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While there has been a lot of attention about the potential for MOOCs to transform higher education, far less empirical research has been conducted that explores the experiences and behaviours of learners in these online settings. A particular strength of MOOCs is the potential for thousands of learners to come together to learn. Understanding who interacts, how they interact, and why is an important part of understanding how learning may occur. This presentation aims to highlight the different ways in which people communicate and interact with one another in MOOCs, and how these interactions are related to learner characteristics, experiences and outcomes through the in-depth mixed method analysis of one case study MOOC. The findings discussed are those emerging from an ongoing study funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. See http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/research/projects/?id=121 for more details.
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February 20, 2014
Conceptualizing Interaction &
Learning in MOOCs
Rebecca Eynon, Nabeel Gillani, Isis Hjorth
Overall goal
Focus on interaction
Communication via discussion forums
1. The different ways and reasons that people interact with one another in MOOCs
2. How these interaction profiles are related to learner characteristics and course outcomes
Motivations
Exploring the realities of participating in a MOOC
Methodological challenges and possibilities
Widening participation
Research approach
Case study of one MOOC from Coursera with strong emphasis on encouraging interactions between learners
Mixed methodology
Visualisation of posts and views, social network analysis, in-depth
interviews, pre and post surveys, qualitative observations and
content analysis
Moving between the quant and qual methods
The course
6 week course, March to May 2013 4-6 hours per week Assignments
Required: Weekly quizzes, final strategic analysis assignment
(evaluated via peer-assessment)
Optional: Discuss business cases in the discussion forums
Multiple sub-forums
Final project, cases, lectures, readings, study groups, questions for
professor, technical feedback, course material feedback
Participation
Over 90,000 registered
49,682 used the lecture videos at least once
20,082 submitted at least one quiz
4,445 posted at least once in discussion forums
2,208 received >= 70%
6
Forum & course participation: location
Continent % Course participants
% Forum participants
North America 32% 32%
South America 7% 10%
Europe 28% 25%
Asia 26% 24%
Africa 5% 6%
Oceania 2% 2%
Forum & course participation: education
Highest attainment % Course participants
% Forum participants
Some high school 1% 1%
Completed high school 3% 4%
Some college 10% 11%
Bachelors 43% 42%
Masters 40% 39%
Doctorate 3% 4%
N=7337
Study Groups
Days since course began
No
. o
f po
sts
Cases
Exploring the network: what counts?
Two questions:
What do we consider as a "tie" between two learners?
Do we trust the observed ties as meaningful?
Let's assume the observed network is a noise-corrupted version of the true underlying network (Psorakis et al. 2011)
Draw N samples of possible networks, based on thread co-
participation
Determine the significance of a particular tie in the observed learner-
to-learner network based on the sampled ones
This formulation helps us disregard ties that we attribute to chance (e.g., one-off interactions in a sea of other interactions)
Significant networks
Sub-forum (# nodes) # Edges in full
network
# Edges in significant
network
% Decline
Lectures (617) 12,644 3,988 68%
Readings (1,108) 35,728 11,259 68%
Cases (1,114) 102,171 57,490 44%
Final Projects (1,019) 23,244 12,557 46%
Study Groups (1,359) 41,819 11,609 72%
Qtns for Prof(284) 2,758 896 68%
Course Material
Feedback (252)
2,752 729 74%
Tech Feedback (231) 3,087 339 89%
Study groups sub-forum
Study Groups - Full Study Groups - Significant
Sub-forums are generally “vulnerable”, and some are more
vulnerable than others
Forum & course participation: score
Final Score % Course participants
% Forumparticipants
< 50% 97% 72%
50% <= score < 60% 0.1% 1%
60% <= score < 70% 0.1% 1%
70% <= score < 80% 0.14% 2%
80% <= score < 90% 0.21% 3%
90% <= score 2.2% 21%
Demographics of high score earners
Geography of those receiving >= 90% final score
Europeans – 35%
North Americans – 26%
Asians – 24%
Education
45% of forum users that received a 90% had at least a Master’s
degree
High performers active in the discussion forums are very well-educated and from the Western world
So….
