MOOC takers outcome beliefs, their attitude, and their intention toward enrolling in MOOCs and completing them Karel Kreijns, Marco Kalz, & Jaap Walhout Open University of the Netherlands Welten Institute
Overview Research Context General Theoretical Framework Research Question of the Current Study Research Model of the Current Study Scales used Analyses Results Conclusions Discusion Pagina 2
Research Context The study was conducted within the project, funded by the Institute for Prospected Technologal Studies (IPTS) of the European Commision Provider: Test Anxiety Management by Universidad Cardenal Herrera CEU Business Strategies for Entrepreneurship by Universitat Abad Oliba CEU Business Intelligence by Universitat Oberta de Catalunya UOC Pagina 3
Research Context: Provider: Learning Design Studio for ICT-based Learning Activities Provider: Blended Learning Pagina 4
Lot of Research Questions Effect of Socio-economic Background (Salary, Education, Job), household composition, country, and language proficiency on taking & completing a MOOC Effect of potential benefits and disadvantages (professional and personal) on taking & completing a MOOC Effect of social influence (descriptive & injunctive norm) on taking & completing a MOOC Effect of social/managerial support (emotional, monetary,...) on taking & completing a MOOC What causes drop-out? Intention-Behavior Gap Effect of Self-Regulations Skills on MOOC completion What barriers are there that obstruct taking & completing a MOOC Effect of (stereotypical) dispostions (e.g., attitude) on taking & completing a MOOC And more... Pagina 5
Reasoned Action Approach Pagina 6
Research Question of the Current Study What is the effect of potential benefits and disadvantages (professional and personal) on taking & completing a MOOC in the near future (i.e., the next six months) Pagina 7
Research Model of the Current Study Pagina 8
Three types of Outcome Beliefs Pagina 9
Advantageous Professional Related OBxE Nsample = 1581 Pagina 10
Advantageous Professional Related OBxE Nsample = 1581 Pagina 11
Advantageous Personal Related OBxE Nsample = 1581 Pagina 12
Disadvantageous Personal Related OBxE Nsample = 1581 Pagina 13
Attitude Pagina 14
Attitude Nsample = 1581 Pagina 15
Two Dimensions of Intention Pagina 16
Willingness & Persistence Nsample = 1581 Pagina 17
Research Model of the Current Study - Detailed Pagina 18
Analysis Step 1: Applying the Rasch Measurement Model (Rasch, 1957) on each of the scales using RUMM2030. Does the data fit the Rasch measurement model? Step 2: Mediation Analysis: Does Attitude mediate the effects of the Outcome Beliefs on Intention (i.e., Willingness and Persistence). Hayes Process Analysis (Hayes, 2013) was applied in SPSS version 22 Step 3: Structural Equation Modeling was applied to test the Research Model. Mplus version 7.3 was used. Does the Research Model fit the data? Pagina 19
Analysis: Step 1 Rasch Measurement Model Extreme persons (those who scored ones or sevens on all items) were omitted in the analyses Persons Locations were calculated, Persons Locations are better than total scores (Tennant & Conahan, 2007) Items were tested for: Item Fit & Person Fit Differential Item Functioning (DIF) Local Dependency Uni-dimensionality Pagina 20
Analysis: Step 1 Rasch Measurement Model Person-Item Map Disadvantageous Personal OBxE. Extreme persons were omitted Person-Item Map Attitude. Extreme persons were omitted Pagina 21
Analysis: Step 1 Rasch Measurement Model Total scores & Persons Location of Attitude Pagina 22
Analysis: Step 2 Hayes Process Analysis Two situations: Respondents who have a job: include Advantageous Professional OBxE in the Analyses: A total of 6 analyses had to be performed Respondents who don t have a job: exclude Advantageous Professinal OBxE in the Analyses: A total of 4 analyses had to be performed Pagina 23
Analysis: Step 2 Hayes Process Analysis Have Job X=OBxE(prof) Y=Willingness M=Attitude No Job X=OBxE(per) Y=Willingness M=Attitude Pagina 24
Analysis: Step 3 Structured Equation Modeling Have Job Black lines = p <.01 Thick lines = Attitude mediates effect 9.337; 4;.0532 RMSEA =.052 CFI =.991 TLI =.968 Pagina 25
Analysis: Step 3 Structured Equation Modeling No Job Black lines = p <.01 Thick lines = Attitude mediates effect 0.342; 3;.9520 RMSEA =.000 CFI = 1.000 TLI = 1.041 Pagina 26
Results Have Job: Advantageous (professional and personal) OBxE affected positively Attitude as was expected Disadvantageous (only personal) OBxE did not affect Attitude, therefore, mediation was not an issue Attitude affected positively both Willingness and Persistance as was expected The effects of Advantageous (professional and personal) OBxE on both Willingness and Persistence were mediated by Attitude This mediation was full for Advantageous professional OBxE and partial for Advantageous personal OBxE as there were also direct effects The Research Model fitted the data well Pagina 27
Results & Conclusions No Job: Advantageous (only personal) OBxE affected positively Attitude as was expected Disadvantageous (only personal) OBxE did not affect Attitude, therefore, mediation was not an issue Attitude affects positively Willingness but had no effect on Persistence The effects of Advantageous personal OBxE on Willingness was mediated by Attitude However, this mediation was only partial as there were also direct effects The Research Model fitted the data extremely well (because the model was saturated). Pagina 28
Conclusions Advantageous personal OBxE play an important role in the Willingness and Persistence to take and complete MOOCs in the near future (i.e., the next six months). There were strong direct and indirect effects on this Intention For those who have a job, the Advantageous professional OBxE play a less important role because this role was limited to only influencing Attitude. Disadvantageous personal OBxE did not play any role; it seems that there was some forgiveness for the disadvantages. Pagina 29
Discussions With respect to the analyses: There was some DIF in the scales with respect to the MOOCs We are not sure whether or not to include extremes in the analyses Are the Advantageous (professional and personal) OBxE correctly representing the full set of benefits when taking and completing MOOCs? Are the Disadvantageous (only personal) OBxE correctly representing the full set of disadvantages when taking and completing MOOCs? Did we forget something? Pagina 30
Thank you very much for listening! karel.kreijns@ou.nl Pagina 31