Abstract
Background: Learners in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are presented with great autonomy over their learning process. Learners must engage in self-regulated learning (SRL) to handle this autonomy. It is assumed that learners' SRL, through monitoring and control, influences learners' behaviour within the MOOC environment (e.g., watching videos). The exact relationship between SRL and learner behaviour has however not been investigated. Objectives: We explored whether differences in SRL are related to differences in learner behaviour in a MOOC. As insight in this relationship could improve our understanding of the influence of SRL on behaviour, could help explain the variety in online learner behaviour, and could be useful for the development of successful SRL support for learners. Methods: MOOC learners were grouped based on their self-reported SRL. Next, we used process mining to create process models of learners' activities. These process models were compared between groups of learners. Results and conclusions: Four clusters emerged: average regulators, help seekers, self-regulators, and weak regulators. Learners in all clusters closely followed the designed course structure. However, the process models also showed differences which could be linked to differences in the SRL scores between clusters. Takeaways: The study shows that SRL may explain part of the variability in online learner behaviour. Implications for the design of SRL interventions include the necessity to integrate support for weak regulators in the course structure.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 993-1004 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Journal of Computer Assisted Learning |
| Volume | 38 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Aug 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors wish to thank Gwenda Frederiks and Ulrike Wild from Wageningen University and Research for their collaboration. This work was financed via a grant by the Dutch National Initiative for Education Research (NRO)/The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science under the grant no. 405‐15‐705 (SOONER/ http://sooner.nu ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Funding
The authors wish to thank Gwenda Frederiks and Ulrike Wild from Wageningen University and Research for their collaboration. This work was financed via a grant by the Dutch National Initiative for Education Research (NRO)/The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science under the grant no. 405‐15‐705 (SOONER/ http://sooner.nu ).
Keywords
- learner behaviour
- MOOC
- online education
- process mining
- SRL