FutureLearn and Coursera: Possibilities of Communication

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to analyse, comparatively, the possibilities that are offered to learners by these two platforms. One of the main aspects is that learners find themselves in an international environment since they are among students from all over the world. Here we can clearly notice the advantages of English as a lingua franca, which unites such a diverse community of learners around a topic of common interest. For both platforms, audio and video, materials are available, together with the possibility of students and teachers interacting on the forums, for Coursera, or in the below video discussions, for FutureLearn. Collaborative learning is also encouraged, as some courses can ask students to use Padlet to work together or other such sites. The sense of community is built by rapport with the teachers they appear on video, through common tasks, and through peer-to-peer discussions.

1. Introduction

The term mass open online course was coined by the researcher named in Ref. [1], David Cormier, as he was writing about such a course held at the University of Manitoba, created by Siemens and Downes. According to the research mentioned in [2], over 2000 students had enrolled in the respective course, which “was delivered using various open and free to use educational resources […] such as wikis, online forums, Google Docs, YouTube, and Facebook group.”

Mass open online courses (MOOCs) have been around before the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, an event which led to the quick development of online learning platforms that were used officially by schools and universities in order to be able to continue their activities outside the face-to-face environment. Nowadays we may associate the word “platform” used for educational purposes such as teaching or presenting research with Microsoft Teams, Google Classroom, Zoom, Webex, and others; yet, free online courses for everyone from all over the world and of all backgrounds have been opened with platforms such as FutureLearn and Coursera since 2012. FutureLearn was developed by the British (it is owned by both The Open University and SEEK Ltd.) and Coursera by the Americans (Stanford University professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller specializing in Computer Science). The year 2012 was the year when another MOOC platform was set up, by a group of scientists working at MIT and Harvard: edX. The two platforms, FutureLearn and Coursera were chosen for analysis in this paper, first of all, due to the long experience of the author of the chapter with participating in courses on these platforms, and, second, due to the fact that the author of this chapter found that FutureLearn and Coursera provided more opportunities for user-friendly communication that EdX. The author of the chapter has signed up and completed courses on these platforms since 2012, with several breaks over the years, and still signs up for courses function of her subjects of interest, which are mainly related to the fields of Arts, Humanities, Political Science, Philosophy, Psychology, Linguistics, Foreign Languages and Foreign Language Teaching, due to the subjects she teaches or has taught (English and French language seminars for Engineering students, Culture and Civilization, Academic Ethics, European Union Institutions, Linguistics). While for EdX courses, the platform provides for each course a section above titled Discussion, for FutureLearn and Coursera there are more opportunities provided for interaction. FutureLearn allows for users’ comments in a comments section below the video where the teachers present their lectures, and Coursera has created forums with special sections for the learners’ questions, where they can interact with other learners and with the teachers. Some teachers and courses can provide more opportunities for interaction with learners than others. For instance, the course on Modern and Contemporary American Poetry taught by a professor with his teaching assistants from a university in the USA, beginning in 2012, on Coursera, can be seen as an example of high interaction between teacher and teaching staff and learners. Learners’ questions on the forums were always answered by the teaching staff, learners were always encouraged to express their own interpretations of the poems in the syllabus, discussions were set up with participants entering the conversation live via phone, learners were given a virtual tour of the space dedicated to poetry discussions at their university, an anthology of poetry created by some participants was initiated, a mug dedicated to the course was created and could be shipped to participants, and, last but not least, the course ran again throughout time, including an alternative syllabus for those taking the course again. The reaction of the participants was unanimous, as the American poetry professor managed to establish a very close relationship with an audience formed by people of all backgrounds and from all over the world. This could be regarded as a friendly, equal-to-equal type of rapport, which is considered specific to countries that are low power distance, where teachers and students, bosses and staff, can establish a relationship of equality and where the students’ and staff’s creativity and proposals are encouraged. While in some countries, during school before university, literature and poetry were considered hard to understand and not relate to the present generations’ experience, since these were titles selected from the history of literature and mostly from the past, the Modern and Contemporary American poetry professor made poetry seem close to anyone due to the sharing of similar experiences and finding common ground with modern and contemporary poets. For him, poetry is an everyday life experience, not related to obscure meanings and certainly not accessible only to the elites. At the same time, the feeling that this type of poetry is so accessible could also have to do with the fact that modern and contemporary poet remains open to interpretation and offers opportunities for anyone to relate to it and establish various meanings due to the authors’ leaving the interpretation open to each of his/her readers.

