Learner engagement, retention and success: why size matters in massive open online courses (MOOCs)

Brenda Cecilia Padilla Rodriguez,Alejandro Armellini,Ma Concepción Rodriguez Nieto

doi:10.1080/02680513.2019.1665503

Abstract

ABSTRACT Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are usually six to ten weeks long. Participation tends to decrease as the courses progress, leading to low completion rates. This led to the question: Could shorter MOOCs contribute to learners’ engagement, retention and success? This paper compares two versions of Study Skills MOOC, which shared the same content but were delivered in different length formats. One was deployed as a single six-week course and the other as two three-week blocks. In total, 617 people registered for the two versions. Data sources included learning analytics, surveys and the Spanish version of the General Self-Efficacy Scale. Both versions of the Study Skills MOOC resulted in increased participants’ self-efficacy. However, learners enrolled in the version composed of two three-week blocks were also more engaged with course content, other students and the facilitators. Their retention and completion rates were higher than those in the longer version of the course. Reasons linked to goal proximity, motivation, interactions and social modelling are discussed

Highlights

Since their appearance in 2008, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have been on the rise and are still featuring strongly within the higher education sector (Johnson, Adams Becker, Estrada, & Freeman, 2015; Sharples et al, 2014)
3.1 Engagement The percentage of active participants was higher in Version 2 than in Version 1, when considering users enrolled in each independent block and in both
This paper contributes to the debate on how the duration of a MOOC may impact on learner engagement, retention and success

Summary

Introduction

Since their appearance in 2008, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have been on the rise and are still featuring strongly within the higher education sector (Johnson, Adams Becker, Estrada, & Freeman, 2015; Sharples et al, 2014). MOOCs offer potentially valuable opportunities for delivery at scale As they are mostly free of charge and normally require no prerequisites of knowledge or demographics (Anderson, 2013), they attract a large number of users. The first two weeks seem to be critical for fostering learners’ engagement Those who take an active role at the beginning of the course are more likely to participate in subsequent weeks (Ho et al, 2014; Jordan, 2015a). Active participants are those who did at least one of the following: completed a multiple-choice exercise, answered a survey or posted at least one message. Welcome and wrap-up activities were excluded of calculations Data referring to both blocks of Version 2 include participants who enrolled in the Introduction to Study Skills and the Development of Academic Skills MOOCs. Lesson Messages.

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion