The Civic Mission of MOOCs: Engagement across Political Differences in Online Forums
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40593_2017_161_ReferencePDF.pdf
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Author(s)
Yeomans, Michael
Mavon, Kimia
Kindel, Alex
Tingley, Dustin
Stewart, Brandon M.
Reich, Blair Justin F
Date Issued
November 2017
Journal
International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education
Publisher
Springer New York
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, Sept. 2018, pp. 553–89.
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 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. Keywords: MOOCs, Civic education, Discourse, Text analysis, Political ideology, Structural topic model
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Program in Comparative Media Studies/Writing
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1007/s40593-017-0161-0
