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Can a diversity statement increase diversity in MOOCs?

Published: 24 June 2019 Publication History

Abstract

Despite the fact that anyone can sign up for open online courses, their enrollment patterns reflect the historical underrepresentation of certain sociodemographic groups (e.g. women in STEM disciplines). We theorize that enrollment choices online are shaped by contextual cues that activate stereotypes about numeric representation and climate in brick-and-mortar institutions. A longitudinal matched-pairs experiment with 14 MOOCs (N=29,000) tested this theory by manipulating the presence of a diversity statement on course pages and measuring effects on who enrolls. We found a 3% increase in the proportion of students with lower socioeconomic status. The effect size varied across courses between -0.5 and 7 percentage points. No significant changes in enrollment patterns by gender, age, and national development level occurred. Implications for the use and content of diversity statements and their alternatives are discussed.

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Cited By

View all
  • (2024)A Systematic Review on Engagement, Motivation, and Performance in MOOCs During the Post-Pandemic TimeInternational Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies10.4018/IJWLTT.33821619:1(1-21)Online publication date: 14-Feb-2024
  • (2024)Learner Engagement and Demographic Influences in Brazilian Massive Open Online Courses: Aprenda Mais Platform Case StudyAnalytics10.3390/analytics30200103:2(178-193)Online publication date: 3-Apr-2024
  • (2024)Strengthening inclusive teaching with a MOOC: Adult education and STEM as professional development partnersNew Directions for Adult and Continuing Education10.1002/ace.205192024:181(29-40)Online publication date: 5-Apr-2024
  • Show More Cited By

Recommendations

Reviews

Ernest L Hughes

Recently, the dean of a university business school asked me to write a diversity statement as part of an application for a teaching position. I asked him what goes in a diversity statement; he didn't have an answer, and I didn't apply. On the other hand, Kizilcec and Saltarelli do have an answer, at least in part. In a nutshell, focus on the experience of students at the virtual classroom door, so to speak, and "nudge" them inside [1]. This paper presents the results of a field experiment to increase enrollment of students in massive open online courses (MOOCs) from four underrepresented populations by placing a concise diversity statement and graphic on the enrollment pages for courses. Can a diversity statement increase diversity in MOOCs That is to say, can it increase enrollments from diverse and underrepresented populations Yes, it can, according to this research, for MOOC students of lower socioeconomic status (SES). Women No. Older people No. People in less-developed countries No. As a former retailer, these findings reminded me of the "last mile" challenge in (online) retail to get shoppers to choose a product [2]. The paper showcases a meticulous research design and concludes with a comprehensive list of 68 references. As an educator, I have used nudges for retention and completion for individual students, but have pondered what to do for "shop and drop" students who start and withdraw within the first week. An inclusive welcome statement may be part of the answer. Researchers interested in hearing more about Saltarelli's critical thinking and design thinking for inclusive and welcoming online learning experiences are referred to [3]. An introduction to Kizilcec's Future of Learning lab can be found online (http://learning.cis.cornell.edu/). Practitioners curious about inclusion in organizations-the next door after education-should see [4]. Now I know what to write in my diversity statement for the dean.

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L@S '19: Proceedings of the Sixth (2019) ACM Conference on Learning @ Scale
June 2019
386 pages
ISBN:9781450368049
DOI:10.1145/3330430
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected].

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Publication History

Published: 24 June 2019

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Author Tags

  1. Diversity
  2. Education
  3. Equality
  4. Inclusion
  5. Social Psychology

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L@S '19

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L@S '19 Paper Acceptance Rate 24 of 70 submissions, 34%;
Overall Acceptance Rate 117 of 440 submissions, 27%

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Cited By

View all
  • (2024)A Systematic Review on Engagement, Motivation, and Performance in MOOCs During the Post-Pandemic TimeInternational Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies10.4018/IJWLTT.33821619:1(1-21)Online publication date: 14-Feb-2024
  • (2024)Learner Engagement and Demographic Influences in Brazilian Massive Open Online Courses: Aprenda Mais Platform Case StudyAnalytics10.3390/analytics30200103:2(178-193)Online publication date: 3-Apr-2024
  • (2024)Strengthening inclusive teaching with a MOOC: Adult education and STEM as professional development partnersNew Directions for Adult and Continuing Education10.1002/ace.205192024:181(29-40)Online publication date: 5-Apr-2024
  • (2023) Are MOOC learning designs culturally inclusive (enough)? Journal of Computer Assisted Learning10.1111/jcal.1288340:6(2496-2512)Online publication date: 6-Oct-2023
  • (2021)Domain Experts' Interpretations of Assessment Bias in a Scaled, Online Computer Science CurriculumProceedings of the Eighth ACM Conference on Learning @ Scale10.1145/3430895.3460141(77-89)Online publication date: 8-Jun-2021
  • (2021)Cultural Competency and Higher EducationHandbook of Social Justice Interventions in Education10.1007/978-3-030-35858-7_116(981-1004)Online publication date: 28-Aug-2021
  • (2020)Identifying course characteristics associated with sociodemographic variation in enrollments across 159 online courses from 20 institutionsPLOS ONE10.1371/journal.pone.023976615:10(e0239766)Online publication date: 14-Oct-2020
  • (2020)Designing Inclusive Learning EnvironmentsProceedings of the Seventh ACM Conference on Learning @ Scale10.1145/3386527.3405935(225-228)Online publication date: 12-Aug-2020
  • (2020)Welcome to the Course: Early Social Cues Influence Women's Persistence in Computer ScienceProceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3313831.3376752(1-13)Online publication date: 21-Apr-2020
  • (2020)Cultural Competency and Higher EducationHandbook of Social Justice Interventions in Education10.1007/978-3-030-29553-0_116-1(1-24)Online publication date: 2-Sep-2020

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