Article,
Engaged learning in MOOCs: a study using the UK Engagement Survey
(2015)
Abstract
MOOCs – massive open online courses – arrived in UK higher education in 2013 with
the launch of ‘FutureLearn’,1
an international collaboration of universities offering access
through one dedicated platform. David Willetts, then Universities’ and Science Minister,
heralded MOOCs as ‘the opportunity to widen access to our world class universities
and to meet the global demand for higher education’.2
The University of Southampton
developed two new MOOCs, Web Science: how the web is changing the world and Exploring
our Oceans, for delivery through the FutureLearn initiative. Both ran for the first time in
2013 and early 2014. This research, commissioned by the Higher Education Academy
(HEA), used the UK Engagement Survey (UKES 20143
) to research the two MOOCs
with the aim of exploring the type and degree of engagement reported by MOOC
learners. The following questions were posed:
• How do MOOC learners report engagement in learning, using the UKES as a
framework for analysis?
• Do they describe being more or less engaged in their learning when compared with
those in higher education, or exhibit different patterns overall?
• Are particular patterns, similarities or differences in engagement evident when
learner characteristics are analysed?
Context
MOOC development is rapid; high numbers of people are registering, and universities
continue to invest resources in their development. This is in a context of a significant
fall in part-time and mature learners, and changes to flexible, part-time opportunities in
higher education in the UK. Critiques of MOOCs centre on the high recruitment / low
follow-through phenomenon, the meaningfulness and worth of assessment, and forms of
accreditation. For some courses, FutureLearn offers either a Statement of Participation or
a Statement of Attainment by Exam, a ‘real world exam at a local test centre’ both of which
learners can choose to pay for. In addition and in the planning is a free on-screen record
of learning as proof of achievement.4
Method and findings
In the project reported here, Southampton’s MOOC learners were invited to complete
the UKES 2014, with its eight constructs: higher-order learning; course challenge;
collaborative learning; academic integration; reflective and integrative learning; time
spent; skills development; and engagement with research.
A third of those completing activities and tests six weeks into the MOOCs completed
the survey, in total just under a thousand people. Just under half of participants also
offered demographic data, including age range, gender, current occupational status,
disability, area of employment, educational attainment and country of residence.
This showed participants’ characteristics to be broadly similar to those completing
FutureLearn’s more generic satisfaction survey, which in turn reflected the reported
MOOC learner population. A largely degree-educated cohort showed a skew towards
the older age bands. Approximately one fifth were retired and about half were in
full or part-time work. Including the UK, participants were from 38 countries from all
parts of the world.
