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MOOC Completion Rates

33 points by jnazario 14y ago

arikrak 14y ago
Its silly to criticize them for rates under 20% since many people sign up just to see what it's like without actually planning on finishing it. What would be more relevant is to see what percent of serious committed students finish a course. E.g. what percent of students who pay for a course end up finishing it?
guwhoa 14y ago
Could it also be that many people will sign up in order to get access to certain materials, but then not end up completing all of the assignments/exams? I don't have any experience with MOOC's, so I'm curious as to how these peer graded systems work and why they result in lower completion rates.
- quavtum 14y ago
  I have signed up for several courses on coursera, but have completed only one. Because of time constraints, I just sign up, and then go through the materials at my leisure.
ams6110 14y ago
Interesting in what that might say about job candidates who have actually completed a number of MOOCs. That would put them in the top 10% or so by that measure, for whatever that's worth. It at least says something about their ability to start something and finish it.
- yen223 14y ago
  Are MOOC completions something that job interviewers actually look out for? I have always used MOOCs to learn, not to get certified.
ics 14y ago
I sign up for just about every one that looks interesting, obviously without the time to finish them all. The reason is quite simply because I want to look at the materials on my time, occasionally take part in the discussions, and try out the assignments here and there that look particularly challenging. Last I checked, you had to be registered to view any of the materials on EdX and Coursera which is pretty much why I do it this way.
- waterlesscloud 14y ago
  Yeah, I'm pretty much the same. Which should be completely fine with anyone, since it's putting me way ahead in terms of learning from where I would have been without the course. Completion rate is only one measure of these courses, and I'm not at all sure it should be the most important one.
kkowalczyk 14y ago
I guess people see 10-20% completion rate and think: this is bad. Let's do some math. At my university (one of the biggest in Poland), there were 150 people majoring in CS per year. According to the article, an average MOOC enrollment is 50.000. Let's assume 10% completion rate. That's 5.000 people. It would take my university 33 years to graduate that many people (assuming 100% completion rate). The cost per person? Several orders of magnitude smaller per student for MOOC. Scalability? Almost effortless for MOOC, almost non-existant for the university (to double the number of students they would have to double the number of professors, double the number of buildings etc.). What happens when you fail? At MOOC, try again. At university - you're out. There are many reasons why completion rates are much better at university (you paid for it, you value it more; more external pressures (your peers, your parents), motivational support from your fellow students; the way you think about it (university: I have to do it or else it's really bad; mooc: no biggie, I can always do it again). MOOC destroys traditional education at almost every other metric. It's a classic Innvator's Dillema: a product that is not as good as what exists but so much better at some important things (cost, convenience) that it'll grow like weeds and will become better at things it's not good at (like retention) faster than incumbents becoming better at matching MOOC at price, convenience.
- moocow01 14y ago
  "According to the article, an average MOOC enrollment is 50.000. Let's assume 10% completion rate. That's 5.000 people. It would take my university 33 years to graduate that many people (assuming 100% completion rate)." You are comparing a completion rate for 1 class to the completion rate for graduation at a university (consisting of a LOT of classes). If the completion rate for 1 class is 10% I cant imagine how low the completion rate would be for a whole degree assuming it would consist of somewhere around 20-40 classes.
  - waterlesscloud 14y ago
    He's not, though. He's not taking his school's completion rate into account at all, only the total number enrolled in the CS program.
ecmendenhall 14y ago
This is interesting, but I think completion rates (and enrollments, to a degree) are bogus statistics. All the incentives are aligned toward signing up for lots of courses, with or without any intention to finish. I'm "enrolled" in 13 Coursera classes at the moment, but only active in two (and something close to this has been my moving average for the last six months). The only cost to me is a few too many automated emails. And since course quality still varies widely, trying out lots of courses and sticking with the best ones is a good strategy.
- MaysonL 14y ago
  Yeah, I've signed up for about a dozen Coursera, Udacity and CalTech courses over the past year, and finished 3 with enough work for certificate of completion, and put in enough work on a few more to get something out of them.
pohl 14y ago
Of the MOOCs I've participated in, the student surveys have never asked the most relevant question I can think of with respect to completion rates: "do you (or did you) intend to complete the course?" Anybody here ever been asked that?
- PeterisP 14y ago
  That's a big point - I have joined both courses that matter to me and courses that seem fun or relate to my side interests, where I just want to watch a few of the lectures. In the first part, I have 4/5 completion (and I'll finish the missing one when it will be run next time); but for the second part, naturally, I have 0 out of 20+ courses.
- tripzilch 14y ago
  Very good point. Of course, for a completely fair comparison you need to ask the same question (before the course starts) to the traditional students. I expect it can't be much more than a percent or so, but it depends on whether the university penalizes students for signing up for a course they don't finish (in my years of college, the CS department didn't seem to care very much. It was very different for other departments, though). Of course, without penalties, you will get students that start out a semester following more courses than they can finish, only to decide later on which one to drop. I'm not entirely sure how that translates to MOOCs, though.
jankins 14y ago
I think the data is interesting, but the point it infers is absolutely moot: I have personally derived a a HUGE amount of educational value from several MOOC's that I never completed. That's part of the beauty: you can learn what you need to learn, and you're not forced into a box that the course prescribes. You can pick-and-choose your own learning process.
largesse 14y ago
I don't know why people are seeing low MOOC completion rates as a problem. It just makes completion more valuable as a credential. That plus the fact that MOOCs have wider accessibility should make traditional institutions very scared. It's the MOOCs' game to lose.
tzs 14y ago
The last MOOC I took was MIT's introduction to solid state chemistry (great course, BTW). Before an actual MIT student can take that course on campus, the go through a pre-screening process that ensures: 1. The student has the necessary background knowledge that the course assumes, 2. The student has the necessary skill required for the course, 3. The student has the necessary motivation to do the work, 4. The student has the time to devote to the course. There's also a pre-screening process for people who wish to take the online course through edx.org. This pre-screen process ensures: 1. The student can successfully create an edx.org account and click a sign up button for the course. Given this huge difference in screening of students, and the fact that the online course is for the most part not "dumbed down" compared to the on campus course[1] , I would absolutely gobsmacked if the MOOC version of the course came within an order of magnitude of the completion rate of the on campus course. [1] Online students were given 72 hours on the exams, to allow for computer and network outages, and to give more flexibility in accommodating their lives outside of the course. On campus students were given 3 hours for the exams. I think they said the content of the exams was the same.
- diminish 14y ago
  MOOCs are still in the experimental phase. I finished 1, and about to finish another soon. I believe, there is still a lot to innovate when it comes to giving the lecture and evaluating the student. I also believe, a major goog/fb scale company will raise for everyone to get continuous education.
bayesianhorse 14y ago
I don't care about Mooc completion rate at all. If for example only a few hundred people completed the course, this means that the course had brought educational value to thousands. For some professors the kickback value might play a bigger role. Some courses on coursera are just not taught as widely as the professors would like to have it. For example Hinton's Neural Network course, or the one about Quantum Computation. In these cases, a few hundred completers would be plenty to justify the effort of the authors (in my opinion at least).

