Designing MOOC User Activity

Anna Ślósarz

doi:10.31261/IJREL.2025.11.1.03

Published: 2025-07-04

2025

Designing MOOC User Activity

Anna Ślósarz

Section: Articles

https://doi.org/10.31261/IJREL.2025.11.1.03

Abstract

In recent years, xMOOC, one-way knowledge transfer have been replaced by cMOOCs which allow users to co-create knowledge. Substantive discussion forums are mainly used for this purpose. However, students use forums for more than just this type of collaboration. The aim of the study was to analyze the purpose and extent to which students enrolled in 208 MOOC courses posted on the Polish “Navoica” platform use discussion forums and how MOOC authors encourage or discourage students from participating in substantive forums. Introductory and organizational forums were excluded from this study. Discussion forums user activity on substantive issues was low. Findings of this study support findings included in the research conducted in other regions of the world. 11% of studied courses did not include discussion forums; in 31% of forums there were no posts; in 15% of forums there were a few to a dozen of posts; and in 28% of MOOCs there were entries predominantly about organizational matters. In only 15% forums there were more than 25 posts. Students, including those enrolled in language learning courses, rarely posted on forums. Number of posts did not correspond to number of participants, number of certificates issued, or popularity of the course. Participants’ activity was usually triggered by question inspiring expression of their opinion, self-promotion, commenting on colleagues’ entries, and also by course coordinator’s participation in the discussion. Participation of Polish MOOCs platform users in discussion forums deserves further research to promote development off first and second key competences, i.e., Literacy competence and Multilingual competence. The main results may be generalized to the entire MOOC-user population.

Keywords:

auto-presentation , communication , personal , post , question , story

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Ślósarz, A. (2025). Designing MOOC User Activity. International Journal of Research in E-Learning, 1–31. https://doi.org/10.31261/IJREL.2025.11.1.03

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Anna Ślósarz

anna.slosarz@up.krakow.pl
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5524-3227

Affiliation:

University of the National Education Commission in Krakow Poland

Bio Statement (e.g., department and rank)

Anna Ślósarz Prof., Ph.D (habil.). Department for the Journalism in Institute of Journalism and International Relations at Pedagogical University of Krakow (Poland, Europe). E-teacher, e-methodist, e-learning expert. Books: Readings in High School and Commercial Cinema (2002), Media in the Service Polish Philologist (2008), The Ideological Matrices. Readings and their Contexts. Post-Communist Poland and Post-Colonial Australia (2013), Interpreters of Readings. Multimedia Thematic Modules as a Didactic Instrument (2018), Film in the Literature of the 21^st Century (2021), “A SQUADRON OF DOGS” and Digital Didactics. Instrumental Case Study (2022). She has created and conduct more than 30 e-courses. Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Research in E-learning, Rector’s Commission for Remote Forms of Education (since 2014). Publishes, among others, in: Media - Culture - Social Communication, Educatio Nova, International Journal of Continuing Engineering Education and Life-Long Learning, Comparative Yearbook. Reviewer of articles, incl. in International Journal of Intelligent Information and Database Systems, International Journal of Web Based Communities. Projects: Want is MOOC, DARIAH-PL, IRNET, Małopolska Educational Cloud, Teaching Polish language using multimedia thematic modules.

2025
Published: 2020-07-09

ISSN: 2451-2583

eISSN: 2543-6155

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Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego | University of Silesia Press

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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