Large scale analytics of global and regional MOOC providers: Differences in learners’ demographics, preferences, and perceptions
Entity
UAM. Departamento de Ingeniería InformáticaPublisher
ElsevierDate
2022-01-07Citation
10.1016/j.compedu.2021.104426
Computers & Education 180 (2022): 104426
ISSN
0360-1315 (print); 1873-782X (online)DOI
10.1016/j.compedu.2021.104426Funded by
We would like to thank support from the MIT-SPAIN program sponsored by “la Caixa” Foundation SEED FUND. Jos´ e A. Ruip´ erez- Valiente acknowledges support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the Juan de la Cierva Incorporaci´ on program (IJC2020-044852-I). Xitong Li acknowledges funding support from the French National Research Agency (ANR) [Grants ANR AAPG iMOOC-18-CE28-0020-01 and Investissements d’Avenir LabEx Ecodec Grant ANR-11-LABX-0047].Project
Gobierno de España. IJC2020-044852-IEditor's Version
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2021.104426Subjects
Learning analytics; Educational data mining; Massive open online courses; Large scale analytics; Cultural factors; Equity; Distance learning; InformáticaRights
© 2022 The Authors.Esta obra está bajo una licencia de Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial-SinObraDerivada 4.0 Internacional.
Abstract
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) remarkably attracted global media attention, but the spotlight has been concentrated on a handful of English-language providers. While Coursera, edX, Udacity, and FutureLearn received most of the attention and scrutiny, an entirely new ecosystem of local MOOC providers was growing in parallel. This ecosystem is harder to study than the major players: they are spread around the world, have less staff devoted to maintaining research data, and operate in multiple languages with university and corporate regional partners. To better understand how online learning opportunities are expanding through this regional MOOC ecosystem, we created a research partnership among 15 different MOOC providers from nine countries. We gathered data from over eight million learners in six thousand MOOCs, and we conducted a large-scale survey with more than 10 thousand participants. From our analysis, we argue that these regional providers may be better positioned to meet the goals of expanding access to higher education in their regions than the better-known global providers. To make this claim we highlight three trends: first, regional providers attract a larger local population with more inclusive demographic profiles; second, students predominantly choose their courses based on topical interest, and regional providers do a better job at catering to those needs; and third, many students feel more at ease learning from institutions they already know and have references from. Our work raises the importance of local education in the global MOOC ecosystem, while calling for additional research and conversations across the diversity of MOOC providers.
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Google Scholar:Ruipérez Valiente, José A.
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Staubitzc, Thomas
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Jenner, Matt
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Halawa, Sherif
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Zhang, Jiayin
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Despujol, Ignacio
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Maldonado Mahauad, Jorge
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Montoro Manrique, Germán
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Peffer, Melanie
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Rohloff, Tobias
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Lane, Jenny
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Turro, Carlos
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Li, Xitong
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Pérez Sanagustín, Mar
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Reich, Justin
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