Learners’ Perspectives on Learning Programming from Interactive Computer Tutors in a MOOC

With the increasing demand for technology workers, more people are now learning to code. Many of these learners are turning to Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) due to their low cost and accessibility, especially compared to attending in-person courses. However, little is known about who these users are, and what they think about the instruction provided by these systems. In this study, we conducted a qualitative analysis on 218 responses (stemming from 62 questions) on Quora about a popular MOOC called Codecademy. We found that 1) learners are primarily composed of beginners, 2) Codecademy is good at delivering web development/front end courses, 3) an interactive environment increases engagement, and 4) learners largely criticize courses as being too rigid and impractical. Based on these findings, we discuss the importance of interactive computer tutors as programming instructors and propose design features that can potentially improve learning with MOOCs.