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Multiplatform MOOC Analytics: Comparing Global and Regional Patterns in Edx and Edraak Multiplatform MOOC Analytics: Comparing Global and Regional Patterns in edX and Edraak José A. Ruipérez-Valiente1, Sherif Halawa2, Justin Reich1 1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge (MA), 02139, USA 2 Edraak, 300 King Abdullah St, Amman, Jordan [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] ABSTRACT institutions around the world, especially to places with limited While global massive open online course (MOOC) providers access to elite universities [9]. However, some studies have such as edX, Coursera, and FutureLearn have garnered the bulk suggested that instead of decreasing the ‘educational gap’, of attention from researchers and the popular press, MOOCs MOOCs have been primarily attracting learners with high edu- are also provisioned by a series of regional providers, who cational attainment, thus widening educational disparities [12]. are often using the Open edX platform. We leverage the data Among global providers, disparities in MOOC participation infrastructure shared by the main edX instance and one re- and persistence remain for females, learners with low levels gional Open edX provider, Edraak in Jordan, to compare the of educational attainment, and among countries with low de- experience of learners from Arab countries on both platforms. velopment levels, as measured by the United Nations Human Comparing learners from Arab countries on edX to those Development Index [6]. Many (though not all) of the courses on Edraak, the Edraak population has a more even gender on the largest global MOOC providers, such as Coursera, edX balance, more learners with lower education levels, greater or FutureLearn, are produced by Anglo-American universi- participation from more developing countries, higher levels ties. For learners not fluent in English or not familiar with of persistence and completion, and a larger total population Anglo-American higher education, language and cultural bar- of learners. This “apples to apples” comparison of MOOC riers may compound the challenges of learning independently learners is facilitated by an approach to multiplatform MOOC online. Numerous studies have pointed to the importance of analytics, which employs parallel research processes to cre- considering cultural factors when designing inclusive online ate joint aggregate datasets without sharing identifiable data learning experiences [16, 14, 11]. across institutions. Our findings suggest that greater research English language MOOC providers that have aimed to at- attention should be paid towards regional MOOC providers, tract global audiences are complemented by a set of regional and regional providers may have an important role to play in MOOC providers that have been emerging over the past years expanding access to higher education. with a focus on serving learners in their regions. Some ex- amples include the Ibero-American initiative MiriadaX 1, the ACM Classification Keywords Chinese initiative XuentangX 2, the Italian Federica.EU 3, the K.3.1 Computers and education: Computer Uses in Education: German OpenHPI 4, the French platform France Université Distance learning; H.1.2 Information Systems: User/Machine Numérique (FUN 5) or the Arab initiative Edraak 6. Several Systems: Human factors; J.1 Computer Applications: Admin- of these initiatives (Edraak, XuentangX and FUN) use Open istrative Data Processing: Education edX 7–edX’s collaborative open source initiative–as the under- lying software to run MOOCs. By focusing on more specific Author Keywords communities with a more broadly shared language and culture, MOOCs; Learning Analytics; Cross-institutional these initiatives may be able to play a complementary role Collaboration; Large-scale Analytics; Cultural Factors. to MOOCs aiming at a global, primarily English-language audience. INTRODUCTION When the first university-based MOOC providers emerged in While several observers have noted that the global providers 2012, MOOC advocates argued that large-scale online learn- have recently put a greater focus on professional, post- ing could dramatically extend the reach of higher education Baccalaureate degrees and programs [18, 17,3], these shifts 1https://miriadax.net/en/ 2https://www.xuetangx.com/ 3https://federica.eu/ 4https://open.hpi.de/ 5https://www.fun-mooc.fr/ 6https://www.edraak.org/ PRE-PRINT VERSION. 7 Accepted for publication in Learning @ Scale 2019. https://open.edx.org/ Copyright is held by ACM. do not appear as pronounced in the regional providers, sug- METHOD gesting that regional MOOC providers may play a different This section describes the methodology in the context of role in higher education ecosystems than the larger, global, MOOC providers Edraak and edX in Subsection 2.1, a de- English-language entities. Understanding similarities and dif- scription of the dataset, sample and measures in Subsections ferences in learner behavior and experiences between global 2.2, 2.3 and 2.4 respectively. We end with an overview the and regional platforms may help provide a more comprehen- multiplatform MOOC analysis methodology in Subsection sive picture of global learning with MOOCs. 2.5. At present, MOOC studies have focused on elite global Context providers over the regional providers. Prior studies focus on a This work leverages commonalities between MOOC providers detailed analysis of one or few MOOCs (e.g. [4]), a longitudi- Edraak and edX: (1) both institutions aim to spread free ed- nal study with many courses from one single MOOC provider ucation (although Edraak with a more regional focus), and (e.g. [6,8], or a literature review of MOOC analytic stud- (2) both providers use the Open edX platform as the under- ies [23]. Small MOOC studies have limited generalizability, lying software for their Learning and Content Management longitudinal studies from one single institution do not cap- Systems. The fact that both institutions use the same software ture variation across MOOC providers and literature reviews environment to host their MOOCs facilitates comparisons in cannot make cross-study comparisons due to the different two important ways: (1) it is easier to establish a common methodologies employed. In response to these challenges, we data processing pipeline to put the data into the same format, propose multiplatform MOOC analytics, which replicates the and (2) both providers use a similar, Open edX-based learning same analyses using a common script in different MOOC envi- management system (though Edraak is modified for right- ronments. This work aligns with calls for methodologies that to-left languages), limiting some of the variation in learner promote open education science [22] and replication studies experience. in the social sciences [2]. EdX was founded in 2012 by the Massachusetts Institute of For this case study, we focus on learners in the Arab World, Technology and Harvard University. More than 100 schools, where equitable access to educational opportunity and overall companies and other institutions have joined this initiative as educational achievement remain substantial challenges with partners to teach free courses to a global audience. Open edX potential for improvement [21]. Also, the Arab World has is being used by numerous institutions around the world to significant information technology and e-learning gaps com- deliver their open or private courses, which has exponentially pared to the developed world [1] and as a region, has lower increased the impact of the initiative. From this platform, participation and completion metrics in MOOCs compared we focus on MITx and HarvardX, the institutional units that to other regions [19]. Additionally, the Arab World countries produce and teach the edX courses from each university. rank in the “very low” category on the EF English Proficiency Index, a global measures of English proficiency [24]. A 2018 Edraak was founded in 2013 by the Queen Rania Foundation report from the International Labour Organization has brought for Education and Development. Edraak’s inception was a up the low levels of female participation in labour markets, response to the language barrier that prevents a substantial especially in regions such as the Arab States and Northern population in the Arab world from learning online in English. America, where unemployment rates for Arab women can be Edraak’s mission is to fulfill these learners’ needs by providing twice as high as men’s [13]. Researchers have found corre- high-quality educational content in Arabic, although some lations between the levels of unemployment of a region and courses are also available in English. MOOC demand [20]. Edraak participated in the localization of Open edX for the To facilitate a comparison between MOOC learners from Arab world by providing Arabic translation for the platform Arab states on edX (with data from MITx and HarvardX) and enhancing the support for right-to-left (RTL) languages. and Edraak, we organize the data from these providers into a Edraak produces all of its courses in Arabic, except for courses common framework analyzed with a shared body of analytic teaching foreign languages, and hosts them on its locally- code. Our overarching study question explores the extent to adapted Open edX platform. Edraak’s courses span multiple which MOOC trends are universal versus context-dependent. categories, including STEM, business and workforce devel- To this end, we examine the following research questions: opment skills, health, arts, and language. Course content is designed in collaboration with regional experts
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