Deconstructing disengagement: analyzing learner subpopulations in massive open online courses
| Published | April 2013 |
| Conference | LAK '13: Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Learning Analytics and Knowledge Pages 170-179 |
| Country | United States, North America |
ABSTRACT
As MOOCs grow in popularity, the relatively low completion rates of learners has been a central criticism. This focus on completion rates, however, reflects a monolithic view of disengagement that does not allow MOOC designers to target interventions or develop adaptive course features for particular subpopulations of learners. To address this, we present a simple, scalable, and informative classification method that identifies a small number of longitudinal engagement trajectories in MOOCs. Learners are classified based on their patterns of interaction with video lectures and assessments, the primary features of most MOOCs to date.In an analysis of three computer science MOOCs, the classifier consistently identifies four prototypical trajectories of engagement. The most notable of these is the learners who stay engaged through the course without taking assessments. These trajectories are also a useful framework for the comparison of learner engagement between different course structures or instructional approaches. We compare learners in each trajectory and course across demographics, forum participation, video access, and reports of overall experience. These results inform a discussion of future interventions, research, and design directions for MOOCs. Potential improvements to the classification mechanism are also discussed, including the introduction of more fine-grained analytics.
| Keywords | MOOC · learner engagement · trajectories of engagement |
| Published at | California |
| Language | English |
| Refereed | Yes |
| DOI | 10.1145/2460296.2460330 |
| Export options | BibTex · EndNote · Tagged XML · Google Scholar |
Viewed by 376 distinct readers
CLOUD COMMUNITY REVIEWS
The evaluations below represent the judgements of our readers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Cloud editors.
Click a star to be the first to rate this document
▶ POST A COMMENT
SIMILAR RECORDS
Digging deeper into learners' experiences in MOOCs: Participation in social networks outside of MOOCs, notetaking and contexts surrounding content consumption
Veletsianos, George; Collier, Amy; Schneider, Emily
Researchers describe with increasing confidence what they observe participants doing in massive open online courses (MOOCs). However, our understanding of learner activities in open courses is limited by researchers' ...
Match: schneider, emily
MOOCs for professional teacher development
Jobe, William; Östlund, Christian; Svensson, Lars
A MOOC is a trending concept in education that is disrupting traditional methods of
learning consumption. The emergence and use of MOOCs for professional teacher development is still uncommon, but on the verge of ...
Match: mooc; united states
How to succeed in a MOOC - Massive Online Open Course
Koutropoulos, Apostolos; Hogue, Rebecca J.
In the past couple of years, massive online open courses (MOOCs) have become a trend among
many members
of the educational online community. This is particularly true of faculty who are
interested in open educational ...
Match: mooc
MOOC Trasparenza e anticorruzione
Testacen, Graziella; de los Castro, Maria Angeles
Il corso “Trasparenza e Anticorruzione” rivolto ai dipendenti della Pubblica Amministrazione, studenti e ricercatori è stato realizzato dal CSI (Consorzio per il Sistema Informativo) Piemonte in collaborazione con ...
Match: mooc
The battle for open: How openness won and why it doesn’t feel like victory
Weller, M.
With the success of open access publishing, Massive open online courses (MOOCs) and open education practices, the open approach to education has moved from the periphery to the mainstream. This marks a moment of victory ...
Match: mooc
Open learning: 'Communication and Mobile Learning' at Spanish University
Casal, Sonia Santoveña; Silva, Alejandro; Jemni, Mohamed; Kinshuk; Khribi, Mohamed Koutheair
This chapter reports a study of the application of the virtual learning model in a MOOC, ‘Communication and mobile learning’, within the project ‘Elearning, Communication and Open-data: Massive Mobile, Ubiquitous ...
Match: mooc
Accessibility in MOOCs: The current state and next steps
Iniesto, Francisco
An effective open eLearning environment should take into account each learner?s abilities, learning goals, where learning takes place, and which specific devices the learner uses. Technologies used in Massive Open ...
Match: mooc
Who are the open learners? A comparative study profiling non-formal users of open educational resources
Farrow, Rob; de los Arcos, Beatriz; Pitt, R.; Weller, M.
Open educational resources (OER) have been identified as having the potential to extend opportunities for learning to non-formal learners. However, little research has been conducted into the impact of OER on non-formal ...
Match: mooc
Measuring the success of scaleable open online courses
Klobas, Jane E.
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to propose measures of online open course success for non-commercial institutional providers of massive open online courses (MOOCs) and other scaleable open online courses ...
Match: mooc
Mind to MOOC
Kanwar, Asha
MESSAGE Open University of China & ICDE Seminar, Beijing, China, 21 October 2013 by Professor Asha Kanwar, Commonwealth of Learning // The Commonwealth of Learning is an intergovernmental organization which promotes ...
Match: mooc









