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.

1. Conceptualizing Interaction &
Learning in MOOCs
Rebecca Eynon, Nabeel Gillani, Isis Hjorth
February 20, 2014

2. 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

3. Motivations

Exploring the realities of participating in a MOOC

Methodological challenges and possibilities

Widening participation

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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%

8. 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

9. No. of posts
Study Groups
Days since course began
Cases

10. 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 coparticipation
 Determine the significance of a particular tie in the observed learnerto-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)

11. 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%

12. Study groups sub-forum
Study Groups - Full
Study Groups - Significant

13. Sub-forums are generally “vulnerable”, and some are more
vulnerable than others

14. Forum & course participation: score
Final Score
% Course
participants
% Forum
participants
< 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%

15. 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 welleducated and from the Western world

16. 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?

17. 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+

18. Emerging patterns of MOOC learner types
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2/21/2014
Page 18

19. 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].”

20. 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.”


21. 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.”

22. 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.”

23. 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

24. 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