Temporal Changes in Affiliation and Emotion in MOOC Discussion Forum Discourse

Studies have shown discourse constructs of affiliation and emotion to be critical factors influencing learning performance and outcomes in both traditional environments and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). However, there is limited research investigating the affiliation and emotions of MOOC learners and how these factors develop over time. To gain a deeper understanding of the MOOC population and to facilitate MOOC environment design, we addressed this gap by conducting a longitudinal analysis of change of affiliation and emotions presented in discussion forums of five Coursera courses. They have been offered numerous times from 2012 to 2015. We demonstrate that discussion forums have reflected decreasing affiliation and increasing negative emotions over the four years for most courses, with no significant overall change in positive emotions.