Ambiguous Credentials: How Learners Use and Make Sense of Massively Open Online Courses

Abstract

Researchers have investigated the demography and styles of engagement of those who enroll in MOOCs but have lent little attention to how learners navigate MOOCs' ambiguity as academic certifications. Analyzing semi-structured interviews with 60 people who devoted substantial time to at least one MOOC between 2014-2017, we find that people use MOOCs to build skills for application at work and home, build relationships, navigate life transitions, and enhance formal presentations of self, at the same time that they disagree on the meaning of MOOC completions as official academic accomplishments. Our findings build theory on the multi-dimensional character of credential prestige that can inform educational social scientists and credential providers in an increasingly complicated postsecondary ecosystem.

MOOCS and Micro-Credentials as Launch Pads to Further Education: Challenges and Experiences

“…Learners were also in many cases inspired to continue related work after completing their courses -"this course was really informative and got me thinking about future renewable projects.". These responses suggest that the MOOC courses are meeting several of the motivating factors previously identified in the literature, including course content [8], lifelong learning in a rapidly changing workplace [7] and valuing the skills developed [5].…”

“…Additionally, being able to interact and collaborate within a community of learning drives their desire to learn more "… I'd love to be part of an international learning environment"; "I want to learn more activities that will relate to this topic and more collaboration with other students here", "Hope there's a chance to meet you again and interact online with you". These comments suggest that students have the desire to build interpersonal relationships [5], something that is hard to do in large-scale MOOCs but is more realistic in micro-credentials that often have specific cohorts moving through their study at the same pace.…”

“…To explore student motivation in the context of MOOCs and micro-credential qualifications in a specific context, the chapter analyzed some data gathered by a New Zealand higher education institution that has offered both short open courses and micro-credentials on a global MOOC platform. Using anonymised student end-ofcourse survey data gathered by the MOOC platform, some specific issues identified in the literature related to learner motivation to enroll in, and complete, MOOCs have been reinforced by this data, in particular, the quality of the course content [8], finding value in the skills developed [5], the ability to apply lifelong learning in a rapidly changing workplace [7], developing professionally [22] and building interpersonal relationships [5].…”

“…Motivations for enrolling into a MOOC can range from personal interest or curiosity to learning a specific skill set for a promotion or career pivot, or even general marketability in the modern competitive professional landscape. Student perceptions of the value of micro-credentials vary widely, from valuing the evidence of learning, or the skills developed, to building interpersonal relationships [5].…”

“…When MOOCs first began, Coursera was one of the pioneers, developed by Stanford computer scientists in 2012 [5]. While their courses were modeled after the existing for-credit and on-campus courses in the university computer science programmes, it was clear that at the time, learners who completed the MOOC courses were not awarded any university credit [10].…”