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Resource Usage in Online Courses: Analyzing Learner’s Active and Passive Participation Patterns
(2015)
The paper analyzes the experience with an open university course for a very heterogeneous target group in which MOOC-like materials and activities were used. The course was conducted in a specifically prepared and extended Moodle environment. The analysis involves questionnaires as well as performance data that reflect the resource access on the learning platform. A special focus is put on the participants’ acceptance and usage of student-generated versus teacher-provided learning content. Network analysis techniques have been used to identify "interest clusters" of students around certain resources.
Massive open online courses (MOOCs) become more and more popular. These course formats are typically highly flexible and attract large groups of learners from heterogeneous backgrounds. So far research in this area concentrating on success factors for low dropout rates and high satisfaction on the side of the learners in MOOCs is scarce. In this chapter, we describe experiences of a large online course offered to students of two large German universities. Based on theory drawn from a social psychological perspective on the relevance of social interaction for learning, we describe the background, structure, and specific elements of the MOOC-like course. We outline evaluation results of both small group collaboration (in workshops) and mass interaction (via forum and wiki usage) as well as results of the general evaluation of the overall course concept. We argue that the specific mixture of small and large group interaction as well as teacher- and learner-generated content is especially promising with regard to satisfaction, learning outcomes, and course completion rates.