Self-Regulation for High School Learners in a MOOC Computer Science Course

Courses designed for Massive Open Online Courseware (MOOC) platforms provide learners worldwide with extensive learning opportunities. Previous research has explored learner motivation in MOOC courses using self-regulated learning (SRL) theory. However; the majority of this work has focused on adults and we know little about how high school learners use SRL strategies. This paper explores self-regulated learning differences between high school students enrolled in traditional face-to-face and MOOC Advanced Placement Computer Science A course. We found significant differences in student help seeking abilities between the two courses, but not in other SRL behaviors (such as, metacognition, effort regulation, etc.). In addition, help seeking was the only SRL strategy that was significantly related to MOOC students' grades on programming tasks. We discuss implications for designing MOOC courses for younger learners and directions for future research to disentangle the role of MOOC environment and motivation in influencing student outcomes.