Forums and comments below the videos can offer the opportunity for learners to also interact among themselves. When essays were given for courses such as the one on Modern and Contemporary Poetry as tasks, learners were presented with the method of peer-to-peer correction. Each learner has to correct a compulsory number of essays, then have their own corrected, and, if they wanted, they could read and comment upon more essays. Such a method is explainable due to the large number of participants from all over the world. Source [3] mentions that some of the MOOC courses “have had hundreds of thousands of students enrolled.” At the same time, as has been commented on numerous times on the courses’ forums on Coursera, the feedback may be subjective or not accurate. The course on Modern and Contemporary Poetry tried to address this issue by allowing users to complain about the wrong feedback and having their grades fixed after the teaching staff checked their grades again. The staff also tried to fix all technical issues and allow all participants wishing for a diploma for finishing the course to get one, especially since it had acquired a sentimental value, due to the enjoyment of the course. The enjoyment of the course had mostly to do with the way they interacted with the professor and teaching staff. At some point, the way a teacher relates to and interacts with his/her students can have a great influence on their reaction towards the respective subject. While such an experience could be dismissed as emotional, subjective and immature, being mostly associated with young learners, it does matter even later in age, even for adult learners. After the first course was held, there was a very emotional goodbye video, where the teaching staff took into account the opinions of the participants willing to voice their opinions and give feedback for the course.

One of the downsides of communication via forums or comments under the videos could be that it can happen that some learners’ questions can remain unanswered. The number of comments and participants can make it a time-consuming task for the teacher or teaching staff team to reply to every single question. Some learners may also never comment and discuss, as they are simply interested in watching the videos and taking the time to understand the subject of the course for themselves. What is more, due to the time limit placed on how long the free content of the course is available, then the learners may feel rushed and not take the time to respond to other learners or even ask questions themselves. Having these issues in mind, communication may become ineffective if, during some of the courses at least, students may feel difficulty in connecting to others and in becoming engaged in the interactivity of the course. At the same time, some of the comments on the forums or in the comments section may not be very deep, or very well-thought. It also depends on how learners are, generally, from the point of view of their personality: extroverted, thus willing to communicate, or introverted, meaning not being so willing to communicate with others. Another issue is that, after all, students in online courses can see their teacher if they choose to film themselves while presenting the lectures in video format, while the teacher and teaching staff never see the faces of all of their students. Students themselves cannot visually see the other students they could interact with, which makes socialization even more difficult. Yet, if someone has difficulties socializing in real life, he/she can feel more relaxed while studying online and not so anxious about having to interact with colleagues they are seeing and meeting for the first time in the respective classroom setting. In spite of all this, some students may post more often than others, and those active students can notice who posts interesting and reflective topics on the forums or in the comments section. In the meantime, sorting out through comments can take time for other students as well, and they may skip this step and just go on with their course and tasks set up by their teachers. Peer-to-peer tasks such as essay corrections are done anonymously. It is an experience that is very much different from the pair or group work, students can be assigned to class in a face-to-face setting, allowing them to get to know better other colleagues they have not interacted with often otherwise.

Otherwise, communication with students on MOOC platforms such as FutureLearn and Coursera is done by using artificial intelligence. Most likely it is a robot that selects the recommendations for every user of course subjects related to previous courses the user has registered for and based on the interests that the user has listed in his/her profile. Messages related to upcoming deadlines for tasks, as well as a course content on the sidebar, are present with both Coursera and FutureLearn. This can help the student organize the learning material and keep an eye on the progress done up to a certain point. For Coursera platform courses, the learner has the option of choosing the pace of study, from one day a week to five days a week. The recommended pace is also mentioned, automatically. The student is told that he/she will be more motivated to finish the course if he/she sets up a learning pace. This could be a substitute for feeling competitive, as can be done in certain classrooms in cultures oriented towards achievement of the individual. For learners belonging to such backgrounds, having such freedom with self-organizing the pace for their course could have no effect on their performance, as they can apply the pattern of behaviour towards studying, they have been used to, or they could relax and eventually not even finish the course. Motivation is mostly individually based for such courses, as most often students register for courses for their own personal development and out of their own free will. It depends on their interest in the subject, but also on other factors such as time organization since there are also other activities to be done. Another trace of artificial intelligence can be seen in the quizzes, where, after completion, the learners can find the results and the right answer immediately.

Communication may not be a focus in such mass open online courses, yet, at various points, it could be helpful to determine the success of a course and the rate of those that finish it. However, since the introduction of the system of payment for verified certificates to be received at the end of the course, the motivation may be related to the fact that the student has paid for the course and could feel determined to feel that the payment has not been in vain.

