Eamon Costello, Binesh Nair, Mark Brown, Jinging Zhang, Mairéad Nic Giolla Mhichíl, Enda Donlon & Theo Lynn

Social Media #MOOC Mentions:Lessons for MOOC Research from Analysis of Twitter Data

Adelaide, Australia29th November 2016

Dublin City University…

Outline…

1. Background

2. MOOCs through Twitter

3. Key takeaway messages

Social Media #MOOC Mentions:Lessons for MOOC Research from Analysis of Twitter Data

1. Background

• How have MOOCs been portrayed in traditional media?

• How is the MOOC story being told through social media?

• What trends are apparent over time in the portrayal of MOOCs in the media?

Research questions…

1. Background

1. Background

• Who is telling the MOOC story?

• How are they telling the MOOC story?

• What are we being told about MOOCs?

• What is missing from the MOOC story?

• Whose voice is not being heard?

Deeper questions…

1. Background

1. Background

1. Background

The story

about MOOCs is

not really about MOOCs

“A story is never just a story – it is a statement of belief and of morality” (Pinar, 2014, p.12).

1. Background

2. MOOCs through Twitter

2. MOOCs through Twitter

What is being said about MOOCs on Twitter?

• GNIP API Sep – Dec 2015 - > #MOOC

• 32,309 tweets (17,910 original)

• Descriptive analytics, content analytics,

network analytics (Chae, 2015; Lynn et. al.,

2015)

Pilot study…

Chae, B. K. (2015). Insights from hashtag# supplychain and Twitter Analytics: Considering Twitter and Twitter data for supply chain practice and research. International Journal of Production Economics, 165, 247-259.

Lynn, T., Kilroy, S., van der Werff, L., Healy, P., Hunt, G., Venkatagiri, S., & Morrison, J.( 2015). Towards a general research framework for social media research using big data. Professional Communication Conference (IPCC), 2015 IEEE International (pp. 1-8). IEEE.

2. MOOCs through Twitter

Word Frequency Word Frequency Word Frequency

mooc 21,199 education 1,126 onlinelearn 501course 2,733 join 1,113 science 492learn 2,686 start 1,055 marketing 478online 2,442 register 954 Data 471elearn 2,079 onlinecourse 736 Life 447

free 1,911 highered 667    coursera 1,410 digital 562    edxonline 1,332 university 556    

edtech 1,259 open 520    business 1,165 students 518    

Top 25 Words in MOOC Dataset

2. MOOCs through Twitter

Top Hashtags

2. MOOCs through Twitter

No Topic33 Promotion of MOOC on “Cognitive Technology and its growing importance for

business” by David Schatsky, course instructor and senior manager Deloitte LLP.

72 Promotion of Deloitte’s MOOC on 3D printing.31 Successful Societies (by Princeton University) promoting MOOC on ‘How can

Governments Improve Citizen Services and Cabinet Office Coordination.’

54 Successful Societies promoting MOOC on ‘Making Government work in Hard Places’.

40 Successful Societies promoting MOOC on ‘How Leaders Overcome Governance Challenges’.

53 Successful Societies promoting MOOC on ‘Writing Science of Delivery Case Studies’

58 NutritionMOOCs promoting MOOC on ‘Nutrition and Health: Micronutrients and Malnutrition’.

182 NutritionMOOCs promoting 2nd part of MOOC on Nutrition and Health from Wageningen University.

30 Promotion of Coursera’s MOOC on ‘Training TESOL Certificate Part 1: Teach English’.

43 Retweet of Quizalizeapp’s tweet ‘How to say Merry Christmas in 77 Languages’.

Peak Tweets

2. MOOCs through Twitter

Sentiment Analysis

2. MOOCs through Twitter

Exemplar Tweet Sentiment Score

@thesiswhisperer I think the #MOOC is providing wonderful supportive pillow of trust & honesty- glad I'm taking part- thank u #survivephd15

6

STUNNING #mathed animations from .@robertghrist in his calculus #MOOC. Beautiful and effective. Kudos. http://t.co/GgdN2KHFZf

4

Just discovered a great free #Social Innovation online course, on this cool learning platform - #iVersity #MOOC ~ http://t.co/kGPzmqONFq 

4

#ememitalia Teixeira: focusing on dropout as a problem to criticize #MOOC education is a conceptual mistake

- 4

CloudComputingApplications - definitely the worst @coursera #MOOC I've ever taken. Irrelevant videos & useless tuts #unenrolled

- 3

Sentiment Analysis

2. MOOCs through Twitter

Network & communication analysis…

- Annunciative

- Conversational

- Disseminative

Bruns, Axel & Stieglitz, Stefan (2014) Metrics for understanding communication on Twitter. In Weller, Katrin, Bruns, Axel, Burgess, Jean, Mahrt, Merja, & Puschmann, Cornelius (Eds.) Twitter and Society. Peter Lang, New York, pp. 69-82.

2. MOOCs through Twitter

3. Key takeaway messages

3. Key takeaway messages

Three major takeaways…

1. The term MOOC is not commonly used in everyday discourse

3. Key takeaway messages

Horrigan, J. (2016). Lifelong learning and technology. Pew Research Center. Available from http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/03/22/lifelong-learning-and-technology/

3. Key takeaway messages

Dahlstrom, E., Christopher Brooks, D., Grajek, S., and Reeves, R. (2015) ECAR Study of Students and Information Technology, 2015. Research report. Louisville, CO: ECAR, December 2015. Available from https://library.educause.edu/resources/2015/8/2015-student-and-faculty-technology-research-studies

3. Key takeaway messages

Three major takeaways…

1. The term MOOC is not commonly used in everyday discourse

2. There is limited understanding of how Twitter is being used (or not) to support learning in MOOCs

3. Key takeaway messages

https://www.class-central.com/report/top-moocs/

3. Key takeaway messages

Three major takeaways…

1. The term MOOC is not commonly used in everyday discourse

2. There is limited understanding of how Twitter is being used (or not) to support learning in MOOCs

3. The discourse (agenda) around MOOCs in Twittersphere is dominated by major platforms and institutional providers

Final comment

Final comment

“It is theory that decides what we can observe…”

Albert Einstein

http://www.dcu.ie/academy

Final comment

http://www.dcu.ie/academy

Final comment

Go raibh maith

agaibh!

“A prudent question is one-half of wisdom”

Francis Bacon

http://www.slideshare.net/mbrownz

Questions…