Evaluating Geographic Data in MOOCs

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) exhibit a remarkable geographic diversity in terms of student population. While some researchers evaluated MOOCs geography within a single class, there is no framework for systematically studying the geographic component of MOOCs. Using the example of student population of 18 courses offered by HarvardX, Harvard’s division for online learning, we formalize the process of evaluating the geographic data of MOOCs with regard to enrollment and certificate attainment. We report the absolute counts of students from various countries and relate them to baselines of potential learners such as population of the country and the number of English speakers. Our approach allows to identify clusters of countries with similar properties and opens discussion of country-specific factors influencing key metrics of MOOCs. Our findings are relevant for developers and marketers, as well as for future research involving MOOC geography.