AI Education in Massive Open Online Courses: A Content Analysis

This study aims to explore the current state of AI education in massive open online courses (MOOCs). We screened 128 sample MOOC courses from 10 learning platforms and coded information on course overviews, content outlines, recommended materials and teaching methods as a way to understand the content and teaching methods of AI education on MOOC platforms. The results show that: (1) Coursera and Edx platforms offer the largest number of ESD-related courses, the organizations offering MOOCs are mostly companies and universities, and the number of AI education-related courses started from 2012 to the present has increased year by year. The average number of participants is exceeds 120,000, and AI courses are currently very popular; (2) Core algorithms and topics related to typical applications are the main content of AI education; (3) Online procedural teaching, task-driven teaching and online collaborative learning are the most used pedagogical methods in MOOCs at this stage. However, pedagogical approaches such as scenario-based learning and project-based learning are not yet fully utilized in the MOOC environment. Our findings suggest that MOOC AI education in research a practical and innovative approach in preparing and learning AI education-related MOOC courses.