Abstract:

The digital technological opened numerous possibilities in the era of lifelong learning. The massive distance teaching has reference to the OCW project (OpenCourseWare) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), launched in 1999, which consisted of the replication of the actual classes through video recording of some MIT courses and providing some tasks, but without the possibility of interaction with the teacher or other participants.

Following the experiences of the OCW project, MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) full emerged in online education, in 2012, rapidly changing the way we view the access to learning, particular, in areas such as higher education and specialized training. In recent past, it is possible to highlight the creation of OER (Open Educational Resources), the OCW as a driver of open and massive courses, the creation of Khan Academy and the birth of MOOC aggregation platforms, such as Coursera, Udacity, EDX, Khan Academy, iversity or FutureLearn.

The MOOC offer quality online courses devised by teachers of the most prestigious universities worldwide in a diverse range of topics allowing participants to learn through interactions they establish with other participants enrolled in the same course and the teacher himself through various social tools, reaching to vast audiences at relatively low cost, rapid becoming a very popular choice in online learning, allowing students, lifelong learners and professionals to acquire new skills and greater employability (as a promise).

Our work focuses on the development of a MOOC in a K-12 curricular context, analyzing the conception, implementation and evaluation process (the complete design process).

We will seek to answer the following questions:
— How to design, produce and implement a MOOC?
— What platform to deliver the MOOC;?
— Which tools and technologies to use for the management of the course?

To try to answer these questions we will pursue the following objectives:
• Analysis of platforms, tools and technologies to develop and implement a course.
• Design and produce a MOOC;
• Critical discussion of the all process, clarifying constraints and potentialities.

The methodology used is the development methodology (Van der Maren, 1996; Richey and Nelson, 1996). The context in which the study will be unfold is the portuguese k-12 education and the target subject is ICT (Information and Communication Technologies), which is a compulsory subject in 7th and 8th grades.

We follow the usual procedures for the development of a prototype, ie the design method:
1) review and assessment of the initial situation,
2) design and prototyping
3) implementation and evaluation.

As for techniques for data collection we use:
a) rapid prototyping
b) participant observation;
c) inquiry by questionnaire;
d) evaluation by experts;
e) document analysis.

The data collected is processed trought content analysis and descriptive statistics.

We intend to provide a wide critical description of the process of creation and implementation of a MOOC. Also we intend to find and clarify some indicators of the impact that this format of teaching and learning may have on students enrolled. Also it is expected to have a list of constraints and potentialities about this course format.

Keywords:

MOOC, MOOC in K-12, e-learning, Open Educational Resources, developmental research.