Do Trainers want to design Learner-centric Course/ Moocs? A survey of a focus group of Life skills trainers

Abstract

Design thinking is a buzz word in the marketplace. As a trainer and undergrad educator in life skills domain, I have never thought deeply about pedagogical aspects. This research paper tries to delve into the educators’ perspective of designing a life skills course keeping the student/learners in center stage. Here I have tried to understand how a focus group of life skills educators think about the need of such an exercise to become subject matter experts in life skills course design. I was also keen to introspect on their views of getting into course design aspects from the standpoint of professionals who deliver the course. In other words, do the faculty members want to know or want to be aware of student/learner-centric life skills course design. Subsequently, I have extrapolated the same data from the survey to the MOOCs (Massive open online courses) life skills course design. The seamless integration of design and delivery and a full learning cycle from designing a course, delivering and assessment of both the course and methods of assessing the learning effectiveness would be worth another effort to investigate the mindsets of a particular focus group of educators. The brief study shows how the group of educators have a mixed response but do have a general idea and intention to make the course more learner-centric especially if it is online MOOCs (Massive open online courses)