In-video reuse of discussion threads in MOOCs

In MOOCs, both instructors and students invest substantial effort into discussion forums. However, those discussions are abandoned when instructors start a new session in session-based courses. In an observational field study through a popular online Coursera course, we evaluate an approach that directly embeds high-value past discussion threads into future lecture videos to reuse them. Survey feedback shows that this approach can be useful to a large proportion of learners. We find that instructor involvement increases learners' chance of reading the threads, reduces learners' negative reactions, but is not associated with more perceived usefulness. Learners perceive enhancing threads embedded in the middle of videos less enhancing but more explanatory compared with at the end. Embedding explanatory threads at the end is rated less distracting and more helpful to understand the video compared with in the middle, right after the related content is lectured.