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Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have become commonplace in the e-learning landscape. Thousands of elderly learners are participating in courses offered by various institutions on a multitude of platforms in many different languages. However, there is very little research into understanding elderly learners in MOOCs.
We aim to show that a considerable proportion of elderly learners are participating in MOOCs and that there is a lack of research in this area. We hope this assertion of the wide gap in research on elderly learners in MOOCs will pave the way for more research in this area.
Pre-course survey data for 10 University of Reading courses on the FutureLearn platform were analyzed to show the level of participation of elderly learners in MOOCs. Two MOOC aggregator sites (Class Central and MOOC List) were consulted to gather data on MOOC offerings that include topics relating to aging. In parallel, a selected set of MOOC platform catalogues, along with a recently published review on health and medicine-related MOOCs, were searched to find courses relating to aging. A systematic literature search was then employed to identify research articles on elderly learners in MOOCs.
The 10 courses reviewed had a considerable proportion of elderly learners participating in them. For the over-66 age group, this varied from 0.5% (on the course “Managing people”) to 16.3% (on the course “Our changing climate”), while for the over-56 age group it ranged from 3.0% (on “A beginners guide to writing in English”) to 39.5% (on “Heart health”). Only six MOOCs were found to include topics related to aging: three were on the Coursera platform, two on the FutureLearn platform, and one on the Open2Study platform. Just three scholarly articles relating to MOOCs and elderly learners were retrieved from the literature search.
This review presents evidence to suggest that elderly learners are already participating in MOOCs. Despite this, there has been very little research into their engagement with MOOCs. Similarly, there has been little research into exploiting the scope of MOOCs for delivering topics that would be of interest to elderly learners. We believe there is potential to use MOOCs as a way of tackling the issue of loneliness among older adults by engaging them as either resource personnel or learners.
According to a United Nations Report [
Every country is encountering population aging, but each country is at a different stage of transition [
Population aging presents various challenges to society such as an increasing demand for health services, an increasing need for long-term care and social services, and increasing strain on pension and social security systems. Conversely, an aging population will also make important contributions to society as family members, caregivers, volunteers, and being part of the workforce. Fostering good health in older age is a primary factor in preventing isolation and maintaining the independence and productivity of older people [
The decline of both mental and physical capacities is a feature of aging, often coupled with the loss of friends and family. For many people, this results in loneliness [
In general, older people are at risk of social isolation because of diminished contact with colleagues (possibly due to retirement) and with family and relatives, especially if they are in poor health, disabled or bereaved, or because of their geographic location. According to the charity Age UK [
Research into Internet use and loneliness in older adults has shown promise for the use of online communication to tackle loneliness. For example, a study of 222 Australians who were over 55 years of age showed that the use of the Internet as a communication tool was associated with lower levels of social loneliness [
Notess and Lorenzen-Huber [
Massive open online courses or MOOCs are a recent, but immensely popular addition to the online learning landscape. They offer lectures, forums, quizzes, assignments, and various other learning materials that in general can all be accessed online. Since their emergence in 2008, there have been many commercial and non-commercial platforms dedicated to offering MOOCs, and hundreds of universities have partnered with these platforms to offer courses. The courses are free to register and participate in, thus attracting thousands of participants. The recent offering from the British Council, “Understanding IELTS: Techniques for English language test,” had over 380,000 learners registered on it [
According to the latest edX [
In this paper, we present demographic data from 10 courses offered by the University of Reading in various disciplines from programming to heart health on the FutureLearn platform, to show that a considerable proportion of elderly learners are participating in these free online courses. We also show that there is currently a lack of scholarly literature investigating this group of learners and their engagement with MOOCs, despite the existence of a few MOOCs that explore aging and related issues. We then argue that the engagement of elderly learners in MOOCs could be used as a way to tackle the social isolation felt by the elderly and that more research in this area should be commissioned to explore whether MOOCs could be used more widely for this purpose.
Data for this study were collected using three independent data sources: pre-course survey data for MOOCs, course details that offered subject matter relating to aging, and literature on MOOCs and elderly learners. Next we describe how the data were collected from these sources.
