Abstract:

Scientific understanding is often settled within a discipline before it reaches a broader social understanding and acceptance. Contemporary examples include vaccination, evolution and human-caused global warming. Universities and researchers can play an essential role in raising public levels of scientific literacy about these topics by creating and sharing evidence-based educational materials. Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are a relatively new tool enabling universities to bring scientific literacy to large numbers of people across geographical borders and cultural divides. A growing body of research offers insight into how MOOCs can constructively engage learners in controversial topics. This paper outlines a case study of the MOOC Making sense of climate science denial (Denial101x on edX) and the data collected from discussion forum user habits. Here, we document the processes and approaches adopted in Denial101x to explain the denial of climate science and maximise the benefits of student-to-student interaction within course discussion boards. Further, we describe how the course team anticipated potential course disruptions, formulated responses in real-time and documented the interactions that eventuated in course discussions. The techniques used in Denial101x can provide educators with a framework for publishing materials on contentious topics, responding constructively to disruptive online behaviour, turning potentially problematic forum posts into active learning opportunities for students and effectively advancing societal scientific literacy.

Keywords:

Scientific literacy, MOOC, climate science, controversy, discussion forum, case study, online behaviour.