Advancing MOOC and SPOC development via a learner decision journey analytic framework

Recently, the rise of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and Small Private Online Courses (SPOCs) have reshaped the scope of education. In these online learning environments, learners have control over their learning process and actively "pull" information that are helpful to them. This makes the educational process primarily learner-driven. Learning analytics and pedagogies have been proposed to actively engage learners, to provide suitable learning environment and to empower learners to learn. However, existing frameworks are not holistic and fail to capture all learner contact points within and outside the course. In this manuscript, a Learner Decision Journey framework is proposed for analyzing MOOC/SPOC development and in particular, for understanding the circular learning process in MOOCs, to generate further insights for course improvements. A case study of analyzing post-learning experiences in a MOOC is used to illustrate how the proposed framework can be used in practice. The proposed framework can be generalized to study activities in all stages of the Learning Decision Journey to provide a holistic analysis of MOOC/SPOC development.