Comparing learner community behavior in multiple presentations of a Massive Open Online Course

Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) can create large scale communities of learners who collaborate, interact and discuss learning materials and activities. MOOCs are often delivered multiple times with similar content to different cohorts of learners. However, research into the differences of learner communication, behavior and expectation between multiple presentations is scarce. This is of importance to MOOC developers, academics and moderators, as an understanding of these differences could have an impact on content provision, community moderation, course delivery, learner interactions, and completion rates. This case study of two presentations of a Futurelearn History MOOC examined learner activity data, and pre and post course learner survey results (n=10,449). Differences in learner survival rates, behavior, expectation, recruitment, experience of online learning, demographic makeup, reasons for non-completion, and comment activity were identified. These results form a preliminary exploration of learner community differences between multiple MOOC presentations that guide future analyses by identifying areas of comparative interest and importance.