Abstract:

The term crowdsourcing is usually connected to a type of business innovation where audiences participate in the development of products and services. However, the interactive features of social technologies offer new opportunities for practice that increase the options to apply crowdsourcing models in multiple other areas. In this paper, we explore the possibilities of applying this approach in the educational field. To this end, we analyze the case of an open course that uses an indirect model of crowdsourcing for generating the learning contents. Based on this case, we introduce a series of reflections that could enrich the debate about the quality of materials, outputs and the learning assessment processes that arise in open online courses. These reflections will be subject contrasted in the context of the "E-Xcellence Next" project, funded by the Life Long Learning European Programme. The findings are organized into the following dimensions: quality of content, evaluation and monitoring process, learning assessments.

Keywords:

Crowdsourcing, quality assurance, e-xcellence next, open educational resources, pedagogical models.