Do MOOC conversations matter? investigating the role of social presence and course-relevant discussion in career advancement
Date
2025
Authors
Mehta, S.
Srivastava, N.
Liu, X.
Vanacore, K.
Baker, R.S.
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Conference paper
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L@s 2025 Proceedings of the 12th ACM Conference on Learning @ Scale, 2025, pp.236-240
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12th ACM Conference on Learning @ Scale, L@S 2025 (21 Jul 2025 - 23 Jul 2025 : Palermo, ITALY)
Abstract
While MOOCs have been widely studied in terms of student engagement and academic performance, the extent to which engagement within MOOCs predict career advancement remains underexplored. Building on prior work, this study investigates how participation in discussion forums, specifically social presence and the use of course-relevant keywords, affects career advancement. Using GPT-assisted content analysis of forum posts, we assess how these engagement factors relate to both achievement during the course and post-course career advancement. Our findings indicate that social presence and use of course-relevant keywords has a positive relationship with course achievement during the MOOC. However, no significant relationship was found between career advancement and either social presence or course-related keywords in discussion forums. These findings suggest that while active engagement in MOOC discussion forums enhances academic achievement, it might not directly translate into career advancement, highlighting a possible disconnect between learning participation in MOOCs and professional outcomes.
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Copyright 2025 ACM