Multiplatform MOOC Analytics: Comparing Global and Regional Patterns in edX and Edraak

Abstract

© 2019 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). Publication rights licensed to ACM. While global massive open online course (MOOC) providers such as edX, Coursera, and FutureLearn have garnered the bulk of attention from researchers and the popular press, MOOCs are also provisioned by a series of regional providers, who are often using the Open edX platform. We leverage the data infrastructure shared by the main edX instance and one regional Open edX provider, Edraak in Jordan, to compare the experience of learners from Arab countries on both platforms. Comparing learners from Arab countries on edX to those on Edraak, the Edraak population has a more even gender balance, more learners with lower education levels, greater participation from more developing countries, higher levels of persistence and completion, and a larger total population of learners. This “apples to apples” comparison of MOOC learners is facilitated by an approach to multiplatform MOOC analytics, which employs parallel research processes to create joint aggregate datasets without sharing identifiable data across institutions. Our findings suggest that greater research attention should be paid towards regional MOOC providers, and regional providers may have an important role to play in expanding access to higher education.