Abstract
The limited instructional support in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) inherently demands learners to self-regulate their learning. MOOC research shows that learners are more successful when they engage in self-regulated learning (SRL) behaviors such as planning what to study and reviewing study materials. However, many learners struggle with SRL. In this study, we examined the effect of two types of SRL prompts (i.e., questions or a combination of questions and recommendations) on SRL activities, course engagement, and performance in MOOCs. Learners either received questions supporting SRL, questions supporting SRL followed by recommendations, or neither questions supporting SRL nor recommendations. Log data was used to examine learners’ behavior in the MOOCs. Results showed the SRL prompts, in general, are effective in enhancing SRL-related activities and course engagement. However, the effectiveness of the SRL prompts may be influenced by the complexity of the MOOCs. The current study adds to the field of SRL by examining prompting as an approach to enhance SRL in MOOCs.
Highlights
Learners in the self-regulated learning (SRL)-QR condition received both prompts and recommendations, and were they stimulated to act in a self-regulated manner by the prompts (Sitzmann & Ely, 2010), the rec ommendations helped to inform them of possible SRL activities that can be done to enhance their learning (Jansen et al, 2020). Given this additional guidance in the SRL-QR condition, we hypothesized that learners in the SRL-QR condition would engage in the most number of SRL-related activities as measured by the log data, followed by learners in the SRL-Q condition, and learners in the control condition (Hypothesis 1A to 1D)
Post hoc tests for the proportion items completed on time showed that there was a significant difference between the control and SRL-QR conditions but not between the control and SRL-Q conditions and not between the SRL-Q and SRL-QR conditions
The results suggest that learners in the SRL-QR condition, but not the SRL-Q condition, completed a greater propor tion items on time and revisited a greater proportion of completed course activities than active learners in the control condition
Summary
Participants Data was collected over three cohorts of learners enrolled in the IM. Participants As in the previous two experiments, data was collected over three cohorts of learners enrolled in the EC MOOC. Being one of the more popular MOOCs offered at the university, there were a total of 4493 learners who enrolled during the study period and they were randomly assigned to one of the three conditions (i.e., control, SRL-Q, SRL-QR). About half of the enrolees (51% in control, 50% in SRL-Q, and 54.2% in SRL-QR) went on to access at least one course activity (i.e., active learners). Within the SRL-Q and SRL-QR conditions, approximately half of the active learners (52.9% in SRL-Q and 48.8% in SRL-QR) watched at least one SRL-prompt video (i.e., SRL-prompt viewers)
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