TY - GEN
T1 - The civic mission of MOOCs
T2 - 3rd Annual ACM Conference on Learning at Scale, L@S 2016
AU - Reich, Justin
AU - Stewart, Brandon Michael
AU - Mavon, Kimia
AU - Tingley, Dustin
PY - 2016/4/25
Y1 - 2016/4/25
N2 - In this study, we develop methods for computationally measuring the degree to which students engage in MOOC forums with other students holding different political beliefs. We examine a case study of a single MOOC about education policy, Saving Schools, where we obtain measures of student education policy preferences that correlate with political ideology. Contrary to assertions that online spaces often become echo chambers or ideological silos, we find that students in this case hold diverse political beliefs, participate equitably in forum discussions, directly engage (through replies and upvotes) with students holding opposing beliefs, and converge on a shared language rather than talking past one another. Research that focuses on the civic mission of MOOCs helps ensure that open online learning engages the same breadth of purposes that higher education aspires to serve.
AB - In this study, we develop methods for computationally measuring the degree to which students engage in MOOC forums with other students holding different political beliefs. We examine a case study of a single MOOC about education policy, Saving Schools, where we obtain measures of student education policy preferences that correlate with political ideology. Contrary to assertions that online spaces often become echo chambers or ideological silos, we find that students in this case hold diverse political beliefs, participate equitably in forum discussions, directly engage (through replies and upvotes) with students holding opposing beliefs, and converge on a shared language rather than talking past one another. Research that focuses on the civic mission of MOOCs helps ensure that open online learning engages the same breadth of purposes that higher education aspires to serve.
KW - Civic education
KW - Discourse
KW - MOOCs
KW - Political ideology
KW - Structural topic model
KW - Text analysis
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84969932175&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84969932175&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1145/2876034.2876045
DO - 10.1145/2876034.2876045
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84969932175
T3 - L@S 2016 - Proceedings of the 3rd 2016 ACM Conference on Learning at Scale
SP - 1
EP - 10
BT - L@S 2016 - Proceedings of the 3rd 2016 ACM Conference on Learning at Scale
PB - Association for Computing Machinery, Inc
Y2 - 25 April 2016 through 26 April 2016
ER -