Cited by 255Online Learning and AnalyticsOnline and Blended LearningIntergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 2 of the 2 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Democratizing education? Examining access and usage patterns in massive open online courses

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Abstract

Toward a level playing field?: Do free learning resources benefit the disadvantaged and decrease gaps between rich and poor? Hansen and Reich studied the relationships between socioeconomic status (SES) and enrollment in and completion of free Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) offered by Harvard and MIT. Students from low-SES backgrounds were less likely to enroll in MOOCs and earn a certificate than their high-SES peers. Thus, although there are many free online learning opportunities, it is not safe to assume that they will “level the playing field.” Science , this issue p. 1245

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Crossref · 10.1126/science.aab3782

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  • 'Rich get richer' effects are often observed in classrooms using AIEd systems, where systems systematically benefit students with higher prior domain knowledge more than students with lower prior knowledge.

    “'Rich get richer' effects are often observed in classrooms using AIEd systems, where systems behave in ways that systematically benefit students coming in with higher prior domain knowledge more than they benefit students coming in with lower prior knowledge”

    From Equity and Artificial Intelligence in Education: Will "AIEd" Amplify or Alleviate Inequities in Education? (2021) · cites this paper as Hansen & Reich, 2015

    The Abstract and One Sentence Summary (pages not provided) report that more affluent learners had higher MOOC certificate rates and that free online resources can disproportionately benefit affluent students. That supports the broad ‘rich get richer’ pattern, but the paper does not establish that classroom AIEd systems systematically benefit students with higher prior domain knowledge. The SES Variable Age section explicitly cautions that its MOOC findings cannot be generalized to all education technologies. (LLM, conf=0.86)

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Citations

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Research works printed but not linked: 13

  1. L. Cuban Teachers and Machines: The Classroom Use of Technology Since 1920 (Teachers College Press New York 1986).
  2. S. Reardon in Whither Opportunity? Rising Inequality and the Uncertain Life Chances of Low-Income Children R. J. Murnane G. Duncan Eds. (Russell Sage Foundation Press New York 2011).
  3. 10.2307/2673277 · DOI
  4. 10.1177/0895904804266469 · DOI
  5. 10.1080/019722499128628 · DOI
  6. 10.3102/0013189X11427083 · DOI
  7. 10.1038/503342a · DOI
  8. A. D. Ho et al . “ HarvardX and MITx: The first year of open online courses Fall 2012–Summer 2013” (Working paper no. 1 HarvardX and MITx Cambridge MA 2014).
  9. A. D. Ho et al . “HarvardX and MITx: Two years of open online courses” (Working paper no. 10 HarvardX Cambridge MA 2015).
  10. J. D. Hansen J. Reich Socioeconomic Status and MOOC Enrollment: Enriching Demographic Information with External Datasets (ACM New York 2015). · DOI
  11. Horn M. B., MOOCs for high school. Educ. Next 14, 82–83 (2014).
  12. J. J. Schlesselman P. D. Stolley Case Control Studies: Design Conduct Analysis (Oxford Univ. Press New York 1982).
  13. M. S. Kearney P. B. Levine “Early childhood education by MOOC: Lessons from Sesame Street” (NBER Working paper no. 104 National Bureau of Economic Research Cambridge MA 2015). · DOI

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Metadata

Authors
Hansen, J. D., & Reich, J.
Affiliations
  • Harvard University (US)
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
Corresponding author
Hansen, John D.
Venue
Science
Published
2015-12-04
Volume
350
Issue
6265
Pages
1245-1248
ISSN
  • 0036-8075 (ISSN-L)
  • 1095-9203
OpenAlex
W2183014234
Cited by
255
References
2
Citations by year
2026: 12 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 26 · 2022: 28 · 2021: 25 · 2020: 36 · 2019: 28 · 2018: 34 · 2017: 19 · 2016: 12
FWCI
32.62
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by
Locations
  • Science (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) (Harvard University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Funders
Harvard Graduate School of Education
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Science Applications › Online Learning and Analytics
  • Social Sciences › Education › Online and Blended Learning
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies
Keywords
massive open online courses, educational inequality, socioeconomic status, MOOC completion, neighborhood affluence, adolescents and young adults, STEM education
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Adult, Career Choice, Certification, Engineering, Humans, Learning, Mathematics, Online Systems, Science, Social Class, Students, Technology, United States, Education, Distance, Internet, Young Adult

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