The effects of a prescriptive scenario promoting collaborative tasks on students’ learning in a prototype of a MOOC

Abstract

This research was conducted in Moroccan context to find out the impact of a prescriptive scenario promoting collaborative tasks on students’ learning in a prototype of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). The main results which will be exposed cope with the following questions: what kind of scenarios in distance learning fits the needs of students? Do students need a prescriptive scenario in which they are incited to do collaborative tasks rather than individual ones to success in learning? What modality of working (individual/collective) is the most appreciated by students in distance learning? Our results showed that designing a scenario which favors collaborative tasks has positive impact on students’ performances and their learning attitudes. Nonetheless, students seem to have no appreciation for collaborative tasks in any way when they feel constrained to do it.