Watching MOOCs together: investigating co-located MOOC study groups

Abstract

Research suggests that massive open online course (MOOC) students prefer to study in groups, and that social facilitation within the study groups may render the learning of difficult concepts a pleasing experience. We report on a longitudinal study that investigates how co-located study groups watch and study MOOC videos together. The study was conducted with on-campus flipped classroom students. Our subjects reported an overall high satisfaction with the study group style. The research reveals that students like to stay synchronized in the group while watching MOOC videos. However, they have to find a balance between synchronization, video interaction, and the amount of conversation. Watching MOOCs on a shared display addresses the need of synchronicity, and the distribution of control can increase the video interactivities.

Keywords:

• MOOC
• collaborative video watching
• study groups
• video navigation pattern

Acknowledgments

This research has been sponsored by the ProDoc SNF Grant project PDFMP1_135108, and IM2 Grant IM2.III.IP2.1. We would like to thank all the participants (students, teachers, and teaching assistants) for their help and enthusiasm.