33 points by jnazario 14y ago

Its silly to criticize them for rates under 20% since many people sign up just to see what it's like without actually planning on finishing it. What would be more relevant is to see what percent of serious committed students finish a course. E.g. what percent of students who pay for a course end up finishing it?

guwhoa 14y ago

Could it also be that many people will sign up in order to get access to certain materials, but then not end up completing all of the assignments/exams? I don't have any experience with MOOC's, so I'm curious as to how these peer graded systems work and why they result in lower completion rates.

quavtum 14y ago
I have signed up for several courses on coursera, but have completed only one. Because of time constraints, I just sign up, and then go through the materials at my leisure.

ams6110 14y ago

Interesting in what that might say about job candidates who have actually completed a number of MOOCs. That would put them in the top 10% or so by that measure, for whatever that's worth. It at least says something about their ability to start something and finish it.

yen223 14y ago
Are MOOC completions something that job interviewers actually look out for? I have always used MOOCs to learn, not to get certified.

ics 14y ago

I sign up for just about every one that looks interesting, obviously without the time to finish them all. The reason is quite simply because I want to look at the materials on my time, occasionally take part in the discussions, and try out the assignments here and there that look particularly challenging. Last I checked, you had to be registered to view any of the materials on EdX and Coursera which is pretty much why I do it this way.

