A Comparative Study of Indian Learners in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCS)

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JANESH SANZGIRI (THE OPEN UNIVERSITY, UK) @JANESHSANZGIRI SUPERVISORS: PROF. MARTIN WELLER, DR. LEIGH-ANNE PERRYMAN, DR. ROBERT FARROW omparative Study Of Indian Learners I sive Open Online Courses(MOOCS)

Transcript of A Comparative Study of Indian Learners in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCS)

Page 1: A Comparative Study of Indian Learners in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCS)

JANESH SANZGIRI (THE OPEN UNIVERSITY, UK) @JANESHSANZGIRI

SUPERVISORS: PROF. MARTIN WELLER, DR. LEIGH-ANNE PERRYMAN, DR. ROBERT FARROW

A Comparative Study Of Indian Learners InMassive Open Online Courses(MOOCS)

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PRESENTATION OUTLINE

• MOOCs as Open Education

• The Indian Context – MOOCs in India

• Research Questions

• Research Design

• Survey Findings

• Emerging themes from Interviews

• The PhD process so far

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MOOCS AS OPEN EDUCATION

• The original conception of MOOCs vs Commercial MOOC providers

• The original promises of Commercial MOOC providers

• The constant moves away from Openness

• Research into MOOCs - Openness forgotten?

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THE INDIAN CONTEXT – MOOCS IN INDIA

• Significant enrolments from Indians on the three major US MOOC platforms (Coursera, edX, Udacity)

• Between 10-15% of all total enrolments (Bhattacharyya 2013)

• Largest cohort of learners outside of the US

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THE NEED FOR RESEARCH

• Research into non-Western MOOC users currently lacking

• According to Veletsianos and Sheperdson (2016), only 8% of empirical MOOC research came out of Asia – 5.4% from China, and less than 1% from India.

• There is an increasing use of learning analytics and log-data to try and make sense of learning in MOOCs

• There is a need for more studies into the learner experience, and the learner voice, to try and make sense of some of the findings from the quantitative study.

• Most importantly, there is a need to explore the ways in which MOOCs are currently being used my learners in the developing world.

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RESEARCH QUESTION

• What are the demographics, motivations and experiences of Indian learners in Massive Open Online Courses?

• What, if any, are the differences in the demographics, motivations and experiences of Indian learners between global and local MOOC platforms?

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NPTEL

National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning – Started as an OER repository along the lines of MIT-OCW

922 Courses, mostly in Engineering and Technology – All under Open License

NPTEL MOOCs - 225 Courses

20% of degree credits can be taken through MOOCs

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FUTURELEARN

UK-based MOOC platform with 99 international university and institutional partners

Focus on social learning

Fewer enrolments compared to Coursera, edX – Greater engagement

Indian Learners average 3% of total cohort

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RESEARCH DESIGN

• THREE STAGE STUDY

• Stage 1: Pilot interviews with eight participants

• Stage 2: Survey on learner demographics, motivations, and experiences (n=2649)

• Stage 3: Semi-structured interviews with Indian learners on global MOOC platform (FutureLearn) and Indian MOOC platform (NPTEL) (n=30)

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SURVEY FINDINGS - RESPONSES

Site Number of Responses

NPTEL 2009

FutureLearn 364

Other 276

Total 2649

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DEMOGRAPHICS - GENDER

Male

Female

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

NPTEL (in %)

NPTEL (in %)

Male

Female

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

FutureLearn (in %)

FutureLearn (in %)

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DEMOGRAPHICS - AGE

>65

56-65

46-55

36-45

26-35

18-25

<18

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

NPTEL (% Responses)

% Responses

>65

56-65

46-55

36-45

26-35

18-25

<18

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

FutureLearn (% Responses)

FutureLearn (% Responses)

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DEMOGRAPHICS – EDUCATION LEVEL

PhD

Post-Graduate Degree

Under-Graduate Degree

College/Vocational Diploma

High School Certificate

Secondary School Certificate

None

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

NPTEL(% Responses)

NPTEL(% Responses)

PhD

Post-Graduate Degree

Under-Graduate Degree

College/Vocational Diploma

High School Certificate

Secondary School Certificate

None

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

FutureLearn(% Responses)

FutureLearn(% Responses)

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DEMOGRAPHICS – EMPLOYMENT LEVELS

Retired

Self-Employed

Full-Time Employed

Part-Time Employed

Student

Unemployed

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

Chart Title

Series2 NPTEL(% Responses)

Retired

Self-Employed

Full-Time Employed

Part-Time Employed

Student

Unemployed

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

FutureLearn(% Responses)

FutureLearn(% Responses)

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MOTIVATION

• PCA Generated Two Scales of Extrinsic Motivation and Leisure

• The non-parametric Mann-Whitney U-Test was used to compare the means of the two scales.

• NPTEL users statistically significantly more likely to take MOOCs for Extrinsic Motivators (Professional Development, Improving Job/Education Prospects etc.) (U=246496.5, p=0.05) while FutureLearn users were statistically significantly more likely to take MOOCs for leisure purposes (U=207139.5, p=0.05).

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CHALLENGES

• PCA Generated two Scales of Challenges, broadly defined as “Technical Challenges” and “Course Difficulty related Challenges”.

• Mann-Whitney U-Test was used to compare the non-parametric means of the scales generated.

• NPTEL participants were statistically significantly more likely to face Technical challenges (U=193748.500, p=0.05) and find the courses tougher (U=197454, p=0.05) than FutureLearn participants.

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EXPERIENCES

• PCA Generated 3 Scales from 16 Likert-items on learners’ experiences with MOOCs

• Scales are broadly defined by items related to “Openness”, “Lack of Interest in Interaction” and “Usability”

• Interestingly, the Mann-Whitney U Tests on the three Experience scales found NO statistically significant difference in the responses of NPTEL and FutureLearn participants. Why could this be?

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EMERGING THEMES FROM INTERVIEWS

• Low quality of local instruction – MOOCs as a ‘quality’ supplement to poor educational standards.

• Re-evaluate how learners engage with MOOCs – Technical challenges in India – Downloading course content – Implications for Research?

• FutureLearn participants more likely to be life-long learners – similar to existing accounts from MOOC learner literature

• Learners using FutureLearn courses to overcome societal norms.

• When given a choice, learners prefer local to global MOOC content.

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THE PHD PROCESS SO FAR

• The Challenge of Access to Data – Especially in MOOC Research

• The importance of presenting at every opportunity, and making connections

• The Conundrum of Methodology – Research Questions – and Data

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THANK YOU!A Comparative of Indian Learners in Massive Open Online Courses

Janesh Sanzgiri

Supervisors: Professor Martin Weller, Dr. Robert Farrow, Dr. Leigh-Anne Perryman

Contact: [email protected]

Twitter: @janeshsanzgiri