Teacher Enrollment in MITx MOOCs:
Are we educating educators?
!
Daniel Seaton1, Cody Coleman2, Jon Daries1
1MIT Institutional Research, 2MIT EECS/ODL
Why Teachers? Early MOOC Experiments from MITx
6.002x Spring 2012
•
Early MOOC experiments indicated Teacher
Interest/Enrollment
8.MReV Spring 2012
*8.02x Spring 2013, *8.01x Fall 2013
Teacher Enrollment
dseaton@mit.edu
Why Teachers? Early MOOC Experiments from MITx
6.002x Spring 2012
8.MReV Spring 2012
•
Early MOOC experiments indicated Teacher
Interest/Enrollment!
•
What would it mean if large numbers of
teachers are present?!
- Expert/Novice Pairings (e.g., forums)!
-
Networking Educators!
-
Teacher Professional Development!
-
Reshaping of current course/software
infrastructure
*8.02x Spring 2013, *8.01x Fall 2013
Teacher Enrollment
dseaton@mit.edu
Why Teachers? Early MOOC Experiments from MITx
6.002x Spring 2012
•
Early MOOC experiments indicated Teacher
Interest/Enrollment!
•
What would it mean if large numbers of
teachers are present?!
- Expert/Novice Pairings (e.g., forums)!
8.MReV Spring 2012
•
*8.02x Spring 2013, *8.01x Fall 2013
Teacher Enrollment
-
Networking Educators!
-
Teacher Professional Development!
-
Reshaping of current course/software
infrastructure!
Simple theme: Are a significant number of
teachers enrolling?!
• Entrance and Exit Surveys of Spring 2014
MITx Courses!
- Over 31,000 Surveyed (16.8%)
dseaton@mit.edu
Entrance Survey: Teacher Enrollment
• 28.0% (9451) identify as, or having been, teachers (blue).!
• 8.7% (2847) current teachers (orange).!
• 5.9% (1871) teach the topic (cyan).
Teacher Enrollment
dseaton@mit.edu
Teacher Participation in Forums
Population Sizes!
# Surveyed Teachers = 9,451!
# Surveyed Non-Teachers = 21,323!
# Non-Surveyed = 212,882
***Population sizes relative !
to all participants
Teacher Enrollment
Comments!
# Surveyed Teachers = 11,680!
# Surveyed Non-Teachers = 18,183!
# Non-Surveyed = 20,228
For current teachers, the average !
across courses is 7.8% (~ 1 in 12).
For teachers that teach/taught the topic, the
average across courses is 6.4% (~ 1 in 16).
dseaton@mit.edu
Teacher Participation in Forums
Population Sizes!
# Surveyed Teachers = 9,451!
# Surveyed Non-Teachers = 21,323!
# Non-Surveyed = 212,882
***Population sizes relative !
to all participants
Teacher Enrollment
Comments (Total = 50,091)!
Surveyed Teachers = 11,680!
Surveyed Non-Teachers = 18,183!
Non-Surveyed = 20,228
For current teachers, the average !
across courses is 7.8% (~ 1 in 12).
For teachers that teach/taught the topic, the
average across courses is 6.4% (~ 1 in 16).
dseaton@mit.edu
Teacher Participation in Forums
Population Sizes!
# Surveyed Teachers = 9,451!
# Surveyed Non-Teachers = 21,323!
# Non-Surveyed = 212,882
***Population sizes relative !
to all participants
Teacher Enrollment
Comments (Total = 50,091)!
Surveyed Teachers = 11,680!
Surveyed Non-Teachers = 18,183!
Non-Surveyed = 20,228
For current teachers, the average !
across courses is 7.8% (~ 1 in 12).
For teachers that teach/taught the topic, the
average across courses is 6.4% (~ 1 in 16).
dseaton@mit.edu
Conclusions
• Certainly content is a draw for Teachers; but how do we begin taking
advantage of the collective knowledge in these courses?!
• Many questions remain:!
• How does this reframe out perspectives on MOOC demographics?!
• Motivations of participating teachers?!
• How best to illuminate expertise in courses?!
• How to provide optimal experiences for teachers? (e.g., incorporate
professional development)!
• ….!
• Thank you!
Teacher Enrollment
dseaton@mit.edu