The ways in which we work and learn are changing rapidly. These changes require research and competencies that are not only new, but which also respond to the requirements of the digital age. The extensive social phenomena and pressures that are a result of digitalisation also call for more careful consideration. Digitalisation requires us to renew educational structures. Massive open online courses (MOOC) and their associated pedagogical decisions can promote the development of digitalisation. Open online courses necessitate a stricter pedagogical structure that enables authentic learning and dialogue based on collaborative knowledge creation. This article presents a case study showing how the DIANA (Dialogical Authentic Netlearning Activity) pedagogical model was used to support collaborative knowledge construction in a micro open online course titled “Making learning personal”. A questionnaire and interviews were used to collect data from fourteen participants, and qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the data. Various phenomena of MOOCs are evident in the results, however, the results also reveal the challenges of dialogical, authentic learning and collaborative knowledge creation in an open online course. The results indicate that sufficient guidance is required to gain a thorough understanding of a pedagogical model, and that collaborative knowledge creation requires time, shared learning objectives, and a substantial knowledge of dialogical participation.

Keywords

authentic learning · MOOC · MOOC pedagogy · MOOC research