Being Social or Social Learning: A Sociocultural Analysis of the FutureLearn MOOC Platform

MOOC environments seem to offer massive potential for social learning. However, MOOC environments have unique challenges for pedagogy which are not present in other socio-constructivist learning environments: the scale and diversity of participation. Many points of view are accessible, but few means of filtering. This paper examines interaction data from several MOOCs. Interaction data is an indicator for depth of learning in the sociocultural sense. Most conversations are seen to have surface level interactions. Platform and pedagogy affordances are suggested that may help deal with this.