Forums mostly harbour crowds, not communities, of learners characterized by weak ties
Participation in the forums was dominated by people who received very high or very low final marks
Well-educated people from the western world tend to complete MOOCs and do well in them
But who are the people that participate?
Qualitative evidence
How do people experience learning in a crowd?
What motivates them to learn in a MOOC?
What is success for them?
In-depth, semi-structured interviews N=10 Qualitative analysis of forum posts, N=5000+
Emerging patterns of MOOC learner types
2/21/2014Presentation title, edit in
header and footer
(view menu)
Page 18
MOOC learner type 1 [Problem solving]
Just in time learning
MOOC engagement Knowledge to assist specific decision-making
processes
Key barriers: Time management/other work obligations
Crowd of no significance for learning
Learning as an individual pursuit
Example: Carney, early 50s, Ireland, Masters’ degree
“Here at our site in Ireland, we were trying to come up with a new idea for
how we position ourselves in the market, [...] and our group president came
from a strategy background, so I thought [...] we’d be best to talk in his
language and concepts he’s used to, so that at least he’d see, that you know,
we’re on the same track. So in order to give myself really just an introduction
to the topic, strategy, that’s how I ended up [at the FBS course].”
MOOC learner type 2 [Professional profiling]
Just in case learning
MOOC engagement Skill development for future employment
Key barriers: Time management/other work obligations
Crowd of limited relevance for learning;
May occasionally serve as information source
Example: Julia, late 20s, England, masters’ degree
“I’ve been in my job for 2 years, and thinking about moving – as to what my
skill gaps are […].I think the ones [courses] I’m taking more seriously, are the
ones that push me a bit more towards my career goals.”
There’ll be, you know, forum pages of ‘how do I do this’, ‘where do I get that’,
you know…if they just read the intro, that’d explain...so, to be completely
honest, I don’t bother answering anything like that, because I think that’s, you
know..[…]. I’m using it [courses] quite selfishly, I suppose.”
MOOC learner type 3 [Formal accreditation]
Life-long learning
MOOC engagement Extension of traditional educational
experiences
Key barriers: appropriate collaborative tools, study group logistics
Crowd of high importance for learning
Serve as pool for knowledge co-construction and networking
(on- and offline)
Example: Lucas, mid-20s, Master’s degree, Spain
“I use the forum to connect with other students and set up a group or tools in
other platforms. […] MOOCs that imply interaction with other students, are
much more interesting […] this interaction gives a boost to your motivation.”
“The philosophy here is to be a constant learner. […] For me this is about
constant learning, and I actually plan to do courses throughout my life.”
MOOC learner type 4 [Learning for learning’s sake]
Access to education
MOOC engagement Global outreach and connectivity
Key barriers: Internet access/speed; learning skills/culture
Crowd crucial for learning
Crowd integrated part of MOOC learning experience; source of
knowledge.
Example: Emengo, early 40s, Bachelors’ degree, Nigeria
“I like the forums, you learn a lot. And it encourages you to learn a lot, people
teach you – without necessarily telling you what the solution is.”
“The world is getting smaller, so being a king in a small pond is no longer
enough […] because very soon, the world will be coming into the pond. […]
and if I interact with these people across-boarder, then my knowledge also
somehow has to be across-boarder.”
Final thoughts & next steps
On widening participation
Recognition of diverse learner needs, motivations and digital
inequalities need to be considered to support widening participation
Data from qual and quant approaches is key
Focus on bringing all the data sources together to develop and refine learner typology
Development of a set of quantitative indicators to be used in future research and practice
Acknowledgements
Project team
Chris Davies, Bhaveet Radia, Taha Yasseri
Project site
http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/research/projects/?id=121
Funder
MOOC Research Initiative
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