1. Background /problem statement

MOOC discussion forums create a collaborative community where knowledge construction and knowledge sharing can occur. In discussion forums, being engaged in the textual dialogue is essential for MOOC learners to better knowledge and skills acquisition. A growing body of studies probs learner engagement by using learning analytics to extract the trace data in discussion forums. Some studies have examined the total number of forum views and posts (e.g., Khalil & Ebner, 2017; Sunar et al., 2020) as the learning engagement indices in discussion forums. The quantified learning engagement revealed insightful information on learners’ behavioral participation in discussion forums. However, to gain insight into how knowledge construction takes place, it is not enough if we solely pay attention to how frequently learners engage in discussion forums. For this aim, it is necessary to examine learners’ cognitive engagement in dialogues in discussion forums from a content-wise perspective.

Previous studies confirmed that motivation was a strong factor that influenced learners’ learning in MOOCs (Badali et al., 2022). The participation of both non-completers and completers implies that MOOC learners with different motivations for attending a course might vary in investing effort in their learning, and individual motivation might lead to pursuing different attainments. Motivation is a vital factor that should be considered when exploring the mechanism of individual effort investment in discussion forums. Furthermore, in discussion forums, the development of dialogues is an ongoing collaborative work among fellow learners. Social interaction in discussion forums builds up the processes of collaborative learning and position individual in networks of meaning-making and knowledge-building (Dowell et al., 2015). Considering the individual role in social interaction, it might be helpful to understand the mechanism of knowledge construction and sharing. Therefore, this study connects motivation and social interaction to cognitive engagement would contribute to the knowledge of what rationales drive individuals to be engaged or disengaged in MOOC discussion forums.

2. Theoretical framework

1. Chi and Wylie (2014) developed the interactive, constructive, active, and passive (ICAP) framework, for evaluating the modes of cognitive engagement based on contributions within online learning communities, which reflects knowledge construction levels in learning processes.

2. Motivation is defined as the impetus to activate a person toward performing a behavior or actions (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation indicate that individuals are mobilized to act by distinct motivational orientations ranging from internalization to behavioral regulation (Deci & Ryan, 1985a). Individuals who have shared motivation orientation can be characterized into different learner profiles of motivation namely autonomous, controlled, and combined motivation (Ratelle et al., 2007). Motivation is a positive factor that drives learners to be engaged in discussion forums. For example, Tang et al. (2018) discovered that learners with autonomous motivation performed well than others in their longitudinal forum engagement.

3. Social networking analysis offers a perspective to identify social interaction patterns (i.e., centrality, and prestige) based on learners’ position (Wasserman & Faust, 1994) in the knowledge network, which manifests the degree of individual contribution to the cognitive discourse in discussion forums. Positive social interaction can moderate learners’ cognitive engagement in discussion forums (e.g., Galikyan et al., 2021).

3. Research questions

Aiming at acquiring precise knowledge, research questions were proposed to be addressed as follows: 

RQ1: What modes of cognitive engagement characterize the co-construction of knowledge in MOOC discussion forums?

RQ2: How are motivation and social interaction related to different modes of cognitive engagement in MOOC discussion forums?

RQ3: How does social interaction influence the relationships between motivation and different modes of cognitive engagement in MOOC discussion forums?

1. Data This study will be conducted on the data from the Circular Economy: An Introduction offered by a Dutch research university on the platform of edX. The data in this study came from the three runs of this course in 2021. The MOOC data composes of demographic information (e.g., gender, age), pre-survey, log events, discussion forum logs, etc. In total, there were 8299 learners enrolled in the course, and 981 learners passed the course. There were 2432 learners who gave their responses to the pre-test survey, and 723 of these learners posted in the discussion forums. There were 17540 comments posted to 834 forum comment threads, from 2207 learners. 2. Measuring instruments 2.1. Cognitive engagement The content of the discussion forums will be analyzed utilizing the coding instrument developed by Wang et al. (2015). All the posts in the discussion forums will be coded and categorized into passive, active, constructive, and interactive to manifest the modes of cognitive engagement. 2.2. Motivation The qualitative data on motivation was gathered from the open questions in the pre-survey. A motivation coding scheme developed by (Wei et al., 2023) will be utilized to cluster learners into different types of motivation groups: autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, and combined motivation. 2.3. Social interaction Social interaction will be measured by social network measures namely centrality and prestige (Wasserman & Faust, 1994). Based on learners’ contributions to the cognitive discourse in the discussion forums, social interaction aims to locate learners in the knowledge-sharing network. 3. Data analysis To answer RQ1, a content analysis (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005) will be adopted to distinguish the modes of cognitive engagement using the coding instrument developed by Wang et al. (2015). Descriptive statistics will be used for demonstrating the cognitive engagement modes. To answer RQ2, firstly, a content analysis (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005) will be employed to identify the types of motivation in terms of autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, and combined motivation (Deci & Ryan, 1985b). Second, a social network analysis (Wasserman & Faust, 1994) will be carried out to identify social interaction patterns among learners. Third, a multiple regression analysis will be adopted with SPSS 27.0 to examine the effects of motivation and social interaction on cognitive engagement. To answer RQ3, a moderating analysis (Preacher & Hayes, 2008) will be conducted with PROCESS v3.5 to examine the effect of social interaction on the relationship between motivation and cognitive engagement.

Expected outcomes: 1. The content analysis of the task-related messages in discussion forums will identify the modes of cognitive engagement (i.e., interactive, constructive, active, and passive). The descriptive statistics will display the results in total (7 weeks) and the distribution of weekly results. 2. Learners who attended this MOOC for various reasons will be categorized, for instance, personal interest, earning credits, teacher’s requirements, to supplement knowledge, personal interest & earning credits, etc. Three motivational profiles for participation in MOOCs will be identified, namely autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, and combined motivation. Learners’ motivation might be significantly and positively related to cognitive engagement, and learners with autonomous motivation might be more positively engaged in the discussion forums than other counterparts. Concerning social interaction, based on learners’ contributions to the dialogs, their social interaction patterns (i.e., centrality, and prestige) will be visualized in the social network. Social interaction might positively influence learners to be engaged in discussion forums, and learners located in the central positions (i.e., centrality) of the social network might be more positively engaged in discussion forums. 3. The moderating roles of centrality and prestige in the relationship between motivation and cognitive engagement will be examined. The centrality and prestige might be significant moderators of the relationship between motivation and cognitive engagement. The moderating effects of centrality and prestige on different modes of cognitive engagement will be further identified. 4. Based on the main findings of this study, we will offer theoretical implications to the literature and practical implications for MOOC curriculum designers and instructors.

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