Enhancing Learner Participation in Online Discussion Forums in Massive Open Online Courses: The Role of Mandatory Participation
Online discussion forums are an essential and standard setup in online courses to facilitate interactions among learners. However, learners’ inadequate participation in online discussion forums is a long-standing challenge, which necessitates instructor intervention and the design consideration of o...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2022-04-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.819640/full |
| _version_ | 1818495173772967936 |
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| author | Zhao Du Fang Wang Shan Wang Xiao Xiao |
| author_facet | Zhao Du Fang Wang Shan Wang Xiao Xiao |
| author_sort | Zhao Du |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Online discussion forums are an essential and standard setup in online courses to facilitate interactions among learners. However, learners’ inadequate participation in online discussion forums is a long-standing challenge, which necessitates instructor intervention and the design consideration of online learning platforms. This research proposes and studies the role of mandatory participation, i.e., learners’ participation in online course forums by instructors’ requirements, in fostering their voluntary participation and boosting their learning performance. This novel effect link between mandatory participation and voluntary participation has not been assessed in previous research. An empirical study is conducted using a large-scale dataset of 27,767 learners from a leading massive open online course (MOOC) platform in China. The findings indicate that besides its direct effect on learning performance, learners’ mandatory participation has a significant positive effect on their voluntary participation in online course forums, enhancing learning performance. Moreover, the effect of mandatory participation on voluntary participation varies across learner groups, being more prominent for early registrants than late registrants and part-time learners than full-time learners. This research contributes to the online learning literature by introducing mandatory participation as a viable approach to foster voluntary participation and boost learning performance through enhanced voluntary participation. It provides evidence on the effectiveness of the novel design feature of MOOC platforms that enables and facilitates the mandatory participation mechanism in online learning. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T18:16:52Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e8323ae04a6449f3933e723110c4c93c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T18:16:52Z |
| publishDate | 2022-04-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-e8323ae04a6449f3933e723110c4c93c2022-12-22T01:38:19ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782022-04-011310.3389/fpsyg.2022.819640819640Enhancing Learner Participation in Online Discussion Forums in Massive Open Online Courses: The Role of Mandatory ParticipationZhao Du0Fang Wang1Shan Wang2Xiao Xiao3Business School of Sport, Beijing Sport University, Beijing, ChinaLazaridis School of Business and Economics, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON, CanadaDepartment of Finance and Management Science, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, CanadaHigher Education Press, Beijing, ChinaOnline discussion forums are an essential and standard setup in online courses to facilitate interactions among learners. However, learners’ inadequate participation in online discussion forums is a long-standing challenge, which necessitates instructor intervention and the design consideration of online learning platforms. This research proposes and studies the role of mandatory participation, i.e., learners’ participation in online course forums by instructors’ requirements, in fostering their voluntary participation and boosting their learning performance. This novel effect link between mandatory participation and voluntary participation has not been assessed in previous research. An empirical study is conducted using a large-scale dataset of 27,767 learners from a leading massive open online course (MOOC) platform in China. The findings indicate that besides its direct effect on learning performance, learners’ mandatory participation has a significant positive effect on their voluntary participation in online course forums, enhancing learning performance. Moreover, the effect of mandatory participation on voluntary participation varies across learner groups, being more prominent for early registrants than late registrants and part-time learners than full-time learners. This research contributes to the online learning literature by introducing mandatory participation as a viable approach to foster voluntary participation and boost learning performance through enhanced voluntary participation. It provides evidence on the effectiveness of the novel design feature of MOOC platforms that enables and facilitates the mandatory participation mechanism in online learning.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.819640/fullMOOConline educationonline discussion forummandatory participationvoluntary participationlearner characteristics |
| spellingShingle | Zhao Du Fang Wang Shan Wang Xiao Xiao Enhancing Learner Participation in Online Discussion Forums in Massive Open Online Courses: The Role of Mandatory Participation Frontiers in Psychology MOOC online education online discussion forum mandatory participation voluntary participation learner characteristics |
| title | Enhancing Learner Participation in Online Discussion Forums in Massive Open Online Courses: The Role of Mandatory Participation |
| title_full | Enhancing Learner Participation in Online Discussion Forums in Massive Open Online Courses: The Role of Mandatory Participation |
| title_fullStr | Enhancing Learner Participation in Online Discussion Forums in Massive Open Online Courses: The Role of Mandatory Participation |
| title_full_unstemmed | Enhancing Learner Participation in Online Discussion Forums in Massive Open Online Courses: The Role of Mandatory Participation |
| title_short | Enhancing Learner Participation in Online Discussion Forums in Massive Open Online Courses: The Role of Mandatory Participation |
| title_sort | enhancing learner participation in online discussion forums in massive open online courses the role of mandatory participation |
| topic | MOOC online education online discussion forum mandatory participation voluntary participation learner characteristics |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.819640/full |
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