JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have increased in popularity in recent years. They target a wide variety of learners and use novel teaching approaches, yet often exhibit low completion rates (10%). It is important to evaluate MOOCs to determine their impact and effectiveness, but little is known at this point about the methodologies that should be used for evaluation.

Objective:

The purpose of this paper is to provide a protocol for a systematic review on MOOC evaluation methods.

Methods:

We will follow the Cochrane handbook for Systematic Reviews and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Protocol PRISMA for reporting. We developed a PICO framework to guide the search strategy, based on the overarching question, “what methods have been used to evaluate MOOCs?”. This systematic review will follow six stages: 1) Literature search, 2) article selection, 3) data extraction, 4) quality appraisal, 5) data analysis, and 6) data synthesis.

Results:

Database searches will be initiated in October 2018 and we expect to complete the systematic review by December 2018.

Conclusions:

This systematic review will provide a useful summary of the methods used for evaluation of MOOCs, and the strengths and limitations of each approach. It will also identify gaps in the literature and areas for future work. Clinical Trial: The review protocol on approval shall be registered in PROSPERO.