Question Dosage in MOOCs

An Empirical Investigation

Abstract

Video lectures in online courses often use pop-up questions or quizzes to enhance learners’ engagement and their learning outcomes. However, there is limited research about how frequently pop-up questions should be asked, considering how this design decision may impact learners’ self-regulation and motivation to learn, as well as their perceptions of confidence and challenge associated with the learning content. This study aims to answer the above questions while considering learners’ final learning outcomes in a massive open online course (MOOC). In this study, learners were divided into high and low frequency groups. The high frequency group were given a question almost every 2 minutes whereas the low frequency group were given a question only once at the end of the video. No significant differences on any of the above factors were found between the two groups. Educators may take these results into account when designing MOOCs in the future. MOOCs are costly and time-consuming to create, and this experiment suggests that using resources on this level of detail may not be necessary.