Open, Online, and Blended: Transactional Interactions with MOOC Content by Learners in Three Different Course Formats

Jeffrey P Emanuel,Anne Lamb

doi:10.24059/olj.v21i2.845

Abstract

During the 2013-14 academic year, Harvard University piloted the use of MOOCs as tools for blended learning in select undergraduate and graduate residential and online courses. One of these courses, The Ancient Greek Hero, combined for—credit (Harvard College and Harvard Extension School) and open online (HarvardX) groups into a single online unit, marking the first time the same instance of a MOOC was used simultaneously by both tuition—paying, credit—seeking students and non—paying, non—credit students enrolled exclusively online. In this article, we analyze and compare the online behavior of students and participants in the three groups that simultaneously participated in The Ancient Greek Hero via the edX platform. We find that, in similar fashion to a traditional learning setting, students enrolled in all three versions of the course engaged the online content in a transactional way, spending their time and effort on activities and exercises in ways that would optimize their desired outcomes. While user behavior was diverse, HarvardX participant engagement tended to be either very deep or virtually nonexistent, while College and Extension School students displayed relatively homogenous patterns of participation, viewing most of the content but interacting mostly with that which affected their overall course grades. Ultimately, we conclude that educators who intend to utilize MOOC content in an effort to apply blended learning techniques to their classrooms should carefully consider how best to incorporate each online element into their overall pedagogical strategy, including how to incentivize interaction with those elements. Further, for MOOCs to have maximum impact, they must address multiple learner motivations and provide participants with multiple modes of interaction with the content and with their peers.

Highlights

During the 2013–14 academic year, Harvard University strategically piloted the use of massive open online courses (MOOCs) as a primary tool for the implementation of blended learning techniques in select undergraduate and graduate courses offered by Harvard College, Harvard School of Public Health, and Harvard Extension School
Some users may view all videos and engage with all of the readings and assessments, while others may do none of these things but have the same overall level of satisfaction with the learning experience (Ho, et al, 2014; Reich, et al, 2014). This blended learning pilot coincided with the second offering of the Ancient Greek Hero MOOC, so the initial iteration (CB22x, Spring 2013) serves as a baseline for comparing demographics, activity, and engagement among online learners
We examine the use of the same MOOC, CB22.1x ‘The Ancient Greek Hero’, across three different student subpopulations engaged in three different implementation formats

Summary

Introduction

During the 2013–14 academic year, Harvard University strategically piloted the use of massive open online courses (MOOCs) as a primary tool for the implementation of blended learning techniques in select undergraduate and graduate courses offered by Harvard College, Harvard School of Public Health, and Harvard Extension School. Some users may view all videos and engage with all of the readings and assessments, while others may do none of these things but have the same overall level of satisfaction with the learning experience (Ho, et al, 2014; Reich, et al, 2014) This blended learning pilot coincided with the second offering of the Ancient Greek Hero MOOC, so the initial iteration (CB22x, Spring 2013) serves as a baseline for comparing demographics, activity, and engagement among online learners. Similar to HarvardX users in general, CB22x Spring 2013 participants tended to be between 20 and 40 years of age with high levels of formal education They demonstrated diverse patterns of online behavior, over 90% engaged with less than half the content, and only 3.2% of registrants obtained a certificate of completion (though the certification rate doubles to 5.5% if registrants – those who registered but never participated – are removed from the equation) HeroesX participants engaged the online content in an asynchronous, self– paced learning experience

Findings

Background

Conclusion and Implications