Most of the courses on these platforms are held in the English language. This could be due to the wish of the teachers to have students sign up from all over the world. The English language is an international one, and by using it, all the teachers seem to throw out an invitation for everyone, regardless of nationality and background, to join their courses. The degree of interactivity is, therefore, first of all, ensured by the possibility of having a large audience due to their ability to understand and use the language in which the course is being taught. The accessibility of the course material is furthermore ensured by allowing students to watch the videos and complete the tasks within the limits of their everyday life, face-to-face schedule. The videos are not scheduled for live watching and they can also be watched all over again if there is something that is not clear. The latter aspect offers compensation for the possible lack of personal interaction between teachers and students due to a large number of students and limited time due to the teachers’ schedules. Even in the face-to-face classroom, the teacher may not have the time to discuss with each student individually what his/ her issues with the subject are. Therefore, the teacher resorts to addressing all students as a group, and, if conditions allow, the teacher may reserve time to provide individual feedback on certain tasks each student solves, individually or in pairs or group work. Sometimes, peer-to-peer discussions on the forums or in the comments section can help, just as discussions among colleagues in the face-to-face classroom can help. Feedback can come also from a colleague, not necessarily from the teacher, in both face-to-face and online mediums.

Having such a huge class before them with mass open online courses can be a strange experience for teachers as well, not only for students. The number of seats in an online course is unlimited, and the teacher cannot have an overall view of each and every student. This lack of real-time communication can be compensated by providing access at any time within the limit allowed for completing the course and by offering the possibility for students to go through the material over and over again until the subject becomes clear. Moreover, once someone asks on the forums or in the comments section a question that is similar to another student’s question, there is the possibility to do a search using keywords and to find out the answer anyone is looking for.

One advantage regarding communication among teachers and students on mass online platforms is related to the possibilities offered by the online medium in doing away with the need for searching for a physical space for an adequate classroom, with technological equipment adapted to the number of students, as well as by the teachers’ doing away with issues regarding students’ discipline. During courses of lectures and seminars, students may disturb the teacher by talking among themselves about other topics, or they may not be attentive. With MOOC courses, however, this is dealt with personally by every student. They can simply take a break whenever they feel like doing so and afterwards resume watching the lecture. Besides, the factor of enrolling in a course by personal choice can be decisive for showing interest in subject matter and tasks.

2. Literature review

How does communication occur between teachers and students, as well as among students, in MOOCs? What are the difficulties, challenges and solutions that can be found?

Among the difficulties regarding MOOC communication, we could mention the confusion, which requires a bit of organization for students, as well as motivation to actively participate.

Source [3] mentions that, during their first weeks enrolled in a MOOC, students feel confused. A newsletter was the solution proposed by the teacher, sent daily for their information regarding communication-related to the course. Source [4] mentions the course CCK08, on Moodle platform, where only 14% of the students showed active participation. This source mentions that 86% of the students had either given up the course or were “lurking”, due to the following reasons: they simply enjoyed the “free ride”, or they felt that, as “novices”, they should “lurk” until they felt the necessary confidence to voice their opinions in public.

What is more, according to Ref. [4], if there is the possibility of connectivity, this does not necessarily mean that there is interaction. As a result, one of the participants in the CCK08 course mentioned that they connected to communication via email, blog, as well as forums, and they enjoyed communicating with the “temporary connections” with other users. Issues regarding communication were related to patronizing behaviour of various participants in the course or not meaningful communication related to the course material. Students’ autonomy should be encouraged in MOOCs since the possibilities of communication between students and instructors are rather reduced, and instead, the focus should be on interaction among students. Another issue draws on the connection between establishing interconnectedness and trust: “sharing for many people requires trust, and the more connectedness there is, the more time-consuming and hazardous it may be to build trust.” At the same time, autonomy can mean a lack of help, and being alone with no support for certain learners: “Autonomy was equated to lack of support by some participants, particularly those enrolled for credit with associated assessments.” However, even while in a physical classroom, some students may still feel that they lack support, as the teacher may not have the time to answer all questions, the students may be too shy to ask for help from both colleagues and teachers. Alternatively, for mass open online courses, some students enrolled may rely on the support of friends or other acquaintances for further discussions.

The reason for the instructors’ motivation for starting MOOCs [5] could be the following [6]: providing the opportunity to learn through democratic access to quality courses of lectures, ensuring the instructor’s university promotion, ensuring the possibility of having students enroll in the respective university for courses, establishing collaborations with other universities and ensuring the “potential for research and development in online education”, as well as, eventually, “Transforming traditional teaching and learning approaches.”

