TYPES OF PARTICIPANTS' BEHAVIORS IN A MASSIVE OPEN ONLINE COURSE

摘要

In recent years, there has been a proliferation of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Initiatives like Coursera, edX and Udacity provide platforms for higher education institutions to develop and deliver online courses to the general public. These courses are usually offered free of charge, with no preconditions or commitment, and attract massive numbers of registrants from around the world. Yet, a central criticism about MOOCs refers to the relatively low completion rates of participants, with 10% or less of the course registrants earning a statement of accomplishment. Ho et al. (2014) argued that certification rates are a misleading representation of the diverse ways in which registrants are engaging with MOOCs. Kizilcec et al. (2013) argued that the categorization of MOOCs learners into those who pass the class, and everyone else, makes no allowances for learners who choose to stay engaged with the course and participate in some aspects of it, without earning a certificate. Subsequently, the purpose of this study was to gain more insights into different types of participants' behaviors in MOOCs, by analyzing non-certificate earners' and certificate earners' behaviors. The study examined the different types of participants' behaviors in one MOOC, based on the participants' activity in the main learning resources of the course. The research questions were: 1 What are the types of engagement in the course? 2 What are the types of behaviors in regard to the course video lectures, discussion forums, and assessments? The study examined a MOOC on plant biology, which was offered by Tel Aviv University in Coursera. The course began on October 2013 and lasted 7 weeks. Each week, a different topic was covered via the course learning resources, which consisted of: professor announcements, reading recommendations, 50 short video lectures, around 40 interactive in-video questions, 7 discussion forums, 6 quizzes, and a final exam. 32,007 people registered for the course, and 68.4% of the registrants (21,889) started it. 10.6% of the participants who started the course (2,319) completed it and received a certificate. The study was conducted using a data mining methodology. The data mining was applied on a data set that documented the participants' actions during the course. The data was received from Coursera in database tables. Using MySQL queries, a set of variables were computed for each participant, displaying their use of the course components. Using a Two-Step cluster analysis, the course participants were then classified into clusters, based on their activity in the main learning resources of the course. The following 8 variables were chosen for the analysis: unique video lectures viewed online, unique video lectures downloaded, unique in-video questions answered; total threads views, total threads opened, total comments; unique quizzes submitted, and Final exam submitted. The cluster analysis was applied separately for the non-certificate earners and for the certificate earners groups. This separation was essential in order to gain better insights into the different behaviors between the groups and within each group. The analyses revealed 8 clusters in total; 4 clusters per group. The clusters are presented and discussed in detail in the paper. The different types of engagement and behaviors that emerged in the clusters were analyzed. Five major types of engagement in the course were identified: Tasters, Keepers, Partially Persisting, Committed participants and Completers. With reference to criticism regarding relatively low completion rates in MOOCs, significant numbers of non certificate earners who demonstrated some level of engagement, ranging from the Moderately Persisting participants to the highly committed participants, were identified. Regarding video usage, three types of behaviors were identified: online, offline, and combined. These types may indicate different participant preferences for watching the videos and may have significant implications on the learning process, as they facilitate different pedagogies. Regarding the discussion forums, two prominent types of behaviors were identified: passive and active participation. Consistent with the literature, the vast majority of discussion participants were found to be passive, whereas only a small group, consisting mostly of certificate earners, held the on-going discussions. These findings raise questions regarding the extent to which the social learning potential of MOOCs is realized. Finally, three levels of participation in the assessments were identified: negligible, moderate, and extensive. This study was conducted on one MOOC. More research is required on other MOOCs, in varied disciplines, target audiences, and structures.