Abstract:Massive online classes are global and diverse. How can we harness this diversity to improve engagement and learning? Currently, though enrollments are high, students' interactions with each other are minimal: most are alone together. This isolation is particularly disappointing given that a global community is a major draw of online classes. This paper illustrates the potential of leveraging geographic diversity in massive online classes. We connect students from around the world through small-group video disc… Show more
“…Interestingly, within gender unequal regions, we noticed a difference between men and women. This difference suggests varieties of views among people of the same region, which could also offer some clarifications to the mixed effects of participants’ culture (hinder communication, and exposure to different perspectives) found in the literature (Kulkarni et al ., ; Popov et al ., ). These findings indicate that single‐gender group perception is a factor that counts when using grouping as learning or teaching strategy in MOOCs and other learning environments.…”
Section: Summary and Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Seven hundred and seventy (770) precourse surveys were collected. Due to the number of participants and in line with the literature on grouping in MOOCs (Kulkarni et al ., ; Lim et al ., ), a quantitative approach was used to analyze students’ preferences regarding their placement into groups. Moreover, our research questions sought to confirm our hypothesis and made quantitative analysis appropriate (Creswell, ).…”
Section: Methodsmentioning
confidence: 98%
“…Nevertheless, MOOC researchers found persistence and performance differences among participants from different regions and cultural backgrounds (Kizilcec & Halawa, ). Kulkarni et al ., () research denoted that geographically diverse groups in MOOCs were beneficial because they exposed students to others and to other ways of thinking. Nevertheless, culture effect on groups is often analyzed through Hofstede, Hofstede, and Minkov () cultural dimensions and an extensive discussion of culture is found in CSCL studies.…”
This paper reports the results of an exploratory study on participants' perception of the importance of single-gender grouping in a massive open online course (MOOC) delivered through the Coursera platform. Findings reveal that female and male learners' perception of single-gender grouping differs. Female students more than males indicated less preference for single-gender grouping. Views on single-gender grouping also differed across regions, suggesting the effect of participants' regions of origin on their opinions about single-gender grouping. Moreover, an interaction was established between participants' region and gender. In particular, our study reveals that men in the "Asia and Pacific" region tended-more than men and women from other regions of the world-to give more importance to single-gender grouping in this MOOC. In addition, younger participants cared less about single-gender groups compared to older respondents. This study sheds light on our understanding of the importance of gender and age importance in online learning environments such as MOOCs. The findings also point to the role gender and age may play as MOOCs continue to gain in popularity and to adopt collaborative approaches to teaching and learning.
“…Interestingly, within gender unequal regions, we noticed a difference between men and women. This difference suggests varieties of views among people of the same region, which could also offer some clarifications to the mixed effects of participants’ culture (hinder communication, and exposure to different perspectives) found in the literature (Kulkarni et al ., ; Popov et al ., ). These findings indicate that single‐gender group perception is a factor that counts when using grouping as learning or teaching strategy in MOOCs and other learning environments.…”
Section: Summary and Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Seven hundred and seventy (770) precourse surveys were collected. Due to the number of participants and in line with the literature on grouping in MOOCs (Kulkarni et al ., ; Lim et al ., ), a quantitative approach was used to analyze students’ preferences regarding their placement into groups. Moreover, our research questions sought to confirm our hypothesis and made quantitative analysis appropriate (Creswell, ).…”
Section: Methodsmentioning
confidence: 98%
“…Nevertheless, MOOC researchers found persistence and performance differences among participants from different regions and cultural backgrounds (Kizilcec & Halawa, ). Kulkarni et al ., () research denoted that geographically diverse groups in MOOCs were beneficial because they exposed students to others and to other ways of thinking. Nevertheless, culture effect on groups is often analyzed through Hofstede, Hofstede, and Minkov () cultural dimensions and an extensive discussion of culture is found in CSCL studies.…”
This paper reports the results of an exploratory study on participants' perception of the importance of single-gender grouping in a massive open online course (MOOC) delivered through the Coursera platform. Findings reveal that female and male learners' perception of single-gender grouping differs. Female students more than males indicated less preference for single-gender grouping. Views on single-gender grouping also differed across regions, suggesting the effect of participants' regions of origin on their opinions about single-gender grouping. Moreover, an interaction was established between participants' region and gender. In particular, our study reveals that men in the "Asia and Pacific" region tended-more than men and women from other regions of the world-to give more importance to single-gender grouping in this MOOC. In addition, younger participants cared less about single-gender groups compared to older respondents. This study sheds light on our understanding of the importance of gender and age importance in online learning environments such as MOOCs. The findings also point to the role gender and age may play as MOOCs continue to gain in popularity and to adopt collaborative approaches to teaching and learning.
“…Participation can be altered through changing the forum interface and mechanics; one can, for example, use a reputation system [4]. Similarly, researchers have suggested approaches for structuring the discussions differently, for example by using computer-mediated small group discussions in a free-form [3,20] or in a goal-oriented manner [5,22].…”
Section: Background 21 Social Interaction and Moocsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Students' learning can increase when such social interventions are used [5,20], and furthermore, social learning tools can improve the MOOC experience [5,27]. This said, a common challenge with creating social learning activities is their orchestration [5,20]: the participants are not present all the time, and developing the critical mass needed to ensure the functionality of social interactions can be challenging.…”
Section: Background 21 Social Interaction and Moocsmentioning
Being able to seek help is a crucial part of any learning process. This includes both collaborative models such as asking for help from others as well as independent models such as using course materials and the vast resources provided by the Web. Currently, MOOC research has addressed social help-seeking within the MOOC course, either using MOOC platform tools (forum, chat) or arranging activities using external platforms (Google Hangout, Facebook groups). However, MOOC learning activities take place in a larger social ecology, including friends and teachers, general online communities and alumni communities. Using survey data from a programming MOOC, we show a typology of social learning strategies: non-use of social help-seeking, seeking help from friends and seeking help from alumni and teacher communities. We further show that students using social help-seeking strategies orient themselves more with a surface approach but are also less likely to drop the course. We conclude this work by addressing the various design possibilities identified by this work.
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