Tag: MOOC

DSS-2018 Paper: Analysis of MOOC Learning Rhythms

Analysis of MOOC Learning Rhythms, Jingjing He, Chang Men, Senbiao Fang, Zhihui Du, Jason Liu, and Manli Li. In Proceedings of the 4th IEEE International Conference on Data Science and Systems (DSS-2018), June 2018. [to appear]

Abstract

With the increasing popularity of Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), a large amount of data has been collected by the MOOC platforms about the users and their interactions with the platforms. Many studies analyze the data to understand the online learning behavior of the students in order to improve the courses and services. In this paper, we propose the concept of learning rhythms. We divide the students into three groups corresponding to the level of engagement with the course. We capture the learning behavior on different learning units by observing the delay time and the study time of the students, and use them to infer the eagerness and intensity applied to studying the materials. We use the frequent tree mining technique to extract frequent patterns. The most frequently occurred subtrees are identified as typical learning rhythms. To evaluate our method, we analyze the data provided by XuetangX, an online learning platform in China, and study the learning rhythms using one of its most popular courses.

Bibtex

@inproceedings{dss18-mooc,
title = {Analysis of MOOC Learning Rhythms},
author = {Jingjing He and Chang Men and Senbiao Fang and Zhihui Du and Jason Liu and Manli Li},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 4th IEEE International Conference on Data Science and Systems (DSS-2018)},
month = {June},
year = {2018}
}

Information’17 Paper: Investigating the Statistical Distribution of Learning Coverage in MOOCs

Investigating the Statistical Distribution of Learning Coverage in MOOCs, Xiu Li, Chang Men, Zhihui Du, Jason Liu, Manli Li, and Xiaolei Zhang. Information 2017, 8(4), 153; doi:10.3390/info8040150 – 20 November 2017. [paper]

Abstract

Learners participating in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) have a wide range of backgrounds and motivations. Many MOOC learners enroll in the courses to take a brief look; only a few go through the entire content, and even fewer are able to eventually obtain a certificate. We discovered this phenomenon after having examined 92 courses on both xuetangX and edX platforms. More specifically, we found that the learning coverage in many courses—one of the metrics used to estimate the learners’ active engagement with the online courses—observes a Zipf distribution. We apply the maximum likelihood estimation method to fit the Zipf’s law and test our hypothesis using a chi-square test. In the xuetangX dataset, the learning coverage in 53 of 76 courses fits Zipf’s law, but in all of 16 courses on the edX platform, the learning coverage rejects the Zipf’s law. The result from our study is expected to bring insight to the unique learning behavior on MOOC.

Bibtex

@Article{info8040150,
AUTHOR = {Li, Xiu and Men, Chang and Du, Zhihui and Liu, Jason and Li, Manli and Zhang, Xiaolei},
TITLE = {Investigating the Statistical Distribution of Learning Coverage in MOOCs},
JOURNAL = {Information},
VOLUME = {8},
YEAR = {2017},
NUMBER = {4},
ARTICLE NUMBER = {150},
URL = {http://www.mdpi.com/2078-2489/8/4/150},
ISSN = {2078-2489},
DOI = {10.3390/info8040150}
}

ICBDA’17 Paper: MOOC Learning Zipf Law

Zipf’s Law in MOOC Learning Behavior, Chang Men, Xiu Li, Zhihui Du, Jason Liu, Manli Li, and Xiaolei Zhang. In Proceedings of the 2nd IEEE International Conference on Big Data Analysis (ICBDA 2017), March 2017. [paper]

Abstract

Learners participating in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) have a wide range of backgrounds and motivations. Many MOOC learners sign up the courses to take a brief look; only a few go through the entire content, and even fewer are able to eventually obtain a certificate. We discovered this phenomenon after having examined 76 courses on the xuetangX platform. More specifically, we found that in many courses the learning coverage—one of the metrics used to estimate the learners’ active engagement with the online courses—observes a Zipf distribution. We apply the maximum likelihood estimation method to fit the Zipf’s law and test our hypothesis using a chi-square test. The result from our study is expected to bring insight to the unique learning behavior on MOOC and thus help improve the effectiveness of MOOC learning platforms and the design of courses.

Bibtex

@inproceedings{mooczipf,
title = {Zipf’s Law in MOOC Learning Behavior},
author = {Chang Men and Xiu Li and Zhihui Du and Jason Liu and Manli Li and Xiaolei Zhang},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2nd IEEE International Conference on Big Data Analysis (ICBDA 2017)},
month = {March},
year = {2017}
}