Duke University has joined with 12 other universities from around the world to collaborate on research on massive open online courses (MOOCs). The group aims to pursue joint research to advance knowledge about MOOC students, platforms, and learning experiences.

In addition to Duke, the institutions in the group are Stanford University, Vanderbilt University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Illinois, Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Michigan, the University of Toronto, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, the National University of Singapore, the University of Melbourne, Universidad Católica de Chile, and the University of Edinburgh. All offer MOOCs on the Coursera platform.

Representatives from each institution convened at a MOOC Research Summit at the University of Michigan on June 22 to identify resources, develop research questions, and form an action plan for research projects to complete over the next 8-10 months.

Kim Manturuk, Program Evaluator at Duke’s Center for Instructional Technology, represented Duke at the summit. Manturuk will chair a committee within the group comparing learning outcomes in on-demand and session-based courses to understand how learning experiences differ across course types.

Other projects the group will pursue include developing standard ways to measure learning across open online classes, examining different approaches to peer assessment and feedback, and measuring the impact of motivational “nudges” to increase student course completion rates.

Online Duke has supported research on online education since the university began offering MOOCs on Coursera in 2012. Duke faculty from 33 departments have engaged in numerous research projects around these courses. A list of recent research and assesment publications is available at online.duke.edu/assessment.