We analyzed pre-course survey data for 10 University of Reading courses offered on the FutureLearn platform to identify the proportion of elderly learners engaging in MOOCs in various disciplines. There is no easy way of identifying learners’ demographic data for FutureLearn courses, despite knowing the number of learners registered in a given course. In the pre-course survey sent to all learners at the start of a FutureLearn course, there is a question that captures their age. The question “What is your age group?” is presented as a multiple choice question with the responses: 18 years old or under, 18-25 years old, 26-35 years old, 36-45 years old, 46-55 years old, 56-65 years old, and 66 years old or over. As a FutureLearn partner, the University of Reading receives anonymized data for pre-course surveys, and we have gathered these pre-course survey data for 10 course runs (some courses have more than one iteration considered) for analysis.
We analyzed pre-course survey data for the following courses:
Obesity: Causes and consequences (Obesity) – two iterations
Our changing climate: Past, present and future (Climate)
Our hungry planet: Agriculture, people and food security (Hungry Planet)
Managing people: Engaging your workforce (Managing People)
Heart health: A beginner’s guide to cardiovascular diseases (Heart)
A beginner’s guide to writing in English for university study (English) – two iterations
Begin programming: Build your first mobile game (Programming) – two iterations
In identifying relevant MOOCs that included topics related to aging, a range of methods was used to obtain related information that would form a more complete dataset for the analysis similar to the method used by Liyanagunawardena and Williams [
The two popular MOOC aggregator sites Class-Central [
Course catalogues from the MOOC platforms FutureLearn [
The list of health-related and medicine-related MOOCs published in Liyanagunawardena and Williams [
When conducting literature searches, researchers typically use different methods to identify papers to be considered [
The response rate and the number of responses received for each course in the pre-course survey are shown in
Pre-course survey response numbers.
Course name | Course start date | Pre-course survey responses (N) | N as a percentage of learnersa |
Obesity: Causes and consequences – Obesity 1 | June 9, 2014 | 1073 | 24.1 |
Obesity: Causes and consequences – Obesity 2 | Feb. 16, 2015 | 1590 | 47.0 |
Our Changing Climate: Past, present and future – Climate | Nov. 10, 2014 | 1544 | 33.9 |
Our Hungry Planet: Agriculture, people and food security – Hungry Planet | Feb. 9, 2015 | 1931 | 59.5 |
Managing People: Engaging your workforce – Managing People | Jan. 12, 2015 | 3143 | 26.7 |
Heart Health: A beginner’s guide to cardiovascular diseases – Heart | Sept. 8, 2014 | 904 | 19.3 |
A Beginner’s Guide to Writing in English for University Study – English 1 | Jan. 19, 2015 | 4973 | 28.3 |
A Beginner’s Guide to Writing in English for University Study – English 2 | Feb. 17, 2014 | 1356 | 10.2 |
Begin Programming: Build your first mobile game – Programming 1 | Oct. 28, 2013 | 3607 | 79.8 |
Begin Programming: Build your first mobile game – Programming 2 | Feb. 24, 2014 | 2657 | 13.6 |
aIn the FutureLearn statistics, “learners are joiners who viewed at least one step in the course” [
Searching Class-Central and MOOC-List aggregator sites with the words “age,” “old,” and “elderly” resulted in a large number of entries. For example, searching with “age” as a keyword resulted in the return of 98 entries in Class-Central and 638 entries in MOOC-List. However, the actual relevant numbers shown in the Results section were very few. Many search results related to course topics such as “age of globalization” or “the age of sustainable development.” The first author analyzed the list of search results manually to identify relevant courses. Only three related courses were found using Class-Central and MOOC-List searches. These were offered on Coursera (two) and FutureLearn (one) platforms.
By browsing course catalogues on selected platforms, another course on the FutureLearn platform was identified. Consulting the recent publication by Liyanagunawardena and Williams [
The database Web of Science returned 38 entries (37 distinct entries) while Scopus returned 49 entries (48 distinct) (March 15, 2015). Reading through the abstracts, only two relevant papers were extracted from the Web of Science entries, and the Scopus entries returned the same two. One additional entry was added to the list by analyzing Google Scholar search results. Many of the returned entries included words such as “information age,” “digital age,” “Internet age,” “computer age,” “age of MOOCs,” “moocher,” “old debates,” “… year old,” “old news,” “external agents,” “intelligent agents,” and “software agents,” while a few included chemical compounds such as MoOC14, MoOC15, and mooceroftii that satisfied the search terms. One paper referred to Mooca (a district in Sao Paulo), while another was about a classical scholar named Moocheomdang Lee Euiyoon. A summary of the literature search is presented in
The literature search summary.
Source | Entries returned | Distinct entries | Relevant | Non-relevant |
Web of Science | 38 | 37 | 2 | 36 |
Scopus | 49 | 48 | 2 | 47 |
Google Scholar | Over 5000 | First 50 distinct entries analyzed | 1 | 49 |
Summary of the literature search.
