Relevance & Research Question:

While the popularity of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) is increasing, relatively low completion rates are often mentioned as key points of criticism. There is a growing body of research, however, calling for the better understanding of the heterogeneity of the learners. Working professionals as a subpopulation of MOOC participants are of special interest due to their overproportionate MOOC enrollment, MOOC potential in professional training, and limited empirical evidence in the area. This study investigates online learning behaviors and additional characteristics of nontraditional students as well as how they differ from traditional full-time students by answering the two following questions:
- Given the heterogeneity of learners, what are the main patterns of interaction with MOOC components (videos, quizzes, and readings assignments for each week)?
- What are the differences in the distribution of survey demographics, intentions for enrolling, perceived learning outcomes, forum activity, and watching styles (including types of devices used for streaming) across the indicated typologies of the engagement?

The Questionnaire Design MOOC has been offered on Coursera since July 2014. Overall, 58.141 participants have enrolled in the course.

Methods & Data:

The project uses secondary data collected by Coursera including activity logs, clickstream data, text data, assessment results as well as available survey data. First, we replicate the k-means cluster analysis as applied in Kizilcec et al. (2013). ANOVA and log linear models are then used to compare the identified groups based on learner characteristics as well as more detailed information on learners’ interactions with course elements. The analyses are undertaken separately for traditional and non-traditional students. Due to the potential non-response bias in the course surveys, learners’ behavioral data are investigated as potential covariates for non-response adjustments.

Added Value:

Although a number of authors outlined the importance of MOOCs for professional work, to the best of our knowledge, there is no investigation of engagement of working professionals when compared to tradition learners and measured as a record of learning activities on the Web.