platform for building the technical, managerial, and scientific skills necessary to use and support emerging cyberinfrastructures? -- What cyberinfrastructure is needed to support high-impact, data-driven learning-analytics research? What data standards and practices are necessary to support studies of open communities for education and learning? MOOC platforms have significant potential to increase the accessibility of STEM training, and of education more generally. Understanding open platforms such as P2PU also has the potential to broaden the population of individuals and institutions that can participate in the creation and design of open education experiences. This project will help us better to understand a rapidly emerging, highly disruptive example of cyberinfrastructure (MOOC platforms). The project will thus contribute to multiple research agendas in such fields as: computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL); human-computer interaction (HCI); virtual and online communities; and, more generally, information systems, and organization science. The measures, standards, and practices pioneered in this project will also significantly accelerate the development of data-driven research and learning-analytics techniques suitable for the design, management, evaluation and improvement of the nation's growing educational cyber-infrastructure.