Monitoring MOOCs

Abstract

For an instructor who is teaching a massive open online course (MOOC), what is the best way to understand their class? What is the best way to view how the students are interacting with the content while the course is running? To help prepare for the next iteration, how should the course's data be best analyzed after the fact? How do these instructional monitoring needs differ between online courses with tens of thousands of students and courses with only tens? This paper reports the results of a survey of 92 MOOC instructors who answered questions about which information they find useful in their course, with the end goal of creating an information display for MOOC instructors. The main findings are: (i) quantitative data sources such as grades, although useful, are not sufficient; understanding the activity in discussion forums and student surveys was rated useful for all use cases by a large majority of respondents, (ii) chat logs were not seen as useful, (iii) for the most part, the same sources of information were seen as useful as found in surveys of smaller online courses, (iv) mockups of existing and novel visualization techniques were responded to positively for use both while the course is running and for planning a revision of the course, and (v) a wide range of views was expressed about other details.

A Study on the Influencing Factors of Continued Intention to Use MOOCs: UTAUT Model and CCC Moderating Effect

“…For example, Khalil and Ebner (2013) found the role of interaction in the learning process of MOOCs and how the perceptions of interaction affected MOOC learning behavior and learning effect in students. Stephens-Martinez et al (2014) pointed out that a MOOC instructor's views about different sources of information might affect the behavior and performance level of students in the learning process of MOOCs. Moreover, Watson et al (2016) showed that the MOOC instructors could influence the MOOC learning results and attitudes of students by using social presence, teaching presence, and dissonance factors.…”

What to expect, and how to improve online discussion forums: the instructors’ perspective

“…Since interaction is a key component in the quality of online learning [1], Learning Management Systems and MOOCs frequently adopt asynchronous online discussion forums to foster interaction [2][3][4]. Forums enable instructors to understand and intervene in learning activities [5,6], and students have time to think and formulate answers. Individuals collaboratively build knowledge while collaborating in an asynchronous online environment [7].…”

Toward the development of a dynamic dashboard for FutureLearn MOOCs

“…The development process allowed us to explore alternative ways to implement a dashboard that other FutureLearn partner institutions may find useful, with a number of different visualizations explored, as well as consideration of related literature (Stephens-Martinez et al, 2014). Furthermore, a direct comparison with a similar effort by (Leon Urrutia et al, 2016) demonstrates the viability and effectiveness of the implementation.…”

“…Previous research (Clayphan et al, 2015;Kia, Pardos, & Hatala, 2016;Stephens-Martinez, Hearst, & Fox, 2014) identified five key areas which appear to direct the attention of educators and developers in MOOCs: 1) An overview of the course, 2) Who are the participants/learners, 3) How participants interact/engage with the material, 4) How participants interact in the forums, and 5) How participants perform in the course.…”