One article (Khalil & Ebner, 2013) discussed the levels of satisfaction on interaction in MOOCs. The authors deployed two web-base survey questionnaires based on the five-step model (Access and Motivation, Online Socialization, Information Exchange, Knowledge Construction and Development) for interactivity developed by Salmon (2001). The students and the instructors self-reported one's perception and then the data were collected and analyzed. The authors concluded that there is a gap between students’ and instructors' perception and satisfaction of interaction in MOOCs and there was a lack of student-instructor interaction.
I found myself not persuaded by the authors' conclusions because:
- the returned ratio of the questionnaires were low (11 out of 250)
- the research results were based on self-reports from participants instead of tools which could represent participants' perceptions more directly such as content analysis
- using Salmon five-step model as a single measurement seems difficult to really look into the heart of the interaction taken place in the courses.
Khalil, H., & Ebner, M. (20130624). “How satisfied are you with your MOOC?” - A Research Study on Interaction in Huge Online Courses. World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications 2013, 2013(1), 830–839.
