How Learners Confront Challenges in Massive Open Online Courses: A Qualitative Investigation

• In Event: Learning Beyond the Platform: Qualitative Studies in Massive Open Online Courses

Abstract

Objectives

We draw on interviews with 88 students from four HarvardX courses to investigate how students define challenging experiences/elements within MOOCs and how they then overcome those challenges. Findings enrich nascent scholarly understanding of MOOC learner experiences, highlight dimensions of learning that are not captured by tracking logs, and provide new approaches that MOOC developers can take in improving student learning experiences.

Theoretical framework

Extensive literature describes the challenges faced and self-remediation approaches taken by distance learners (Muilenburg & Berge, 2005), and this study extends this line of inquiry into MOOCs. In particular, we used phenomenological inquiry (van Manen 2001) in order to examine, understand, interpret, and describe MOOC learner challenges.

Data and Methods

Registrants in four different HarvardX courses were invited, through a pre-course survey, to participate in interviews. Of these, 88 students meeting a variety of criteria (high/low engagement, intending to complete and not intending to complete) participated in a 30-60 minute interview. One part of the protocol specifically asked students to reflect on challenging experiences that they had while taking MOOCs and to describe how they overcame those challenges.

These interviews were analyzed as follows: First, researchers read the data set to gain a holistic understanding of the experience. Next, they read the data multiple times to identify codes and meaning units relevant to the experience. Meaning units were then compiled into themes to capture the essence of the experience

Results

Four themes highlight strategies that students use to overcome challenges that are not well-represented, or represented at all by log data. First, when students face content challenges they make extensive use of resources outside the course platforms, such as reference books or Wikipedia pages and other sites. Second, students take notes during lectures or other parts of the learning experience, and students return to these notes for clarifications while working on homework, problem sets or exams. Note-taking takes place in both digital (e.g., in Evernote) and physical (e.g., on paper) form. Third, students draw on their wider social network, either engaging in communities on social media or asking friends/colleagues for help by phone or in person. Finally, students face time constraints, and address this issue by rearranging their schedules, prioritizing activities, and abandoning courses.

Significance

Student learning experiences in MOOCs extend far beyond the platform. Results reveal that crucial learning behaviors are not recorded by tracking log data. Researchers, course designers, and MOOC platform developers need to be attuned to these practices. For researchers, these interviews reveal gaps in log data that need to be accounted for, and perhaps instrumented in future versions of MOOC platforms. For course designers and platform developers, our findings reveal learning practices that can be coached, nurtured, shared and supported.


Muilenburg, L. Y., & Berge, Z. L. (2005). Student barriers to online learning: A factor analytic study. Distance Education, 26(1), 29-48.

van Manen, M. (2001). Researching lived experience. London, Ontario: The Althouse Press.

Authors

• George Veletsianos, Royal Roads University

• Laura Anne Pasquini, University of North Texas

• Bonnie E. Stewart, University of Prince Edward Island

• Justin Fire Reich, Massachusetts Institute of Technology