The Civic Mission of MOOCs: Engagement across Political Differences in Online Forums
Name
nihms-969444.pdf
Description
Accepted version
Size
1.96 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
44ec85e5fac1ae54195f05f12daf9c8a
Author(s)
Reich, Justin
Date Issued
December 2018
Journal
International journal of artificial intelligence in education
Publisher
Springer Nature
Citation
Yeomans, Michael et al. “The Civic Mission of MOOCs: Engagement across Political Differences in Online Forums.” International journal of artificial intelligence in education, vol. 28, no. 4, 2018, pp. 553-589 © 2018 The Author(s)
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Massive open online courses (MOOCs) attract diverse student bodies, and course forums could potentially be an opportunity for students with different political beliefs to engage with one another. We test whether this engagement actually takes place in two politically-themed MOOCs, on education policy and American government. We collect measures of students’ political ideology, and then observe student behavior in the course discussion boards. Contrary to the common expectation that online spaces often become echo chambers or ideological silos, we find that students in these two political courses 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 talk-ing 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.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Program in Comparative Media Studies/Writing
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1007/S40593-017-0161-0
