Social Comparison in MOOCs: Perceived SES, Opinion, and Message Formality

There has been limited research on how perceptions of socioeconomic status (SES) and opinion difference could influence peer feedback in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Using social comparison theory [12], we investigated the influence of ability and opinion-related factors on peer feedback text in a data science MOOC. Perceived SES of peers and the formality of written responses were used as the ability-related factor, while agreement between learners represented the opinion-related factor. We focused on understanding the behaviors of those learners who are most prevalent in MOOCs; those from high socioeconomic countries. Through two studies, we found a strong and repeated influence of agreement on affect and formality in feedback to peers. While a mediation effect of perceived SES was found, a significant effect of formality was not. This work contributes to an understanding of how social comparison theory can be operationalized in online peer writing environments.