The MOOC Course Design Study’s Findings
Researchers examined an arts course, a qualitative course in creativity, and a quantitative course in programming, interviewing a total of 16 professors and students. They noted a vastly higher amount of collaboration within the Facebook groups related to the MOOCs than within the MOOCs themselves.
Students prefer Facebook, the researchers concluded, because they want a real community, want the convenience of something they connect to regularly, believe Facebook has better collaboration tools, and like the instructor/teaching assistant involvement on Facebook.
“In previous studies we found that the real challenge for MOOC developers and instructors is trying to keep students engaged and enrolled in the course,” said Saijing Zheng, a former doctoral student at Penn State and currently a research scientist at Microsoft, in a press release. “In this study, we are finding that social media tools may be one way to keep students engaged in a MOOC.”
Zheng also said around 90 percent of MOOC students who enroll in a course will leave it after two weeks.
The Facebook groups also offer the advantage of revealing students’ true identities, whereas students can make up different names when using MOOC message boards and forums.
Facebook also extends the conversation around course material happenings before and after the course is active, and students can connect with course instructors in various ways, according to the paper.
Zheng co-authored the paper with Mary Beth Rosson, associate dean of information sciences and technology and John M. Carroll, Distinguished Professor of Information Sciences and Technology, both of Penn State, and Kyungsik Han, research scientist, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the press release notes.
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