April 19, 2015
Recent research on MOOC learner activity was presented at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) conference held in Chicago. This study extends earlier analyses of aggregated data from the University of Toronto MOOCs. The title and abstract for the project are as follows:
How Do MOOC Learners’ Intentions Relate to Their Behaviors and Overall Outcomes
The match between learner’s intentions and their learning behaviours is missing from the majority of discussion on learning outcomes in MOOCs. The present study tackles this challenge by investigating the relationship among intentions, behaviours and outcomes in six Coursera MOOCs. Grounded in a rich MOOC dataset that included pre-course surveys, learners’ click logs, and course completion data, we integrated statistical analysis and data mining techniques to address research questions from different angles. Results from cross tabulation and a chi-square test of independence implied an impact of learning intentions on behaviors. Frequent Sequence Mining showed promise in detecting different frequent sequences in different learner groups defined by intents and outcomes. The research is the result of collaboration among the following team members:
• Carol Rolheiser: Principle Investigator, OISE – University of Toronto
• Bodong Chen: University of Minnesota
• Stian Haklev: Researcher – Online Learning Strategies, University of Toronto
• Laurie Harrison: Director, Online Learning Strategies, University of Toronto
• Hedieh Najafi: Researcher – OISE – University of Toronto
