Socially and culturally diverse learners can learn and build competence in media literacy through the experience of international intellectual discussion by attending massive open online courses (MOOCs). This study explores active learners in Canada, China, Hong Kong, India and the United States on a MOOC, ‘Making Sense of News’, offered in 2015. The unfolding situation in forum discussions allowed the global learners to reflect on critical stances and interpretation of news. A mixed method was used for the study, including descriptive analysis of the MOOC’s entry survey and qualitative discourse analysis of the MOOC’s forum discussion. Four subthemes were identified among the 156 participants in the course forum. The study signifies that MOOCs provide an unprecedented experience for learners to gain an insight into variations in local and international news consumer behaviour and journalistic practices.

Published in: Canada International Conference on Education, 2017

• Date of Conference: 26-29 June, 2017
• DOI: 10.2053/CICE.2017.0192
• Electronic ISBN: 978-1-908320-83-4
• Conference Location: University of Toronto Mississauga, Canada