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Table 5 Six key themes and their characteristics

From: What are the key themes associated with the positive learning experience in MOOCs? An empirical investigation of learners’ ratings and reviews

Key Themes

Characteristics of each theme

Theme 1: Learning

Theme scope

‘Learning’ incorporated the characteristics of knowledge learned in MOOCs (e.g. ‘basic’, ‘life’)

Important connections

‘Learning-basic’ (24% co-occurrence likelihood): MOOCs afforded people the opportunity to learn the basic knowledge and revisit the basic knowledge they learned previously

‘Learning-life’ (20% co-occurrence likelihood): MOOCs were designed in a way that showed direct and immediate relevance for life

Relationships with other themes

‘Learning’ is in proximity with the theme ‘recommend’

Theme 2: Understanding

Theme scope

‘Understanding’ incorporated strategies adopted to make course concepts easier to understand (e.g. ‘understand’, ‘concepts’) and mental efforts invested to understand the complex, difficult course content (e.g. ‘time’, ‘week’)

Important connections

‘Understand-concepts’ (22% co-occurrence likelihood): instructors made concepts more understandable and less abstract, and learners made an effort to understand complex, difficult concepts

‘Time-week’ (17% co-occurrence likelihood): learners emphasised the importance of investing time and efforts when studying MOOCs

Relationships with other themes

‘Understanding’ is in proximity with the themes ‘learning’ and ‘videos’

Theme 3: Interesting

Theme scope

‘Interesting’ incorporated learners’ emotional reactions towards a MOOC (e.g. ‘interesting’, ‘engaging’) and the source that elicits positive emotions from learners (e.g. ‘professor’, ‘content’)

Important connections

‘Interesting-professor’ (14% co-occurrence likelihood): instructors played a central role in making MOOCs interesting

Relationships with other themes

‘Interesting’ is in proximity with the theme ‘videos’

Theme 4: Videos

Theme scope

‘Videos’ incorporated the quality of video lectures (e.g. ‘clear’, ‘easy’) and course components relevant to video lectures (e.g. ‘reading’, ‘examples’)

Important connections

‘Videos-reading’ (31% co-occurrence likelihood): video lectures and reading materials were valuable resources and often complemented each other to provide a positive learning experience in MOOCs

Relationships with other themes

‘Videos’ is in proximity with the themes ‘understanding’, ‘interesting’, and ‘questions’

Theme 5: Recommend

Theme scope

‘Recommend’ incorporated learners’ intentions to recommend a MOOC to other people (e.g. ‘recommend’, ‘courses’)

Important connections

‘Recommend-anyone’ (30% co-occurrence likelihood): the connection explains why learners recommended a MOOC

Relationships with other themes

‘Recommend’ is in proximity with the theme ‘learning’

Theme 6: Questions

Theme scope

‘Questions’ incorporated getting answers to questions (i.e. ‘questions’)

Important connections

‘Questions-discussion’ (11% co-occurrence likelihood): discussion boards are an important space to ask questions and get help from teaching staff

Relationships with other themes

‘Questions’ is in proximity with the theme ‘videos’