Relevance / Motivation

Web Science Education is a core component of the broader web science community. An emerging community of scholars is essential for a healthy development of our discipline. The scope of web science education research extends from the evolving web science curriculum, through to the manifestation of web science in education.  If Web Science is about the study how the web changes the world and how the world changes the web, then MOOCs are an important and current manifestation of the way that the web and education are co-evolving. This workshop will provide an opportunity to trace the interconnected links between these areas offering a forum for theorists and practitioners alike. Alongside the web science observatory work has begun on a MOOC observatory which will be able to showcase outputs from the workshop and plan for future research collaborations.

This highly interactive workshop aims to build on sound foundations established over the past seven years. In that time Web Science education has evolved from ambition, doctoral programmes and summer schools to undergraduate programs and MOOCs. Web Science is now integrated into interdisciplinary education programs, working across disciplines including economics, sociology, social policy, statistics, psychology, geography, education, mathematics, politics and of course computer science. In some cases it is recognised as Web Science but sometimes is has emerged as an evolution of its home discipline – for example as Digital Sociology or Computer Assisted Archaeology.  Programs are available on the five continents, in several languages. The community of web science learners has grown and evolved accordingly.

This half-day workshop will allow participants to present experiences, insights, good practice and ideas.

Themes for the workshop include:

The structure of concepts of web science education; the nature of MOOCs as Web Science; Interdisciplinary in Web Science Education; Objectives and potential for the MOOC observatory, Experiences of web science learners, educators, pedagogy; The future of Web Science Education

Goals

The goals of the workshop are as follows:

• To reflect on the current state of the web science curriculum
• To identify the variety of practices in the web science curriculum across different countries and educational systems
• To explore the nature of MOOCs as a manifestation of Web Science
• To identify a working protocol between the wider community and the MOOC Observatory at Southampton
• To find coherence between different approaches to web science education
• To identify key objectives for this community of practice and establish an road map for future activities

This workshop will allow participants to present experiences, good practices and ideas. A diversity of perspectives will be encouraged.