Presentation delivered at ASCILITE 2016 - Adelaide, Australia

1. 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, Australia
29th November 2016

2. Dublin City University…

4. Outline…
1. Background
2. MOOCs through Twitter
3. Key takeaway messages
Social Media #MOOC Mentions:
Lessons for MOOC Research from Analysis of Twitter Data

5. 1. Background

6. • 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

7. 1. Background

8. • 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

9. 1. Background

10. 1. Background

11. 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

12. 2. MOOCs through Twitter

13. 2. MOOCs through Twitter
What is being said about MOOCs on Twitter?

14. • 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

15. Word Frequency Word Frequency Word Frequency
mooc 21,199 education 1,126 onlinelearn 501
course 2,733 join 1,113 science 492
learn 2,686 start 1,055 marketing 478
online 2,442 register 954 Data 471
elearn 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

16. Top Hashtags
2. MOOCs through Twitter

17. No Topic
33 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

18. Sentiment Analysis
2. MOOCs through Twitter

19. 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

20. 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

21. 3. Key takeaway messages

22. 3. Key takeaway messages
Three major takeaways…
1. The term MOOC is not commonly used in
everyday discourse

23. 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/

24. 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

25. 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

26. 3. Key takeaway messages
https://www.class-central.com/report/top-moocs/

27. 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
1. The discourse (agenda) around MOOCs in
Twittersphere is dominated by major platforms
and institutional providers

28. Final comment

29. Final comment
“It is theory that
decides what we
can observe…”
Albert Einstein

30. http://www.dcu.ie/academy
Final comment

31. http://www.dcu.ie/academy
Final comment

32. Go raibh
maith
agaibh!

33. “A prudent question is one-half of wisdom”
Francis Bacon
http://www.slideshare.net/mbrownz
Questions…