What Research Says About MOOCs – An Explorative Content Analysis

TLDR

Since 2008, literature on MOOCs has expanded rapidly. The study aims to identify and map patterns in MOOC research by reviewing 362 empirical journal articles from 2008 to 2015. The authors used a text‑mining tool to analyze the content of the 362 articles and uncover major themes. The review identifies four main research lines—university potential and challenges, MOOC platforms, learner and content issues, and quality and instructional design—providing an overview for future research.

Abstract

<p class="3">Since the first offering of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) in 2008, the body of literature on this new phenomenon of open learning has grown tremendously. In this regard, this article intends to identify and map patterns in research on MOOCs by reviewing 362 empirical articles published in peer-reviewed journals from 2008 to 2015. For the purposes of this study, a text-mining tool was used to analyse the content of the published research journal articles and to reveal the major themes and concepts covered in the publications. The findings reveal that the MOOC literature generally focuses on four lines of research: (a) the potential and challenges of MOOCs for universities; (b) MOOC platforms; (c) learners and content in MOOCs; and (d) the quality of MOOCs and instructional design issues. Prospective researchers may use these results to gain an overview of this emerging field, as well as to explore potential research directions.</p>