IDENTIFYING AFFINITY SPACE IN A MASSIVE OPEN ONLINE COURSE: AN ANALYSIS OF ONLINE DISCOURSE IN FORUM ACTIVITIES OF A COURSERA COURSE

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have become a major topic for discussion since late 2011 after major institutions Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Harvard University launched Coursera, EdX, and Udacity. However, there has been little published research on how these xMOOCs, highly structured courses that centre around a series short video lectures, automated marking, and peer evaluation, impact teaching and learning. This paper explores one Coursera course offered by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology to indicate whether an affinity space for learning, where groups of people from various backgrounds gather for a common endeavour, exists. A discourse analysis methodology is used to analyse text generated in the Coursera online discussion forums to identify elements of an affinity space. Findings suggest that the course does form an affinity space; however, the scope of the data is limited and more research needs to be completed.