Participating by activity or by week in MOOCs

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study was to provide a new characterization of the extent to which learners complete learning activities in massive open online courses (MOOCs), a central challenge in these contexts. Prior explorations of learner interactions with MOOC materials have often described these interactions through stereotypes, which accounts for neither the full spectrum of potential learner activities nor the ways those patterns differ across course designs. Design/methodology/approach To overcome these shortcomings, the authors apply confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis to learner activities within three MOOCs to test different models of participation across courses and populations found within those courses. Findings Courses varied in the extent to which participation was driven by learning activities vs time/topic or a mixture of both, but this was stable across offerings of the same course. Research limitations/implications The results call for a reconceptualization of how different learning activities within a MOOC are designed to work together, to better allow strong learning outcomes even within one activity form or more strongly encourage participation across activities. Originality/value The authors validate new continuous-patterns rather than a discrete-pattern participation model for MOOC learning.

Development and validation of a measure of authentic online work

“…For example, despite some definitions of authentic work including elements of collaboration or communication (Hiebert et al, 2005 ; Newmann, 1992 ; Stein et al, 1996 ), I was unable to validate related items, since the online system used for validation (and similar, commonly used asynchronous, online course systems) did not facilitate these types of activities. At the postsecondary level, innovations such as peer assessment within Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) and similar structures provide a road map for the potential integration and measurement of interaction-based strategies for facilitating authentic work (Baikadi et al, 2018 ; Cade et al, 2014 ; Demmans Epp et al, 2020 ; Dowell et al, 2019 ; Rosé & Ferschke, 2016 ; Vassileva et al, 2016 ). As the K-12 online course structure continues to evolve and learn from similar educational products and services, there will likely be the potential to add – and validate – related items.…”

“…The largest differences between conceptualizing authentic work in traditional, face-to-face settings and this type of online learning setting include the inability of students to interact directly with peers or the instructor delivering instruction as well as limited capabilities to facilitate or provide substantive feedback on open-format assignments within the self-contained online course structure (Rosé & Ferschke, 2016 ). It is important to note that some asynchronous models of online course-taking (primarily at the postsecondary level) have developed processes for encouraging peer support, feedback, and other forms of collaboration (i.e., Baikadi et al, 2018 ; Cade et al, 2014 ; Demmans Epp et al, 2020 ; Dowell et al, 2019 ; Rosé & Ferschke, 2016 ; Vassileva et al, 2016 ). However, these advances are not standard features within the most prevalent K-12 online course-taking platforms.…”

An Evaluation of How Students Use Blackboard and the Possible Link to Their Grades

“…A summary of the available LMS tools are shown in Table 1 and most of them come with good functionality, affordability, suitability, and limitations (Baikadi et al, 2018;Epp et al, 2020;Juárez Santiago et al, 2020;Simanullang & Rajagukguk, 2020;Tseng, 2020;Vallone et al, 2020)). From Table 1, it can be seen that apart from the many functions of the Blackboard LMS, it promotes the structuring of online discussions, allows the display of other internet platforms such as web pages, wikis, blogs, email and analytical monitoring tools (Tseng, 2020).…”

“…MOOCs allows videos, discussion forums, chat groups, lecture materials, quizzes, lecture viewing, and coursework submissions (Baikadi et al, 2018).…”

“…From Table 1, it can be seen that apart from the many functions of the Blackboard LMS, it promotes the structuring of online discussions, allows the display of other internet platforms such as web pages, wikis, blogs, email and analytical monitoring tools (Tseng, 2020). The Massive Open Online’s (MOOCs) LMS support students’ discussions, allows quizzes and uploading of lectures materials (Baikadi et al, 2018). In addition, the MOOCs LMS enables better multiple pathways that allow forum use, lecture viewing, quizzing of students and coursework submissions for all students to ensure improved pedagogy (Ferguson et al, 2016).…”