Board # 32 : NSF PRIME Project: Contextualized Evaluation of Advanced STEM MOOCs

While it is well-known that massive open online courses (MOOCs) attract large numbers of learners with few completing them, less is known about how to evaluate MOOCs and what metrics are appropriate in open online educational environments. The openness of the MOOC environment presents major challenges to understanding how or what type of learning is occurring and whether the pedagogies used are particularly effective. Furthermore, little is known about the many MOOC users and what they hope to gain, and whether they actually achieve their learning goals. The primary research goal of this NSF-funded project is to provide theoretical foundations for evaluation of online learning environments and increase the capacity for science, engineering, technology, and mathematics (STEM) MOOC evaluation and research. This project focuses on the following research questions: (1) What constructs contribute to learners’ behavior in advanced STEM MOOCs? (2) What stakeholder needs inform their decisions in offering and designing advanced STEM MOOCs? and (3) What is a context sensitive, generalizable framework of evaluation for advanced STEM MOOCs? To answer these research questions, we triangulate information from: stakeholder interviews, surveys of learners, and learner analytics.