Description
Participants of the conference will be presented with findings from a 2015 Twitter dataset, which identifies the agentic implementers. Furthermore, they will be provided with a critique of the term MOOC and its constructions from the empirical data. Using data analytics and discourse analysis the study explores the #MOOC-related discourses of these implementers and the agendas which were constructed and pursued within the Twittersphere using this hashtag. Findings indicate that social media containing the #MOOC identifier, when conceptualized as an information network (Myers et al, 2014), is dominated by macro-level actors i.e. course and platform providers. However, when a social network frame of analysis is adopted the dataset reveals individuals who are influencing the #MOOC agenda e.g. researchers and educational commentators, supporting the notion of a subculture of scholarly networks referred to as “academic Twitter” (Stewart, 2017). Significantly, the low presence of teachers and learners in the #MOOC dataset is contrary to assumptions of previous research (Shen & Kuo, 2015). This finding prompts further research to investigate Twitter’s use and MOOCs to support learning and teaching.
References
McMillan, S. J. (2002). A four-part model of cyber-interactivity: Some cyberplaces are more interactive than others. New Media & Society, Vol. 4 (2), pp.271- 291.
Myers, S. A., Sharma, A., Gupta, P., & Lin, J. (2014). Information network or social network? : The structure of the twitter follow graph. Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on World Wide Web (pp. 493-498). ACM.
Shen, C.W., & Kuo, C.J. (2015). Learning in massive open online courses: Evidence from social media mining. Computers in Human Behavior, 51, pp.568-577.
Stewart, B. (Forthcoming, 2017). Academic Twitter & academic capital: Collapsing orality & literacy in scholarly publics. The digital academic: Critical perspectives of digital technologies in higher education, D. Lupton, I. Mewburn & P. Thomson, (Eds). London: Routledge.
Trowler, P. (2002). Introduction: Higher Education Policy, Institutional Change In: TROWLER, P. (ed.) Higher Education Policy and Institutional Change: Intentions and Outcomes in Turbulent Environments. Buckingham, SRHE & Open University Press.
Participants
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Gabi Witthaus
joined 7 years, 8 months ago -
Francisco Iniesto
joined 7 years, 8 months ago -
joined 7 years, 8 months ago
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Martin Hawksey
joined 7 years, 8 months ago -
martina-emke
joined 7 years, 8 months ago -
Stephanie (Charlie) Farley
joined 7 years, 9 months ago -
ALT
joined 7 years, 9 months ago