Content analysis of MOOC forums: The characteristics of the learners' discourse in forums

Considering the importance of social and collaborative learning, this research aims to explore the characteristics of the discourse in forums in order to have insight into learners' needs and interests in massive open online courses. This will help in developing an instructional strategy that will increase the learners' participation in forums, and their involvement in the creation of knowledge; consequently, improving learning processes. An innovative approach was taken in this study, using the Natural Language Processing (NLP) tool and Henri's content analysis model in order to analyze the learners' discourse in forums and identify their types of interactions. We hope that this approach will lead to additional understanding and shed light on the ability to create effective online learning communities, through the learners' behavior.