Abstract
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) for teachers have emerged as a new wave of MOOCs that provide free professional development for teachers around the globe. These MOOCs for teachers often rely primarily on discussion forums and videos to drive participant engagement. Using logistic regression models this paper presents the degree to which participants’ engagement with videos and forum posts can predict completion in a MOOC designed for statistics teachers’ professional development. It also explores the extent to which participants’ professional background can be considered as a modifier of their achievement in this MOOC. Findings indicated that the number of videos watched by participants is not significant in predicting MOOC completion. However, their participation in forums and their professional background shed light on understanding participants’ engagement. The study makes recommendations for MOOC designers and facilitators regarding the importance of balanced activities to foster participants’ engagement and completion in MOOCs.
Highlights
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are tuition-free, open-enrollment learning environments that have transformed online education (North, Ronny & Max, 2014)
Results add to the debate in MOOC forums literature indicating that engagement with discussion forums is still a very important component of participant learning as they create networks and interact with others
The results extend the literature of MOOC completion showing that participants’ professional background acts as a moderator on completion, in which participants with more prosperous jobs tend to complete less of a MOOC for professional development purposes
Summary
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are tuition-free, open-enrollment learning environments that have transformed online education (North, Ronny & Max, 2014). A drawback of these two intrinsic characteristics is that MOOCs are known for a high occurrence of participant drop out (Rosé et al, 2014; Ho et al, 2014; Coetzee, Fox, Hearst & Hartmann, 2014; Yang, Sinha, Adamson & Rosé, 2013). This high level of dropout has drawn the attention of researchers for better understanding of to what extent participants’ engagement with the MOOC contributes to their achievement or conclusion (e.g., Onah, Sinclair & Boyatt, 2014; Sinha, Jermann, Li & Dillenbourg, 2014)
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