Source [7] focuses on communication “in a global, semi-synchronous classroom” on Coursera platform as it happens on the forums, with application to a “business strategy MOOC” from spring 2013, with about 90,000 registered students. Regarding the number of students engaged in the discussions on the forum, about 4500 students created “over 15,600 posts or comments”, and “Over 15,000 learners viewed at least one discussion thread in both instances, contributing to 181,911 total discussion thread views.” The research focused on five dimensions: “the extent to which knowledge construction occurred through discussions”, “communicative intent” (“argumentative, responsive, informative, elicitative and imperative” [8, 9]), emotional impact of the posts (“positive/ negative activating, positive/negative deactivating, and neutral” [10]), topic (for instance quizzes, members’ introductions and members organizing meetings in real life) and relevance of the post in its thread or category. The research creates, based on engagement, learners’ profiles, such as in the cases subforum: those members that constantly engage with others’ posts, those members that initiate discussions, those members called “strategists”, who “had a greater proportion of argumentative statements (55%) and rarely had posts that reflected no learning (1.6%)”, and individualists, who “were highly distinctive in their large proportion of argumentative statements (85%)”; in the final project sub-forum: those members seeking help; those members strategically looking for information regarding the project; those members more interested in the exchange of ideas; those members called “focused achievers”, concentrating on peer review and certificates and those members “seeking support and opportunities for collaboration on the final project”. Cultural differences have been noticed, for instance in the cases sub-forum, the “discussion initiators” were mainly from Asia, and in the final projects sub-forum, the “project support seekers” were mainly from South America.

Source [11] mentions a problem with discussion forums irrelevant conversations to understanding the material covered and the tasks, in which some students can engage.

Research mentioned in Ref. [12] highlights the importance of discussions based on the course material, with learners collaborating with one another. Collaboration can be beneficial since the students “have a diverse range of backgrounds and motivations for taking the courses”. One issue with communication on MOOC platforms is that the space is a “non-formal” one [13], with “few rules”, and thus “learners are free to pick and choose how and if they interact”. Another issue identified is the lack of control from the instructors: “The overall governance structure is relatively weak, set primarily by the educators’ questions/assignments for the forums, the technical design of the forums (e.g., the division of forums into specific topics) and the roles participants themselves take on during the course (typically eight weeks).” By leaving everything to the decision of the learners, the outcomes of the courses can be risky. However, the function of the way that students have the time and the interest to interact and the function of the way the instructor motivates them, there can be very productive discussions. Individual and group levels of interaction have been studied [14, 15, 16]. According to Ref. [12, 17], group interaction on forums is the basis for learning to happen. Indeed, considering how asking questions can help clarify various issues in any classroom, face-to-face included, group discussions can help both to point out various issues and to seek solutions to them. This can only be done in groups.

While the materials are provided, in all formats, both written and video, a topic covered by the professor’s materials is never enough. The main issue is to start asking yourself, as a student, various questions and to voice various dilemmas. This is how future research can occur, based on fresh perspectives and questions. This is how something new can be learnt and better understood. Only the information regarding the topic is never enough in an academic course of lectures.

3. Materials and methods

The methodology for the present chapter will be based on the author’s participatory observations in MOOC courses on FutureLearn and Coursera platforms.

Previous literature on the topic worth mentioning includes the research mentioned in Ref. [18]. This research underlines the particular way in which FutureLearn’s discussions are organized by “each course step” and located “right below or beside the course content”. FutureLearn provides, therefore, an organized and focused environment for communication, based on precisely the video material or reading material: “Learners are encouraged to share their experience, contribute their reflection, discuss issues raised in the course step, and interact with others”.

We could conclude that, at least in the perception of the author of the chapter, such an organization of interaction among users discussing the question addressed by the teacher reminds us of the posts on social media. For instance, on Facebook groups, or on a Facebook page devoted to a certain topic, we have a main post offering a bit of information, pictures, or even a video material. Then, the person posting can address a question to the users and prompt them to discuss and also to interact with one another. On FutureLearn platform courses, users can also give each other likes and various reactions just as on Facebook, and also interact by replying to other students’ posts. This resemblance offers students a familiar type of environment, which is created according to the way they are used to interacting generally on social media on a variety of topics. This is likely expected to provide a relaxed environment for studying and for communication among students. At the same time, the conversations are not expected to be carried off in a very formal way, but in a relaxed, conversational, everyday life manner, with everyone feeling equal. Since learners are expected to share knowledge of English as an international language to communicate, it is also expected that they can differ in cultural background and means of interaction. However, since they can be familiar with American English culture, they may associate the use of this language with equality with teachers and freedom to express themselves in an almost conversational manner during class. Expressing their opinions and suggestions is encouraged, as in any low-power distance classroom [19, 20]. A difference is made in communicating someone’s opinion in the comments section in FutureLearn courses and in the language used for writing essays, which are associated with academic writing and the use of formal English. The teachers are also expressing themselves freely in the video material, which is not even as long as face-to-face lectures. The format of the video material reminds me of the brief videos shown on social media in order to be watched. Our current world believes that social media has shaped the way digital natives can focus on watching a video or reading a book. They prefer short material. Therefore, the video material on FutureLearn and Coursera platforms is short, not allowing the learner to have to watch a long video in one sitting. The courses are, therefore, especially on FutureLearn platform, interactive ones, focusing on making the learner actively participate, not just to passively listen to the lecture. At the end of the video, if the course is about learning a foreign language, the students could be asked to post in the comments section their own answers to questions such as what their name and surname are and where they are from. Such an example is a course centred on learning the Mandarin language in Taiwan course, held in January 2023, on FutureLearn platform.

