Who does what in a massive open online course?

Abstract

massive open online courses (MOOCs) collect valuable data on student learning behavior; essentially complete records of all student interactions in a selfcontained learning environment, with the benefit of large sample sizes. Here, we offer an overview of how the 108,000 participants behaved in 6.002x -Circuits and Electronics, the first course in MITx (now edX) in the Spring 2012 semester. We divided participants into tranches based on the extent of their assessment activities, ranging from browsers (constituting ~76% of the participants but only 8% of the total time spent in the course) to certificate earners (7% of participants who accounted for 60% of total time). We examined how the certificate earners allocated their time among the various course components and what fraction of each they accessed. We analyze transitions between course components, showing how student behavior differs when solving homework vs. exam problems. This work lays the foundation for future studies of how various course components, and transitions among them, influence learning in MOOCs.Though free online courses are not new, 8 they have reached an unprecedented scale since late 2011. Three organizations-Coursera, edX, and Udacity-have released MOOCs 13 drawing more than 100,000 registrants per course. Numbers from these three initiatives have since grown to more than 100 courses and three million total registrants, resulting in 2012 being dubbed "The Year of the MOOC" by the New York Times. 16 Though there has been much speculation regarding how these initiatives may reshape higher education, 6,12,20 little analysis has been published to date describing student behavior or learning in them.Our main objective here is to show how the huge amount of data available in MOOCs offers a unique research opportunity, a means to study detailed student behavior in a self-contained learning environment throughout an Who Does What in a massive open online course?Data collected in moocs provides insight into student behavior, from weekly e-textbook reading habits to contextdependent use of learning resources when solving problems. in 6.002x, 76% of participants were browsers who collectively accounted for only 8% of time spent in the course, whereas, the 7% of certificate-earning participants averaged 100 hours each and collectively accounted for 60% of total time.Students spent the most time per week interacting with lecture videos and homework, followed by discussion forums and online laboratories; however, interactions with the videos and lecture questions were distinctly bimodal, with half the certificate earners accessing less than half of these resources.illuStration by anthony freda

Open Geospatial Education

“…Therefore, these courses shall be geared towards the skills needed to be involved in the workforce [13]. Previous studies have highlighted that MOOC participants are usually young professionals, holding at least an undergraduate degree and wanting to enhance their skills [10,14]. MOOCs therefore offer new educational opportunities by promoting student-centered learning [15] and enabling educational institutions to reach new students [4].…”

“…Seaton et al [14] have proven that a large number of enrolled students spend more time on posting or reading discussion threads than on watching featured videos or reading additional learning materials. Analysis of digital traces of online learners reveals that forum participation levels drop significantly towards the end of the course [19].…”

Learning Effect Analysis Based on Association Rules in Online Education

“…In addition, according to the statistics, Coursera, edX, and Udacity which are three pioneer MOOC platforms provide thousands of courses and draw more than 100,000 registrants each course [5,6]. And Tsinghua University also officially launched the first Chinese version of the MOOC platform -"xuetangX" [4,8]. These measures fully proved that each country will transfer education to the network space in the future.…”

MOOC Video Interaction Patterns: What Do They Tell Us?

“…MOOCs, as their current forms, typically replicate traditional classroom pedagogy online, featuring with video lectures, quizzes, tutorials, discussion forums and wikis. As recent studies [2,12] show, video lecture viewing is the central activity in MOOC learning, but little research work has yet endeavored to analyze click-level video interactions. For MOOC instructors, it is of great importance to understand how the students interact with lectures videos as well as how they perceive them.…”