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

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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