MOOCs: A systematic study of the published literature 2008-2012

By Tharindu Rekha Liyanagunawardena, Andrew A. Adams, Shirley Williams. 2013

936 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are a recent addition to the range of online learning options. Since 2008, MOOCs have been run by a variety of public and elite universities, especially in North America. Many academics have taken interest in MOOCs recognising the potential to deliver education around the globe on an unprecedented scale; some of these academics are taking a research-oriented perspective and academic papers describing their research are starting to appear in the traditional media of peer reviewed publications. This paper presents a systematic review of the published MOOC literature (2008-2012): Forty-five peer reviewed papers are identified through journals, database searches, searching the Web, and chaining from known sources to form the base for this review. We believe this is the first effort to systematically review literature relating to MOOCs, a fairly recent but massively popular phenomenon with a global reach. The review categorises the literature into eight different areas of interest, introductory, concept, case studies, educational theory, technology, participant focussed, provider focussed, and other, while also providing quantitative analysis of publications according to publication type, year of publication, and contributors. Future research directions guided by gaps in the literature are explored.

Subfields: Computer Science Applications

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/3ace77942c3b8748c38c8ec45fd6d30606e77a45

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In Computer Science Applications

Citations in the corpus

A Systematic Analysis and Synthesis of the Empirical MOOC Literature Published in 2013–2015 (2016, methodology): “, the high cost of running a MOOC, or lack of a business model; Hew & Cheung, 2014; Jacoby, 2014), limitations of mass teaching methods (Kennedy, 2014), accreditation (Liyanagunawardena et al., 2013), and the assessment of complex writing such as essays (Ebben & Murphy, 2014).”
The role of students' motivation and participation in predicting performance in a MOOC (2016, background): “Not surprisingly, substantive research into the operation of MOOCs is only just emerging (see Liyanagunawardena et al., 2013 for a review).”
The MOOC dropout phenomenon and retention strategies (2020, methodology): “Phase 3 consisted of classifying the selected papers using open-coded content analysis (Liyanagunawardena et al., 2013).”
Exploring the factors affecting MOOC retention: A survey study (2016, background): “Due to this methodological focus, little is known about the experiences of MOOC non-completers (Liyanagunawardena et al., 2013).”
Supporting Self-Regulated Learning in Online Learning Environments and MOOCs: A Systematic Review (2018, background): “Since MOOCs are fairly recent in the field of online education, research in this area has focused mainly on challenges and trends (Liyanagunawardena, Adams, & Williams, 2013).”
Predictors of Retention and Achievement in a Massive Open Online Course (2015, background): “As MOOCs continue to develop and proliferate, clear-cut and comprehensive definitions and descriptions become harder to identify, but at minimum, most MOOCs provide a course-like experience online for those who choose to enroll, often at no cost (Liyanagunawardena et al., 2013).”
Coursera's Introductory Human Physiology Course: Factors That Characterize Successful Completion of a MOOC. (2015, background): “Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are offered over the internet and are open to anyone in the world at no cost.”
Intrinsic motivation, curiosity, and learning: Theory and applications in educational technologies. (2016, neutral): “A second line of investigation has considered how formal and computational models of curiosity and intrinsic motivation could be applied to Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) (Nkambou et al., 2010), as well as Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCS) (Liyanagunawardena et al., 2013).”
Democratizing Higher Education: Exploring MOOC Use among Those Who Cannot Afford a Formal Education. (2014, neutral): “In a systematic review of 45 peer-reviewed papers in the MOOC-related literature published between 2008-2012, Liyanagunawardena, Adams, and Williams (2013) found that the majority of articles discussed MOOC challenges and trends.”