Oleksandra Poquet

Exploring communities of inquiry in Massive Open Online Courses

Abstract This study presents an evaluation of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) survey instrument developed by Arbaugh et al. (2008) within the context of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). The study reports the results of a reliability analysis and exploratory factor analysis of the CoI survey instrument using the data of 1487 students from five MOOC courses. The findings confirmed the reliability and validity of the CoI survey instrument for the assessment of the key dimensions of the CoI model: teaching presence, social presence, and cognitive presence. Although the CoI survey instrument captured the same latent constructs within the MOOC context as in the Garrisons three-factor model (Garrison et al., 1999), analyses suggested a six-factor model with additional three factors as a better fit to the data. These additional factors were 1) course organization and design (a sub-component of teaching presence), 2) group affectivity (a sub-component of social presence), and 3) resolution phase of inquiry learning (a sub-component of cognitive presence). The emergence of these additional factors revealed that the discrepancies between the dynamics of the traditional online courses and MOOCs affect the student perceptions of the three CoI presences. Based on the results of our analysis, we provide an update to the famous CoI model which captures the distinctive characteristics of the CoI model within the MOOC setting. The results of the study and their implications are further discussed.

How Do We Model Learning at Scale? A Systematic Review of Research on MOOCs:

Despite a surge of empirical work on student participation in online learning environments, the causal links between the learning-related factors and processes with the desired learning outcomes remain unexplored. This study presents a systematic literature review of approaches to model learning in Massive Open Online Courses offering an analysis of learning-related constructs used in the prediction and measurement of student engagement and learning outcome. Based on our literature review, we identify current gaps in the research, including a lack of solid frameworks to explain learning in open online setting. Finally, we put forward a novel framework suitable for open online contexts based on a well-established model of student engagement. Our model is intended to guide future work studying the association between contextual factors (i.e., demographic, classroom, and individual needs), student engagement (i.e., academic, behavioral, cognitive, and affective engagement metrics), and learning outcomes (i.e., academic, social, and affective). The proposed model affords further interstudy comparisons as well as comparative studies with more traditional education models.

Network Patterns of Direct and Indirect Reciprocity in edX MOOC Forums.

This paper proposes a set of indicators to capture the social context between regular forum posters in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Such indicators advance learning analytics research of social relations in online settings, as they enable to compare interactions in different courses. Proposed indicators were derived through exponential random graph modelling (ERGM) to the networks of regular posters in four MOOC forums. Modelling demonstrated that social context can be captured by the network patterns of reciprocity. In some MOOCs, network formation is driven by the higher propensity for direct reciprocity and lower propensity for indirect and triadic-level reciprocity. The social context in a highly moderated course was described by lower propensity for direct reciprocity and higher propensity for indirect and triadic-level reciprocity. We conclude that patterns of direct, indirect, and triadic-level reciprocity reflect variations of behaviour in knowledge exchange on MOOC forums. These three types of patterns can be theorised as dyadic information exchange, social solidarity, and gradual amplification of information flow. Re-modelling the same four MOOC networks without the staff and teaching assistants suggested that these network actors play a role in the formation of indirect and triadic-level reciprocity patterns, related to group cohesion.

Video and learning: a systematic review (2007--2017)

Video materials have become an integral part of university learning and teaching practice. While empirical research concerning the use of videos for educational purposes has increased, the literature lacks an overview of the specific effects of videos on diverse learning outcomes. To address such a gap, this paper presents preliminary results of a large-scale systematic review of peer-reviewed empirical studies published from 2007-2017. The study synthesizes the trends observed through the analysis of 178 papers selected from the screening of 2531 abstracts. The findings summarize the effects of manipulating video presentation, content and tasks on learning outcomes, such as recall, transfer, academic achievement, among others. The study points out the gap between large-scale analysis of fine-grained data on video interaction and experimental findings reliant on established psychological instruments. Narrowing this gap is suggested as the future direction for the research on video-based learning.

