Peers in MOOCs: Lessons Based on the Education Production Function, Collective Action, and an Experiment

Abstract

Economic theory about peers can help learning scientists and designers scale their work from the scale of small classrooms to limitless learning experiences. I propose: 1. We may increase productivity in online learning by changing technologies around peers; many structures around peers can scale with class size. 2. It is not always in students' best interests to be good peers, and collective action failures may worsen with class size. I conducted an experiment in a NovoEd MOOC for teachers that was motivated by these propositions; it leads to future questions about unintended and emergent effects.