Using the pre-course survey data for the FutureLearn courses offered by the University of Reading described above, we identified learner demographics. The results are presented in
As
Observing the over-56 age group in these courses, it can be seen that in the “Heart Health” course nearly 40% of the participants were in this age category (
Percentage of students over 66 and over 56 years old in courses.
Course name | Over-66, |
Over-56, |
Obesity: Causes and consequences – Obesity 1 | 4.9 | 24.9 |
Obesity: Causes and consequences – Obesity 2 | 5.7 | 21.1 |
Our changing climate: Past, present and future – Climate | 16.3 | 36.7 |
Our hungry planet: Agriculture, people and food security – Hungry Planet | 6.5 | 18.2 |
Managing people: Engaging your workforce – Managing People | 0.5 | 6.7 |
Heart health: A beginner’s guide to cardiovascular diseases – Heart | 15.3 | 39.5 |
A beginner’s guide to writing in English for university study – English 1 | 0.6 | 3.0 |
A beginner’s guide to writing in English for university study – English 2 | 1.5 | 6.7 |
Begin programming: Build your first mobile game – Programming 1 | 5.0 | 17.7 |
Begin programming: Build your first mobile game – Programming 2 | 3.8 | 12.6 |
Learner age distribution in University of Reading offerings on FutureLearn.
Age distribution of learners.
Six MOOCs related to aging were found from the searches and are shown in
Courses relating to aging.
Course name | Class-Central | MOOC-List | Authors’ previous work | Platform course catalogue |
Growing old around the globe | Yes | Yes |
|
Yes |
Rethinking aging: Are we prepared to live longer? | Yes | Yes |
|
Yes |
Aging well: Falls |
|
Yes |
|
Yes |
Why do we age? The molecular mechanisms of aging |
|
|
|
Yes |
Understanding dementia |
|
|
Yes |
|
Care of elders with Alzheimer’s disease and other major neurocognitive disorders |
|
|
Yes |
|
MOOCs related to aging.
Course name | Platform | Offered by |
Growing old around the globe | Coursera | University of Pennsylvania |
Rethinking aging: Are we prepared to live longer? | Coursera | University of Melbourne |
Aging well: Falls | FutureLearn | Newcastle University |
Why do we age? The molecular mechanisms of aging | FutureLearn | University of Groningen |
Understanding dementia | Open2Study | University of Tasmania |
Care of elders with Alzheimer’s disease and other major neurocognitive disorders | Coursera | Johns Hopkins University |
The Johns Hopkins University now offers “Living with dementia: Impact on individuals, caregivers, communities and societies” course and this too is a 5-week course similar to “Care of elders with Alzheimer’s disease and other major neurocognitive disorders.” Both courses were offered by the University’s School of Nursing and because of this we believe these two to be the same course with an updated course title.
The three articles found to be relevant from the literature search are King et al [
From the above analysis, we have shown that a considerable proportion of elderly learners are already engaging in MOOCs. For example, in the “Heart health: A beginner’s guide to cardiovascular diseases” course, 15.3% of the learners were over 66 years old while another 24.2% were in the 56-65 age group. That is, in this course, 39.5% of the learners were over 56 years old. Observing the spread of elderly learners in the courses offered by the University of Reading, it can be seen that some types of courses are more popular with this age group. Nevertheless, elderly learners do engage in courses in a multitude of disciplines.
However, the available information is insufficient to gauge the geographical spread of these elderly learners. Thus, it is possible that most of these learners are from developed countries with high levels of education, similar to the general MOOC learner demographics shown by other studies. For example, four out of five participants in University of Pennsylvania courses on Coursera platform had a Bachelor’s degree or higher [
Elderly learners are likely to have more time to devote to learning. While there are elderly learners who do take part in these free courses, it is possible that there are many others who are not aware that such courses exist. Thus, promoting free online courses to this age group would allow elderly people to become leisure learners. Courses could be promoted at local events (eg, coffee mornings), through charities working with elderly (such as AgeUK), hospitals, libraries, in residential or retirement homes, higher and further education collages, and religious places (such as churches or temples). Providing this information will allow these time-rich elderly learners the opportunity to explore a wide variety of topics of interest via free online courses. Engaging in MOOCs can provide a virtual support group as the learning community helps individuals in their learning and could be a way of instilling a sense of “belonging” to a community and combating isolation. However, as we have shown above there is a lack of research about elderly learners in MOOCs. Research into elderly learners’ engagement in MOOCs and the effects on their well-being would be a worthwhile avenue to explore.
