Essays on the Design of Inclusive Learning in Massive Open Online Courses, and Implications for Educational Futures

Abstract

This thesis examines the tensions and contradictions of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) as a force for more inclusive tertiary education, particularly for adults without a college degree in the United States. Through a multimethodological research approach yielding three discrete papers, presented as chapters, this work seeks to augment and clarify the existing MOOCs literature across conceptual, quantitative, and qualitative domains. The first paper develops a conceptual framework, ‘hegemonic design bias,’ that describes the socio-technical development ecosystem in which MOOCs are embedded. This framework helps account for why MOOCs have yet to serve as a democratising force in education by highlighting the processes and constraints that bias MOOC production toward the already well-educated. The potential economic implications of these developments are also considered. The second paper provides insight into how underrepresented learners are engaging with entry-level MOOCs. The exploration of learning analytic data from an initial sample of more than 260,000 enrolees through cluster analysis and multinomial logistic regression indicates that students without a college degree are more likely to be high-performing learners compared to college-educated students in these courses. Additionally, students from approximated lower socioeconomic backgrounds are no less likely to be successful than students from approximated middle and higher socioeconomic backgrounds in these courses. The third paper provides insight into the opportunities and challenges producers face in building inclusive MOOCs through a qualitative analysis of six semi-structured interviews. The interviews unearthed diverse conceptions of inclusion among producers that reflect a sincere normative commitment to make inclusive MOOCs, though the conceptions were quite distinct and fragmented. Producers were intentional about utilising best-practice pedagogy, as well as innovative program design, to include diverse learners. Innovative technology partners helped create interactive, unique experiences, but this also led to challenges in harmonising the design process and required the considerable influence of intermediary actors. To conclude, I briefly consider the implications of these findings for research, practice, and policy, with particular attention to how the public and social sectors can incentivise improved design of MOOCs with the specific intent of helping adults without college degrees develop human capital in order to remain economically resilient amidst the disruptions of skills-biased technological change.