Mobile app analytics for assessing MOOC platforms: a study of online learners’ sentiments

Purpose In distance education, massive open online courses (MOOCs) are recent innovative approaches, which strive to provide learning content to all the participants without any demographic-related barriers. The purpose of this research is to analyse and evaluate the popularity of two MOOCs platforms, Study Webs of Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds (SWAYAM) and Coursera, on an android app by pursuing the paradigm of mobile analytics and deep learning. Design/methodology/approach The analytics are performed by using the Web application AppFollow (AppFollow.io), which captured, monitored, measured and analysed the app review results. Findings The findings of the paper suggest MOOCs designers should consider sentiment analysis to check and evaluate users’ ratings and feedback to improvise its design. Research limitations/implications The findings of the study will provide the necessary inputs and feedbacks to the app developers to understand the users’ problems, users’ perspectives and users’ requirement in a scientific and precise way. By removing the bugs and incorporating the value-added features, the MOOC platforms will become more productive and beneficial in terms of knowledge sharing, skill development and capacity building. Originality/value This research is novel in getting an insight into the behaviour of users towards usage of SWAYAM and Coursera apps on Android platforms through the AppFollow software and provides valuable results for the app developers in monitoring the feedbacks to enhancing the features for the satisfaction of users. The present analysis is expected to provide a benchmark for future research in this domain.