Large-group (n > 8) co-located collaboration has not been adequately studied because it demands different conceptual framings than those used to study small-group collaboration, while also posing pragmatic constraints on data collection. Working within these pragmatic constraints, we use video data to devise an indicator of the current…

The large-scale and granular interaction data collected in online learning platforms such as massive open online courses (MOOCs) provide unique opportunities to better understand individuals' learning processes and could facilitate the design of personalized and more effective support mechanisms for learners. In this paper, we present two…

Due to the fundamental differences between traditional education and massive open online courses (MOOCs), and because of the ever-increasing popularity of the latter, more research is needed to understand current and future trends in MOOCs. Although research in the field has grown rapidly in recent years, one of the main challenges facing…

A common use of technology in higher education is the provision of online course materials, invoking an investigation of the ways in which students engage with online course content, and how their participation changes over time. This is particularly necessary in the context of high absenteeism from lectures, where online access may be the only…

To further develop rich and expressive ways of modelling roles of contributors in discussion forums of online courses, particularly in MOOCs, networks of forum users are analyzed based on the relations of information-giving and information-seeking. Specific connection patterns that appear in the information exchange networks of forum users are…

In just a short period, social media have altered many aspects of our daily lives, from how we form and maintain social relationships to how we discover, access, and share information online. Now social media are also affecting how we teach and learn. In this paper, we discuss methods that can help researchers and educators evaluate and understand…

MOOCs attract a large number of learners with largely unknown diversity in terms of motivation, ability, and goals. To understand more about learners in highly technical engineering MOOCs, this study investigates patterns of learners' (n = 337) behaviour and performance in the Nanophotonic Modelling MOOC, offered through nanoHUB-U. The authors…

The paper describes empirical investigations of how participants in a MOOC learn, and the implications for MOOC design. A learner capability to generate higher order learning in MOOCs--called crowd-sourced learning (C-SL) capability--was defined from learning science literature. The capability comprised a complex yet interrelated array of…