What are MOOCs learners’ concerns? Text analysis of reviews for computer science courses

In MOOCs, course reviews are valuable sources for exploiting learners’ attitudes towards the courses provided. This study employed an innovative structural topic modeling technique to analyze 1920 reviews of 339 courses regarding computer science to understand what primary concerns the learners had. Nine major topics, including course levels, learning perception, course assessment, teaching styles, problem solving, course content, course organization, critique, and learning tools and platforms were revealed. In addition, we investigated how the identified nine topics varied across reviews with different ratings. Results indicated that negative reviews tended to relate more to issues such as course assessment, learning tools and platforms, and critique, while positive reviews concerned more about issues such as course levels, course organization, and learning perception. This study provided tutors with novel implications for developing online courses, particularly computer science courses. Copyright © 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG.