Where is research on massive open online courses headed? A data analysis of the MOOC Research Initiative

Research Trends in Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) Theses and Dissertations: Surfing the Tsunami Wave

“…It is also surprising that, though fewer, some lenses come from business and economics discipline. These findings (Table 2) demonstrate a similarity to Gasevic et al's (2014) findings in terms of employed theories, concepts, frameworks and models. In our sample however, the focal points of related theories, concepts, frameworks and models were online learning communities, social learning, and distance education learner characteristics.…”

“…• Gasevic et al (2014) The above mentioned articles covered research papers, articles and proposals, however research on MOOCs should not be limited to these academic documents, which is where this study steps in.…”

“…Veletsianos and Shepherdson (2015), Liyanagunawardena et al (2013) and Gasevic et al (2014) reported that the MOOC research was primarily conducted in Education, Information Technologies and Computer Science disciplines. According to Veletsianos and Shepherdson (2015) multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and cross disciplinary research represent promising venues for studying digital learning.…”

“…According to Veletsianos and Shepherdson (2015) multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and cross disciplinary research represent promising venues for studying digital learning. On the other hand, MOOC research is currently dominated by the discipline of education (Gasevic et al, 2014) which risks to limit MOOC research. On this ground, we state that there is an important need: MOOC research from other disciplines is needed to provide a sound research base and to create an in-depth understanding of MOOCs.…”

“…Findings regarding research methodologies used in MOOC theses and dissertations have a different pattern when compared to previous MOOC findings. While theses and dissertations used qualitative (49%), quantitative (21%), mixed (18%), review (8%) and other (4%) research methodologies (Table 1), Gasevic et al (2014) reported that of all the research submissions to MOOC Research Initiative (N = 78), 42% was mixed, 33% was quantitative and 24% was qualitative. Raffaghelli et al (2015) also reported that of all the articles they examined, 20% was mixed, 15% was quantitative and 12% was qualitative studies, 30% was theoretical-conceptual, 15% was not clear (in research design) and 8% was design based research.…”