Comments on: Support within MOOCs https://t.co/RuTswuOJ2Z via @bennyhennytweet #mscedc #digitalethnography

By: bhenderson

bhenderson — Wed, 04 Mar 2015 15:25:22 +0000

Good question Nick, I wonder how often these sort ‘incidents’ occur during MOOCs and what is the tutors role? Facilitator, moderator, educator or all 3? To what level the moderation occurs depends on the size of the course and the different discussion tools available. If a participant is receiving abuse via PM then is this punishable within a MOOC environment (exclusion or a warning for example)?

Ben

By: bhenderson

bhenderson — Wed, 04 Mar 2015 15:19:42 +0000

Thanks for the comment Miles. ‘Fellowship’ is a nice way to describe these sort of communities.

By: njenkins

njenkins — Tue, 03 Mar 2015 20:02:20 +0000

Hi Ben
I agree this is a really interesting artefact, and the whole issue of peer support in MOOCs is fascinating. Makes me wonder what if any provision is there for learners who experience ‘flaming’ and other negative interactions – which is entirely possible given the numbers of participants involved. Do MOOC tutors have some duty of care to MOOC participants?
All the best
Nick

By: mprowse

mprowse — Tue, 03 Mar 2015 08:15:47 +0000

Very late comment here Ben, but both on topic of peer support and fellowship, this was a characteristic of my MOOC (National Film and Television School), interestingly, this came in the form of encouragement to join an external group (to the MOOC) the purpose of which was to make a group film. there was also clear evidence of Kozinets roles within this group dynamic within my study too. Realy enjoyed your artefact, thanks.

By: bhenderson

bhenderson — Sun, 01 Mar 2015 21:13:41 +0000

Hi PJ, I didnt ask for approval from the MOOC moderators, I basically fired a link to a short Google Doc questionaire and hoped for the best. Even if it got taken down I could have focused my attention on gatekeeping within MOOCs and changed the original ethnography focus.

Great ethnography by the way, really intriguing and artsy in the format. As a lover of foreign film, it was great to see some new movies to put on my ‘to see’ list.

I think you totally right in suggesting ‘participants may be looking for more than just course content from the MOOC’, a sense of camaraderie and ‘fellowship’ its just as important as the content for that group of participants

Ben

By: bhenderson

bhenderson — Sun, 01 Mar 2015 21:06:02 +0000

Hi Em, I didnt find any instances of participants communicating (or iniitiating conversation) outside the MOOC. Its interesting that on during your MOOC experience participants created their own sub-communities. I wonder whether this was due to the convenience of another platform as the current MOOC discussion forum was insuffienct.

By: PJ

PJ — Sun, 01 Mar 2015 06:38:49 +0000

Ben, good on you for being so ‘bold’ in your ethnographic approach as to distribute a questionnaire to MOOC participants early in the course and to actually get some substantive responses. I did not see how
/ if you got explicit permission from the organizers to do so. I would be interested how the organizers responded, if you did. Or, conversely, if you shared your interim results with them. It would be interesting to follow up later in the course to see how opinions changed over the duration of the course.

I think our ethnographic interests for this project were closely similar. Although, I initially started out in a different direction looking at previous ‘expertise,’ I observed a level of ‘sociality’ in my ScanFilmTV MOOC; that I think you label as ‘craving’ for support and empathy. I distinguish between ‘sociality’ as an interest in forming and belonging to a community, from ‘sociability’ which is more like instances of sociable behavior. In my study, this behavior was evident by one discussion forum poster who expressed sympathy to Danish friends in the MOOC and the Univ of Copenhagen organizers for the recent shootings in Copenhagen. This expression of sympathy had nothing to do with the course content, but
this became a ‘rallying point’ and earned the participant position as a ‘top forum poster.’ I think our cursory research corroborates the proposition that MOOC participants may be looking for more than just course content from the MOOC; e.g., seeking fellowship with ‘kindred spirits’ with similar interests. Cheers, PJ

By: Em

Em — Sun, 01 Mar 2015 02:09:26 +0000

Hi Ben,

Great piece of work here. I encountered some similar aspects within my MOOC as well. Lack of direction for participants to formulate discussion or offer support. Did you find any instances of participants trying to meet up with each other outside of the MOOC? Many of the participants in my group have tried to venture out to other virtual spaces.

By: bhenderson

bhenderson — Sat, 28 Feb 2015 20:07:01 +0000

Hi Jeremy, thanks for the comments.

The questionaire was anonyous so Im unsure of who contributed, however the responses I did receive were quite useful even though I would have hoped to received a few more.

There are certainly traits of Kozinets community roles within the discussion forums including the ‘newbie who has strong communal ties’ and the mingler.

MOOCs maybe dry without these sort of interactions, however, I have also been in traditional classrooms which have also been dry and silent, it possibly relies on the good conversation flow and a shared interest between participants. So maybe the question is more about community interactions in general rather than the medium they are established within.

By: bhenderson

bhenderson — Sat, 28 Feb 2015 19:54:09 +0000

Hi Ed, it think there was a strong ‘geeking’ culture in the MOOC and it seemed the more expereinced participants were more than willing to share their knowledge. I also thought the participant who researched the ‘unconfident’ participant was a lovely act.