MOOC completion: what really counts? [1711] Home : Annual Conference 2017

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Wed, Sep 6 2017, 3:00pm – 4:30pm

Authors: Patricia Davies, and Liam Naughton

Room: Gilmour Rm (G)

Theme: Learning Spaces

Type: 20-minute session

Description

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) provide new opportunities for learners as well as for researchers and designers. MOOC participants approach learning within these platforms for a variety of reasons, and with diverse learning goals and preferences, which create new opportunities for them as learners. This suggests that there is a need for researchers to understand participant behaviour to inform how to develop MOOCs appropriate for a wider audience. Connectivist MOOCs or cMOOCs emphasise the social aspects of online learning and the autonomy afforded to learners in directing their own learning. The more recent xMOOCs (Rodriguez, 2013) accentuate the potential of participants’ access to materials and instructors from high-ranking universities. xMOOCs use a more traditional pedagogy than cMOOCs, and those offered to the public through platforms such as Coursera have captured considerable public attention (Haggard, 2013). Even though much more is now understood about learning through MOOCs, there is still plenty not caught by the clickstream and log data that remains to be explained. In particular, it is unclear what prompts participants to complete a MOOC. Ever since the advent of large-scale xMOOCs low completion rates have been of concern (Yuan and Powell, 2013), and are often seen as reflecting the failure of MOOCs. The purpose of the present study is to understand the relationship between a non-cognitive trait known as ‘grit’, defined as the perseverance and passion for long-term goals (Duckworth, 2016), and MOOC completion. Participants in the study included 980 individuals enrolled in a Java Programming MOOC designed to increase teacher competence, knowledge and skill, and empower them to the teach programming elements new to the GCSE and A Level Computer Science curriculum.

Studies demonstrate that students with high grit levels achieve better results in learning, even outperforming their more talented peers. Participants took a grit survey at the beginning of the MOOC. Initial findings suggest a positive relationship between grit scores and MOOC completion. Statistical analysis of the data produced through participant-computer interactions within the platform was also conducted. These data suggest relationships between many of the activities participants engage in online, including starting discussion threads, posting in forums, and completion. Since the level of engagement amongst participants is higher than normally found in MOOCs the research goes further to examine how MOOCs could be utilised as a means of delivering CPD for teachers. This study resonates with the conference theme by going beyond understanding why teachers complete MOOCs to exploring how they could become the norm for delivering teacher CPD.

Duckworth, A., 2016. Grit: The power of passion and perseverance. New York. Simon and Schuster.

Haggard, S. (2013). The maturing of the MOOC: Literature review of massive open online courses and other forms of online distance learning. Research paper number 130. London. Retrieved from https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/massive-open-onlinecourses-and-online-distance-learning-review.

Rodriguez, O. (2013). The concept of openness behind c and xMOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). Open Praxis. 5(1), pp.67–73.

Yuan, L., and Powell, S. (2013). MOOCs and open education: Implications for higher education. JISC CETIS White Paper. Retrieved from: http://public ations.cetis.ac.uk/2013/667

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