The effectiveness of four instructional approaches used in a MOOC promoting personal skills for success in life // Promoción de habilidades personales para la vida a través de la implementación de cuatro enfoques instruccionales en un MOOC

Abstract

This study examines the efficacy of a MOOC-format instructional program, Improvement of personal competencies for success, which entailed the use of four clearly differentiated instructional approaches (three experimental approaches and one control approach): (1) product, with an emphasis on the final result and the overall quality; (2) processes, with an emphasis on recursion and constant self-assessment of the processes; (3) mixed, oriented on the result and overall quality as well as to recursion, self-reflection and self-assessment; and (4) traditional (control) focused on online instruction of the subjects and on the accomplishment of tasks. The MOOC was designed and implemented through the Universidad de León's external Moodle (Ariadne). It involved 745 people aged between 10 and 50, though only 336 completed it. The results demonstrate the efficacy of the MOOC—irrespective of the instructional approach followed—for instruction on different contents and competencies, such as resilience, achievement motivation and self-esteem; they reveal a statistically significant increase in different variables such as self-efficacy and they confirm the effectiveness of Moodle for the design and development of a MOOC. The implications of these findings are discussed and evaluated.vv