One of the sections in the course is based on the question “What’s your name?”, where the course instructors explain the sentence structure and what each word means, and then there is a portion of the comments from users. FutureLearn does not use any forums for communication, which is done in the manner of social media platforms, with comments under the main sections of the course, including video and reading materials. The connection among users is not visible, as some comments are still very recent during this session of the course at the moment of writing the present paper. Under the first videos of the course, we cannot see much activity, even if comments from previous sessions of the course are also present there. We cannot see interaction at the level of likes or at the level of offering feedback. At the same time, the answer is quite clear after watching the video and there is nothing to debate. Instead, all students have to do is solve this exercise, which resembles a drill type of exercise. The social media aspect of the platform FutureLearn is visible, especially since there is the option to even share the video using social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. The usual type of online communication using social media is encouraged to continue regarding these types of courses. This can make them seem relevant to the preoccupations of the users of social media and as a means to create their social media image as intellectuals. At the same time, sharing by users on social media can help increase the popularity of this course, which is designed to be accessible to anyone. The level is beginner, so it should be accessible to anyone willing to start learning Mandarin.

The social media interface used for learning and teaching is not restricted to FutureLearn or other MOOC platforms. Facebook pages and groups have been used by various foreign language teachers to post videos of themselves explaining an issue related to German, French, Turkish, Japanese and other languages and then learners could comment under the video, give likes and share it with their friends.

The familiarity of the environment can show how FutureLearn platform has adapted to the way potential registered learners usually communicate. This is an equivalent of teachers trying to understand an age group and their interests, together with their preferred way of interaction, or a group of professionals, for example engineering students learning English, and their particular needs from the English language seminars related to using it in their future profession. Definitely, the students of FutureLearn platform are familiar with the online environment, with forums, sites and social media; therefore, they should find the medium for courses intuitive and easy to use.

On Coursera platform, the course about Korean Philosophy and Culture is also organized as an intuitive setting to which students are used to, as users of forums, discussion boards and Facebook group files, as well as e-books.

What reminds of an e-book is the contents that are organized very clearly and can be used in an interactive manner between artificial intelligence and student. The student can scroll up and down and also see personal progress information. On the left sidebar, there is a discussion forums section, where the students can discuss the topics related to the course. Further on, the discussion forums have a section called posts for you, which includes tasks that the students still have to do. In the case of this course, there is information regarding peer correction of essays written by other students.

We can also notice how the forums are grouped allowing socializing opportunities based on discussing ideas about the course, while first of all students can introduce themselves, each and every week. The discussions are well-grouped and organized so that the interactions are based on discussing and having a plan in mind. It is not just simple socializing as in the case among students in face-to-face classrooms, which goes further beyond the topic of courses and seminars. The introductions are based on discussing what made us students choose the respective course, in this case, the course introducing students to Korean Philosophy and Culture. Here we can discuss previous knowledge and expectations regarding the course, as well as detail our interest in Asian cultures, for example. Such a discussion topic can also help teachers to know what students expect and what their background is, in case they further wish to develop their course. In this way, the course material can be adapted better to students’ needs and the function of the current students’ feedback if teachers have, in view, another session of holding this course in the future.

Interactions among students are based on common ground and on precise topics for discussion prompts, so that they are not just random, socializing talk as we can see on entertainment discussion forums based on hobbies and various interests. Based on these discussion forum prompts, a sense of community can be created, reminding of life as student at university, to some extent. However, no personal relations can form too easily, as students do not further socialize in small groups after the classes are over. Therefore, the platform needs to find various ways of compensating for what differs or what can be regarded as being lost in the process of online communication. Part of this attempt to compensate for various losses can be the opportunity given by the discussion forums’ prompts. These prompts are related to communication in an academic setting, such as during a seminar discussion with the teacher and with the other students present. On FutureLearn, in the comment section, students can choose to follow the activity of another student whose answers they may like, however. In this way, we can engage in further discussions with students that develop their own opinions or give answers based on which we would like to continue to further develop the issue with them if they respond and keep the discussion going for as long as it is needed.

