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’ |