Bringing student backgrounds online: MOOC user demographics, site usage, and online learning.

Abstract

MOOCs gather a rich array of click-stream information from students who interact with the platform. However, without student background information, inferences do not take advantage of a deeper understanding of students ’ prior experiences, motivation, and home environment. In this poster, we investigate the predictive power of student background factors as well as student experiences with learning materials provided in the first MITx course, “Circuits and Electronics. ” We focus on a group of survey completers who were given background questions, and we use multiple regression methods to investigate the relationship between achievement, online resource use, and student background. Online course providers may be able to better tailor online experiences to students when they know how background characteristics mediate the online experience.