While the students’ needs can be difficult to set up for teachers, as they have a huge class for their lectures and seminars, of students from all over the world, some standards could be set based on universal needs of beginners in learning a foreign language. The foreign language learning courses on FutureLearn and Coursera specify the level. Some courses can have a continuation with intermediate level and also advanced level. This is the case of a Spanish set of courses on FutureLearn platform. In helping come to terms with students’ needs, artificial intelligence is used to select those courses in which various students may be interested. The courses can be self-selected by checking a certain domain of interest, and further, when opening the home page, recommendations of courses appear.

The MOOC platforms have, as merit, made the learning experience online interactive. They prompt communication, to the degree to which each student wishes for it. An example of interaction between two students can be seen on FutureLearn platform, in the Mandarin course, during week one, under the video Impression of Taiwan—What do you do in Taiwan? One of the students asked a question regarding the use of tenses in a sentence. Another student offered explanations and then the interaction ended with the first student posting thanks for the answer. This type of communication is informative regarding grammar explanations and could help other students understand the issue, making them aware of its existence if they have not yet noticed it.

The same course offers an example of conversation based on exchange of information related to entertainment when students comment on the section What is your impression of Taiwan? There they have the opportunity to present their own opinion in what looks like a light conversation, which could be regarded as a good time for taking a break from the language learning drills types of exercises and to express themselves in the lingua franca, English.

The comment by one of the users on April 6 is, unlike other comments, a critical one, addressing the less positive aspects of Taiwan, such as expensive houses and with being crowded. Others are enthusiastic to visit in the near future or have already visited Taiwan.

In the course on Korean Philosophy and Culture on Coursera platform, the forum discussion prompts are initiated by the course instructor. The instructor also recommends students to give each other feedback.

We could regard this invitation as an attempt to determine students to use collaborative learning. According to source [21], collaborative learning could be defined as including a series of approaches referring to students participating actively in class, and working together with the teacher or with other students. According to this approach, “students are working in groups of two or more, mutually searching for understanding, solutions, or meanings, or creating a product” [21]. Indeed, in the FutureLearn comments below the videos and in the Coursera discussion forum prompts replies, we could see examples of collaborative learning to the extent where students can check the answers of others and figure out the correct answer or the appropriate answer to the teacher’s questions. While the collaborative learning in this case does not involve real-time and direct communication with students, but only reading the comments of others later, by reconstructing the context, students can have the feeling of working together. Even if not physically together in a face-to-face classroom, they can still connect at the level of ideas. The comments are left there to be interpreted later when a new student joins and goes through the course material.

The interpretation of comments can be regarded as part of the following principle on which collaborative learning is founded: “Learning is an active, constructive process” [21]. Indeed, the effort to post a good answer to the drills in the Mandarin course, for instance, is part of this principle, as when as of the belief that “To learn new information, ideas or skills, our students have to work actively with them in purposeful ways.” It may be easier to remember a certain phrase to ask someone’s name in Mandarin or to answer in Mandarin once we see other students’ replies as well. However, we can notice in the comments below the post in the Mandarin course where the question and answer for what our names are (first and last name) is that not all students use accents in Romaji script. Therefore, the correct way would be to watch the video and post using the correct symbols, not just copy and paste from another colleague. Yet, we can be helped by seeing examples of how other students applied their name and surname in the drills and see this as an example of how to apply our own or we could just feel reassured if we want to check if we answered correctly. Studying a completely unknown language can be a challenging task; therefore, collaborative learning can make the entire experience more interesting: “Collaborative learning activities immerse students in challenging tasks or questions” [21]. The courses on the platforms FutureLearn and Coursera provide a practical approach to learning: “Rather than beginning with facts and ideas and then moving to applications, collaborative learning activities frequently begin with problems, for which students must marshal pertinent facts and ideas” [21]. The last statement is true in the sense that students are allowed to exercise practically. Yet, part of the information, at least in the Mandarin course on FutureLearn, was present in the first video clip. However, the student’s attention is drawn to the phrase asking what someone’s name and surname are, only afterwards, when the teacher gives an explanation in the video material.

Communication among students on task solving is, thus, an element of collaborative learning. For the time being, however, no interaction among students is yet visible, as can be seen in the selection of comments. Regarding innovations in various cultures that are supposed to be mentioned by students as asked by the discussion prompt, the majority of mentions are related to language, alphabet and language reforms.

