A Case Study On The Current Situation, Problems And Countermeasure Of Learner Interaction In The MOOC Forum

The arrival of the information age promotes the development of higher education toward informationization.All countries in the world pay attention to the role of informationization in promoting the modernization of education in their own countries.MOOC conforms to the trend of the times and plays an important role in changing the mode of personnel training,changing the concept of learning and innovating learning methods.However,while creating new opportunities for the development of higher education,it also brings a series of challenges.Among many challenges,the MOOC forum is the focus of attention.Scholars have explored the problems in the forum,but the focus of the study is mainly on the analysis of learners’ learning behavior and learning problems faced by learners.The attention to the phenomenon of communication and interaction between learners is not high.In fact,learners are the main body of communication and interaction in the MOOC forum.Interaction among learners is an important part that can not be obtained in the process of MOOC learning.To a large extent,it determines the enthusiasm and learning effect of MOOC learners,and has an important impact on the development of MOOC.Therefore,focusing on the current situation of the interaction among the learners in the MOOC forum,we can find the main problems existing in the MOOC forum,and put forward corresponding countermeasures to improve the efficiency of the use of the MOOC forum,and provide operable suggestions for the teachers who set up the MOOC,so that the MOOC learners can better participate in the forum,and then promote the advantages of the MOOC in higher education.Therefore,under the guidance of social interaction theory and constructivism theory,this study takes a course of MOOC of Chinese University as an example,observes the content and process of interaction among learners in the forum of this course byparticipatory observation method,and uses social network analysis method and content analysis method to analyze the current situation of interaction among learners in the forum of this course.The study finds that there are three deficiencies in the interaction of the learners in the MOOC forum: First,the participation of the learners in the MOOC forum is not high.The total number of topics that learners participate in the discussion is less,and the distribution of each board is uneven.There is a big gap in the number of first posts,uneven distribution of replies and a small number of participants in the discussion.Secondly,the quality of interactive content is not good.The type distribution of discussion posts in the forum is relatively centralized,mostly around the course content;the stage distribution of discussion posts in the discussion area is centralized in the first three stages,and the overall level of interaction is low.Thirdly,the interactive social network relationship of the learners in the MOOC forum is relatively simple,with low interaction rate,low density and weak linkages among learners.Based on the findings of the study,this study puts forward the following countermeasures to promote the interaction of scholars in the MOOC forum: First,optimize the MOOC forum plate setting.Eliminate the discussion boards with low utilization rate,integrate the discussion area and the quiz area,and enhance the initiative of learners in the essence area.Secondly,improve the guiding role of teachers and assistants in the forum.Increase the participation of teachers and assistants in the teacher answering area,increase the summative evaluation of teachers and assistants in other discussion areas,increase the participation initiative of teachers’ assistants in the discussion area,and increase the teaching management posts.Thirdly,strengthen the human support of learners in the MOOC forum.Play the exemplary role of past participants,and play the leading role of "core participants" and "active participants" in the forum.Fourth,strengthen the relationship between learners,enhance peer learning effect,and establish other communication platforms.Fifth,promote the diversity of performance evaluation in the MOOC forum.Increase the proportion of achievements in other discussion areas,implement peer review mechanism,and implement additional points incentive mechanism.