Mining opinions on LMOOCs: Sentiment and content analyses of Chinese students’ comments in discussion forums

Abstract

The rapid rise of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) has attracted intense discussion on their benefits to education transformation and related challenges. Language MOOCs (LMOOCs) as an emerging field requires more empirical attention, particularly in terms of learners' perceptions and needs regarding LMOOC learning. This study aimed to explore LMOOC students' sentiments and opinions through sentiment analysis and content analysis of their comments posted in the discussion forums of 60 LMOOCs and examine the correlation between student sentiment and course rating. The results indicated that the majority of the comments were positive, and student sentiment was positively correlated with course rating. Five major themes that encapsulated students' opinions about LMOOCs and their experiences in LMOOC learning were identified: attitudes towards the LMOOCs, comments on the LMOOCs, evaluations of LMOOC instruction and instructors, learning outcomes, and suggestions. To shed light on LMOOC development, the LMOOC learners’ concerns and suggestions were particularly examined, and tactics possibly used by learners to express euphemistically or circumvent negative feedback were speculated. Implications for LMOOC instructors and developers and future research are finally presented.