Exploring the nature of cultural communication between learners in a multicultural MOOC

Abstract

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) attract worldwide learners from diverse backgrounds and cultures. When learners communicate directly in this multicultural space, there is potential for new cultural practices to be articulated or transcended into a new form of knowledge that blurs cultural boundaries. Our research is attempting to identify methods of facilitating such behaviour in MOOCs. This paper presents a case study to investigate existing cultural communicative practices between MOOC learners through their online discussions. Learners’ comments were coded and analysed against the practice-oriented Intercultural Communication Awareness (ICA) model. Results show that a very limited number of interactions had elements of transcultural awareness and that the interaction and peer communication decreased as the course proceeded. These observations suggest that a collaborative pedagogical approach may interconnect learners well in the MOOC community.