Determining Factors in MOOCs Completion Rates: Application Test in Energy Sustainability Courses

Luis M Romero-Rodríguez,María Soledad Ramírez-Montoya,Ignacio Aguaded

doi:10.3390/su12072893

Abstract

Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) are open educational activities that allow for distance learning and professional updating, although the academic community has questioned their effectiveness due to their low completion rates. This research analyzes which factors (personal, family, social, labor, and instructional design) are involved in the value expectations and engagement of the MOOCs and to what degree these affect the decision to enroll and the completion of the MOOC. To this end, in the context of 12 MOOCs on energy sustainability carried out between 2017 and 2018, 8737 participants were surveyed using two instruments designed according to theoretical constructs and expert judgment. The main results show that all the factors reviewed influence the decision to take a MOOC, although the “professional development” aspect has the most significant impact on participants who have graduated from technical and engineering careers. Additionally, this study emphasizes that the “instructional design” factor is decisive in the engagement of younger participants, showing that the conventional design of xMOOCs (Stanford Model) may be one of the most important reasons for the low completion rates of this type of course.

Highlights

Technological developments and the evolution of telecommunications have brought with them new possibilities for training, as is the case with the Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs)
There are many factors involved in the engagement and completion rates of MOOCs, and it is certainly interesting to explore some of them in this framework
A quantitative design and exploratory-correlational research is carried out on two instruments that are applied to the participants of 12 MOOCs on energy sustainability, delivered by Tecnológico de Monterrey (Mexico) through the platforms MexicoX and edX between 2018 and 2019, with a total of 123,124 participants and a global completion rate of 13.715% (Table 1), a higher than average completion rate—between 5%–8% of these type of training activities [30,31,32,33,34]

Summary

Introduction

Technological developments and the evolution of telecommunications have brought with them new possibilities for training, as is the case with the Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs). There are many factors involved in the engagement and completion rates of MOOCs, and it is certainly interesting to explore some of them in this framework. Social, instructional design, and labor factors influence expectations-values, engagement and completion rates?. Personal factors are certain fundamental elements in studying MOOCs. Several studies have identified determining characteristics for engagement, e.g., attitude takes a dominant role in understanding student development [3]. Language, culture and social engagement are motivators for learning through MOOCs [4], where courses are required to be dynamic and flexible to respond to participants’ motivations and goals [5,6], as well as to find value in the course content and the opportunities that can be provided to provide a relevant experience [7]

Objectives

Methods

Results