Occasions for relaxed communication and getting to know other students are also found on Coursera. In the same Korean Philosophy and Culture course, students have, in the discussion forums, the opportunity to introduce themselves and find other students from all over the world shows that the number of comments is not a large one. So far, there are only 29 replies. The first comment is from 15 days ago, while the present time of observing the comments by the chapter’s author is December 19, 2022.

For the Korean Philosophy and Culture course, the discussion prompts are organized by every course week. For each week, students are invited to communicate with others and engage in discussions and debates, as well as to interact checking others sharing similar interests and goals. The course instructor and staff are not the only ones to post prompts. Students can also open up a subject for discussion and are encouraged to do so.

Alternatively, students can simply watch the lectures and not do any of the tasks, as well as never post in the comments or discussion forums prompts sections.

Previous research [3] have mentioned several styles of engagement with the course materials on MOOCs for students:

“1. Viewers, in the left mode of the plot, primarily watch lectures, handing in few if any assignments.

2. Solvers, in the right mode, primarily hand in assignments for a grade, viewing few if any lectures.

3. All-rounders, in the middle mode, balance the watching of lectures with the handing in of assignments. […]

4. Collectors, also in the left mode of the plot, primarily download lectures, handing in few assignments, if any. Unlike Viewers they may or may not be actually watching the lectures. […]

5. Bystanders registered for the course but their total activity is below a very low threshold.”

Students can choose their own style of relating to the course materials on MOOCs, especially since, generally speaking, nothing is mandatory in this medium. However, the experience is more interactive than simply learning about a certain topic by studying a book, for example in culture and civilization or a textbook for learning a foreign language. The video, audio and reading materials are structured in a way in which students can feel at least that they are listening to a real teacher giving a lecture or giving them seminar instructions. When solving the exercises given, for instance on FutureLearn, students deciding to post in the comments section never feel alone in their experience. They can view the other students’ answers and compare their answers to those of their colleagues. While these answers may not all be correct, here is the opportunity to reflect on other colleagues’ answers and offer them feedback. Once we explain a certain exercise to someone else, the issue can become clearer for us. We can also receive feedback in our turn from another colleague, and he/she may help clarify a certain issue for us. If our answer is correct, we can receive likes from colleagues. The same can happen if our argumentation is convincing regarding a certain issue, depending on the exercise. Moreover, by providing the opportunity to use sites such as Padlet for certain exercises (such as those asking for associated keywords with a certain concept), online students can collaborate on those tasks and add their own opinion to the others, forming a collective project. Yet, to some extent, the entire platform is built in such a way as to allow collaborative learning in the comments under the video section or on the discussion forum prompts.

4. Results

While the two platforms encourage and recommend interactivity throughout the learning process, receiving a reply to someone’s question is not something certain. Receiving enough explanations as in a real, face-to-face classroom may not happen. However, the comments are also not that many, but the purpose of the teacher is to facilitate exchanges among students, mostly. The teacher does not place himself as an authority as in the old teaching methodology, but mostly facilitates interaction among students and asks the students to be active and to solve exercises in search of answers. The courses examined in this paper make use of student-centred learning [22], which has also been designed by terms such as flexible learning [23], experiential learning [24] and self-directed learning [22]. The change from seeing the teacher as an authority and listening passively to him/her to motivate the student to be active has been explained by originating in the book Freedom to Learn for the 80s [25], a source, which “describes the shift in power from the expert teacher to the student learner, driven by a need for a change in the traditional environment where in this ‘so-called educational atmosphere, students become passive, apathetic and bored’” [22].

Motivating students, especially in a MOOC environment, is a very challenging task for teachers, perhaps even more so than in face-to-face classrooms, where the students are under the obligation of finishing university studies in order to get their diploma and find a job. Most students register for the courses out of curiosity, and for most of them, there is nothing urging them to finish with getting a certificate for the course, unless they decide to pay for getting a verified one. Students of MOOCs may feel like browsing through various courses simply out of curiosity, and not intend to finish the material or even do all tasks proposed by the teacher. However, such phenomena can occur even in real-life university environments, as not all students are motivated to finish their studies. Various reasons can lead to abandoning their studies, such as wishing to socialize or to focus on entertainment, realizing that their future job is not part of the domain studied at university or simply realizing that, at least at that very moment in life, they cannot focus to complete their studies. On the Internet, and especially in MOOCs, the teacher may find that he/she does not have the same authority as in a real classroom. The institutional setting is not the same as that of a physically existing university where students are already enrolled. These are just some courses someone may sign up for now and then. However, the time factor and various personal life events can interfere with the courses regardless of the setting. Motivation can be coming from someone’s personal wish for various reasons to learn until the end of the course or from the wish to comply with the institutional rules to receive the certificate of graduation. Even for MOOC certificates, the accomplishment could count as a desire to go for personal development when presented at the workplace.

