Abstract
Despite providing advanced coursework online to learners around the world, massive open online courses (MOOCs) have had notoriously low completion rates. Self-regulated learning (SRL) frames strategies that students can use to enhance motivation and promote their engagement, persistence, and performance self-monitoring. Understanding which SRL subprocesses are most relevant to the MOOC learning context can guide course designers and instructors on how to incorporate key SRL aspects into the design and delivery of MOOCs. Through surveying 643 MOOC students using the Online Self-Regulated Learning Questionnaire (OSLQ), the present study sought to understand the differences in the use of SRL between those who completed their course and those who did not. MOOC completers were found to have significantly higher applications of one SRL specific subprocess, namely goal setting. Additional SRL subprocesses of task interest/values, causal attribution, time management, self-efficacy, and goal-orientation also emerged from an analysis of open-ended responses as key contributors to course completion. The findings from this study provide further support regarding the role of SRL in MOOC student performance and offer insight into learners’ perceptions on the importance of SRL subprocesses in reaching course completion.
Highlights
The proliferation of massive open online courses (MOOCs) in the past decade has been a whirlwind
A comparison of the results of a one-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) with and without the outliers showed that the goal setting subscale had significant results in both situations, while the environmental structuring subscale had a significant result when the outliers were included
Since MANOVA is considered to be fairly robust to deviations from normality, it was decided to proceed with the data analysis
Summary
The proliferation of massive open online courses (MOOCs) in the past decade has been a whirlwind. In 2017, there were about 9,400 MOOCs offered by more than 800 universities worldwide, with over 81 million students signing up for at least one course (Shah, 2018). Several prominent MOOC platforms, including Coursera and EdX, have partnered with universities to deliver credit-bearing courses leading to degrees (Agarwal, 2015; Straumsheim, 2016). With such growth and global reach, MOOCs offer great potential for expanding worldwide access to online continuing education and professional learning opportunities. MOOC enrollments with the intent for such certificates still tend to be larger than traditional online courses, with estimates of at least 500 paying students in a typical MOOC course (Chuang & Ho, 2016)
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