Elderly learners may have complex accessibility needs. For example, background music in a lecture may work as a stimulus for younger learners but for older people who are more prone to be hard of hearing, it may become an additional barrier to accessing content. Sanchez-Gordon and Luján-Mora [
It is likely that certain topics will be of special interest to elderly learners. For example, in our data analysis we have shown that the courses “Our changing climate” and “Heart health” had a large proportion of elderly learners in them. Similarly, it is plausible to expect that topics exploring issues such as health problems that are more common in later life, specific interests (eg, travel, history, nature, poetry, baking, or gardening), or historical events of interest to elderly learners will have higher numbers of leisure learners registering on them. On the other hand, courses relating to management of workforce (“Managing people”) and learning English for academic writing (“A beginner’s guide to writing in English for university study”) were less popular among this age group.
Thus, an opportunity exists to engage elderly learners by offering courses with topics that are closer to their interests. Organizations such as AgeUK or the University of the Third Age [
Course providers could use the expertise/experience of elderly learners in other ways; for example, giving elderly learners the opportunity to co-create community courses by providing an open space for discussions and collaborations (eg, see [
Additionally, highly educated and retired personnel (eg, professors) who are authorities of their field of knowledge, may have spare time and be prepared to share their knowledge for the “greater good.” Therefore, there is an opportunity to utilize this expertise in MOOCs either as content creators, educators, or mentors.
When elderly learners engage with MOOCs, they may be able to spend many hours exploring course materials and related readings. This may be because they are time-rich compared to other learners who may have to continue their studies alongside employment and caring duties. This has certainly been our experience as educators in the “Begin programming” course. Once a course finishes, if the elderly learners have been engaged and successfully completed the course, they may be willing to join subsequent sessions of the same course as mentors. As MOOCs are free courses, the support for participants mainly comes from within the course community. Time-rich elderly participants with life experience are likely to be resourceful mentors. Being able to support others in their learning provides self-satisfaction, and this could be mapped to higher levels of needs (esteem and self-actualization needs) in accordance with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs [
Organizations wishing to offer MOOCs especially for the elderly participants could seek sponsorship from organizations providing services that are mostly required by older adults: for example, suppliers of stair lifts, mobility scooters, or cruise holidays. This would provide the necessary funding for courses to be created for older adults while the sponsoring organizations would benefit from promotion of their services or products.
In this review, we collected data using various sources. However, due to resource limitations the authors had to limit the search scope. Collecting course details through aggregator sites could have the disadvantage of not including all MOOCs that are on offer as Liyanagunawardena and Williams [
Not all learners respond to pre-course surveys, and some of those who do take part in the surveys do not want to reveal their age. It could also be argued that time-rich elderly learners are more likely to answer pre-course surveys, thus further skewing results. As the pre-course survey is a self-administered questionnaire, it is not possible to validate the answers provided by respondents. These limitations should be considered when interpreting the results of pre-course survey data.
Another consideration is that the authors looked only at publications and courses presented in English and again because of resource limitations. If there were articles or courses in languages other than English, it would not have been possible to consider them here.
All over the world, countries are encountering population aging as a result of both increased life expectancy and declining birth rates. Population aging presents both various challenges and opportunities to society. Challenges include increasing demand for health services, long-term care and social services, and increasing strain on pension and social security systems; conversely, older adults can make significant contributions as family members, caregivers, volunteers, and members of workforces. Older people are at risk of social isolation due to a variety of reasons: diminished contacts with colleagues, bereavement, mobility issues, and ill health. The use of the Internet has shown promising prospects for solutions to tackle loneliness in older adults.
In this paper, we have shown the lack of research into the use of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) by elderly learners while at the same time establishing their presence in MOOCs by analyzing MOOC demographic data from 10 courses offered by the University of Reading.
Despite the considerable number of elderly learners participating in these courses, there is lack of data to identify more precisely what other characteristics are shared by these learners. We show that promoting courses to the elderly and creating courses specifically targeting this age group could be another way of tackling loneliness felt by a growing number of older people. We further show that engaging elderly learners as resource personnel in creating and offering MOOCs would help them keep engaged while bringing greater good to society by using the vast knowledge and experience accumulated by older adults.
massive open online courses
The authors would like to thank Ms Katalin Hanniker for her help with proofreading the paper.
None declared.