Regarding socializing and learning in a face-to-face vs. virtual environment, the collaborative learning method also has an answer: according to Smith et al. [21], “Learning is inherently social”, referring to learning after collaborative principles. What is more, collaborative learning based on being social refers to the fact that it “allows for student talk: students are supposed to talk with each other…and it is in this talking that much of the learning occurs” [26]. Therefore, talking among students does not have to centre on entertainment and personal hobbies. It can be based on course material, as collaborative learning implies. Students can talk and do not necessarily need to spend their free time together. They may have the course material as common ground for discussion and from there they can exercise their knowledge and their explanation to someone else skills, as well as their argumentation skills.

Regarding cultural differences, so far in the experience of this author’s chapter, there was never the case for having issues because of them. Learners and teachers have taken into account the possibilities of English as a lingua franca to unite them all and to make them all intelligible among one another. Cultural differences have been a frequently discussed topic and could be understood as part of cultural awareness as follows: “Cultural Awareness is the foundation of communication and it involves the ability to stand back from ourselves and becoming aware of our cultural values, beliefs and perceptions” [27]. Even if we focus on the common interest represented by the topic of discussion in the course, and assume the idea that we are different yet we could be similar up to some point, this could lead to wrong assumptions: “Projected similarities could lead to misinterpretation […]. When we assume that people are similar to us, we might incur the risk that they are not” [27]. We can learn about a different language and culture in a MOOC, yet, at the same time, we may simply leave our cultural differences apart and focus on the way we all perceive English as a lingua franca in order to feel part of the community of MOOC students. Our national cultural identity is therefore replaced temporarily by the identity of being MOOC students and being part of the same community, which gives us common values for the duration of the course at least. Everything else is just pushed into the background, our identity as online students being central.

How much or how little we engage in communication within MOOCs remains up to us. Occasionally, some teachers such as the Modern and Contemporary American Poetry professor can motivate everyone due to his communicative skills and charisma and make the majority of us enjoy the course and be willing to share our opinions.

The communication possibilities on Coursera and FutureLearn are given in different formats (discussion forums vs. comments). However, the main communication tool is related to the way of understanding the course material, via video and reading means.

5. Conclusions

We could think of the process of teaching and learning through the framework of communication. After all, this process involves, regardless of the type of setting, face-to-face classroom or online platform, communication between teacher and students, as well as among students themselves. MOOCs focus mostly on the possibilities of students communicating efficiently among themselves while making the entire communication process public through comments under the videos in the case of FutureLearn platform or in the discussion forums prompts in the case of Coursera platform.

Both platforms are very well-organized, in their own different ways.

The two courses chosen for analysis were based on the criteria of the interests of the author of this chapter, as well as on the availability of these courses at the time the author was writing this chapter. The author of this chapter has been going through participatory observation on these two platforms since 2012, with breaks at some points. Yet, not all courses remain with their material available after a certain period of time, when the student needs to pay for further access or simply to complete the course in a certain number of days. In the future, the author of the chapter may try to pay for the certificates and their verification. However, the author of the paper cannot really use the certificates for anything else but to include them in the curriculum vitae at work. Other certificates are considered, however, relevant, which are those completed for PhD and MA programmes with classical academic settings. The mass open online courses are completed by the author of the chapter for personal development and interest purposes. Based on some of the essays written or material read, the author of the chapter has developed some topics into personal research papers. Therefore, the motivation of the author of the chapter is personal interest when it comes to completing certain MOOCs. With some MOOCs, a function of interest and time, the author of the chapter may or may not engage in conversations with other students. The author of the chapter has not developed strong connections with any other online students. She has focused on the subject matter of the courses. The only course where she has seen personal relationships develop outside the MOOC was the course on Modern and Contemporary Poetry, where social media accounts such as Facebook were used to keep in touch with the course instructor and with other students. The course had a very high emotional impact, which prompted a personal type of communication, which is not seen when it comes to other courses.

The type of communication established between teacher and student also varies in real-life, face-to-face school settings, after all. From this point of view, the online medium can be seen as a variant of the face-to-face type of environment and communication types that can be established. There is no certainty about the durability of relations established between teacher and students, and students and students, even in face-to-face classrooms, after all.

Among the best practices of communication from courses on Coursera and on FutureLearn, we could mention allowing the students to collaborate by helping one another to understand the assignments they are given. Other discussion prompts can help them better explain to one another what they are supposed to do. This can be regarded as an exercise in understanding and then explaining what they are supposed to do for their assignments, which means students clarify what they should write before explaining it to someone else.