Are MOOC forums changing

There has been a growing trend in higher education towards increased use and adoption of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Despite this interest in learning at scale, limited work has compared MOOC activity across subsequent course offerings. In this study, we explore forum activity in ten iterations of the same MOOC. Our results suggest that participation in MOOC forums has changed over the past four years of delivery. First, overall participation in MOOC forums have decreased. Second, in later iterations cohorts of more committed forum users start to resemble formal online courses in size (67>n>36). However, despite the smaller groups of learners that should find it easier to form connections with one another, our analysis did not reveal the expected increase in the quality of social activity. Instead, MOOC forums evolved into smaller on-task question and answer (Q&A) spaces, not capitalizing on the opportunities for social learning. We discuss practical and research implications of such changes.

Rethinking learning analytics adoption through complexity leadership theory

Despite strong interest in learning analytics (LA), adoption at a large-scale organizational level continues to be problematic. This may in part be due to the lack of acknowledgement of existing conceptual LA models to operationalize how key adoption dimensions interact to inform the realities of the implementation process. This paper proposes the framing of LA adoption in complexity leadership theory (CLT) to study the overarching system dynamics. The framing is empirically validated in a study analysing interviews with senior staff in Australian universities (n=32). The results were coded for several adoption dimensions including leadership, governance, staff development, and culture. The coded data were then analysed with latent class analysis. The results identified two classes of universities that either i) followed an instrumental approach to adoption - typically top-down leadership, large scale project with high technology focus yet demonstrating limited staff uptake; or ii) were characterized as emergent innovators - bottom up, strong consultation process, but with subsequent challenges in communicating and scaling up innovations. The results suggest there is a need to broaden the focus of research in LA adoption models to move on from small-scale course/program levels to a more holistic and complex organizational level.

Increasing Response Rates to Email Surveys in MOOCs

Email is an important and widely used communication medium. However, email is increasingly unreliable as people become unlikely to respond to the growing influx of information they receive. Low response rate to email becomes a problem in situations where closing the feedback loop is critical, such as in education, marketing or research. To investigate ways of increasing email response rate, we designed experiments that manipulated the textual elements of the emails. We conducted experiments in a MOOC setting, with email surveys sent out to over 3,000 learners. The emails were sent to elicit responses as to why learners were not engaging with the course. We found that response rates were significantly increased by varying how closely emails were framed as pertaining to a learners personal situation, such as by changing introductory message, and the format in which links to a survey were presented. Our results yield useful implications to educational and marketing context.

Understanding the relationship between technology use and cognitive presence in MOOCs

In this poster, we present the results of the study which examined the relationship between student differences in their use of the available technology and their perceived levels of cognitive presence within the MOOC context. The cognitive presence is a construct used to measure the level of practical inquiry in the Communities of Inquiry model. Our results revealed the existence of three clusters based on student technology use. The clusters significantly differed in terms of their levels of cognitive presence, most notably they differed on the levels of problem resolution.

Social media use for deaf and hard of hearing students in educational settings: a systematic review of literature

ABSTRACT The pedagogical benefits of the social media may be most pronounced when they impact groups of learners who are at a disadvantage in conventional face-to-face contexts. Among such disadvantaged groups are the deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) students who may experience new opportunities with the help of the social media. This paper stems from the assumption that social media can play an important role in enhancing the learning experience for DHH students. The paper presents evidence around derived from a systematic review of the literature on the use of social media by DHH students in educational settings. A comprehensive search through multiple known databases identified a dataset of 172 papers from which 11 papers met the criteria for in-depth analysis. The analysis revealed that DHH students often reported a positive impact of social media on their learning in the form of increased interaction, learning motivation, as well as support and feedback. Students also reported challenges such as privacy, time management, inappropriate content, perceived isolation and parental resistance to adoption. Besides presenting the evidence found in literature, our analysis highlights that researching the effect of social media on DHH student learning remains an under-explored area of study.