MOOCs and Crowdsourcing: Massive Courses and Massive Resources
This work provides a systematic comparison for researchers and practitioners in education and crowdsourcing, but it is incremental as it builds on existing observations without introducing new methods or data.
The paper compares MOOCs and crowdsourcing by analyzing their shared characteristics like IT mediation and large-scale participation, identifying common traits such as IT structures and knowledge generation, and proposes new research directions and practical implications for both fields.
Premised upon the observation that MOOC and crowdsourcing phenomena share several important characteristics, including IT mediation, large-scale human participation, and varying levels of openness to participants, this work systematizes a comparison of MOOC and crowdsourcing phenomena along these salient dimensions. In doing so, we learn that both domains share further common traits, including similarities in IT structures, knowledge generating capabilities, presence of intermediary service providers, and techniques designed to attract and maintain participant activity. Stemming directly from this analysis, we discuss new directions for future research in both fields and draw out actionable implications for practitioners and researchers in both domains.