Abstract
<p>Astronomy: State of the Art is a massive, open, online class (MOOC) offered through Udemy by an instructional team at the University of Arizona. With nearly 24,000 enrolled as of early 2015, it is the largest astronomy MOOC available. The astronomical numbers enrolled do not translate into a similar level of engagement. The content consists of 14 hours of video lecture, nearly 1,000 Powerpoint slides, 250 pages of background readings, and 20 podcast interviews with leading researchers. Perhaps in part because of the large amount of course content, the overall completion rate is low, about 3%. However, this number was four times higher for an early cohort of learners who were selected to have a prior interest in astronomy and who took the class in synchronous mode, with new content being added every week. Completion correlates with engagement as measured by posts to the online discussion board. For a subset of learners, social media like Facebook and Twitter provide an additional, important mode of engagement. For the asynchronous learners who have continuously enrolled for the past 15 months, those who complete the course do so quickly, with few persisting longer than two months. The availability of a free completion certificate had no impact of completion rates when it was added midway through the period of data analyzed in this paper. This experiment informs a new offering of an enhanced version of this MOOC via Coursera, along with a co-convened “flipped” introductory astronomy class at the University of Arizona, where the video lectures will be online and class time will be used exclusively for small group labs and hands-on activities. Despite their typically low completion rates, MOOCs have the potential to add significantly to public engagement with science, and they attract a worldwide audience. </p>
Highlights
Higher education in the United States is in a state of flux and stress
Two and four year higher education institutions are still seen as a gateway to a better future and financial security, but the cost of a college education has increased by a factor of two over the past 30 years, and outstanding student loans of nearly a trillion dollars exceed credit card and automobile loan debt (Frye 2012)
Third we plan to serve in the future is composed of students remote from the university offering the MOOC, who are paying to take a completely online class for transferrable university credit; this is the part of the landscape with the potential to disrupt the traditional economic model of higher education
Summary
Higher education in the United States is in a state of flux and stress. Two and four year higher education institutions are still seen as a gateway to a better future and financial security, but the cost of a college education has increased by a factor of two (inflation-adjusted) over the past 30 years, and outstanding student loans of nearly a trillion dollars exceed credit card and automobile loan debt (Frye 2012). Astronomy: State of the Art is a MOOC developed to study student participation in an online learning environment.
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