waterlesscloud 14y ago
Yeah, I'm pretty much the same. Which should be completely fine with anyone, since it's putting me way ahead in terms of learning from where I would have been without the course. Completion rate is only one measure of these courses, and I'm not at all sure it should be the most important one.

kkowalczyk 14y ago

I guess people see 10-20% completion rate and think: this is bad. Let's do some math. At my university (one of the biggest in Poland), there were 150 people majoring in CS per year. According to the article, an average MOOC enrollment is 50.000. Let's assume 10% completion rate. That's 5.000 people. It would take my university 33 years to graduate that many people (assuming 100% completion rate). The cost per person? Several orders of magnitude smaller per student for MOOC. Scalability? Almost effortless for MOOC, almost non-existant for the university (to double the number of students they would have to double the number of professors, double the number of buildings etc.). What happens when you fail? At MOOC, try again. At university - you're out. There are many reasons why completion rates are much better at university (you paid for it, you value it more; more external pressures (your peers, your parents), motivational support from your fellow students; the way you think about it (university: I have to do it or else it's really bad; mooc: no biggie, I can always do it again). MOOC destroys traditional education at almost every other metric. It's a classic Innvator's Dillema: a product that is not as good as what exists but so much better at some important things (cost, convenience) that it'll grow like weeds and will become better at things it's not good at (like retention) faster than incumbents becoming better at matching MOOC at price, convenience.

moocow01 14y ago
"According to the article, an average MOOC enrollment is 50.000. Let's assume 10% completion rate. That's 5.000 people. It would take my university 33 years to graduate that many people (assuming 100% completion rate)." You are comparing a completion rate for 1 class to the completion rate for graduation at a university (consisting of a LOT of classes). If the completion rate for 1 class is 10% I cant imagine how low the completion rate would be for a whole degree assuming it would consist of somewhere around 20-40 classes.
- waterlesscloud 14y ago
  He's not, though. He's not taking his school's completion rate into account at all, only the total number enrolled in the CS program.

ecmendenhall 14y ago

This is interesting, but I think completion rates (and enrollments, to a degree) are bogus statistics. All the incentives are aligned toward signing up for lots of courses, with or without any intention to finish. I'm "enrolled" in 13 Coursera classes at the moment, but only active in two (and something close to this has been my moving average for the last six months). The only cost to me is a few too many automated emails. And since course quality still varies widely, trying out lots of courses and sticking with the best ones is a good strategy.

MaysonL 14y ago
Yeah, I've signed up for about a dozen Coursera, Udacity and CalTech courses over the past year, and finished 3 with enough work for certificate of completion, and put in enough work on a few more to get something out of them.

pohl 14y ago

Of the MOOCs I've participated in, the student surveys have never asked the most relevant question I can think of with respect to completion rates: "do you (or did you) intend to complete the course?" Anybody here ever been asked that?

PeterisP 14y ago
That's a big point - I have joined both courses that matter to me and courses that seem fun or relate to my side interests, where I just want to watch a few of the lectures. In the first part, I have 4/5 completion (and I'll finish the missing one when it will be run next time); but for the second part, naturally, I have 0 out of 20+ courses.
tripzilch 14y ago
Very good point. Of course, for a completely fair comparison you need to ask the same question (before the course starts) to the traditional students. I expect it can't be much more than a percent or so, but it depends on whether the university penalizes students for signing up for a course they don't finish (in my years of college, the CS department didn't seem to care very much. It was very different for other departments, though). Of course, without penalties, you will get students that start out a semester following more courses than they can finish, only to decide later on which one to drop. I'm not entirely sure how that translates to MOOCs, though.

jankins 14y ago

I think the data is interesting, but the point it infers is absolutely moot: I have personally derived a a HUGE amount of educational value from several MOOC's that I never completed. That's part of the beauty: you can learn what you need to learn, and you're not forced into a box that the course prescribes. You can pick-and-choose your own learning process.

largesse 14y ago

I don't know why people are seeing low MOOC completion rates as a problem. It just makes completion more valuable as a credential. That plus the fact that MOOCs have wider accessibility should make traditional institutions very scared. It's the MOOCs' game to lose.

tzs 14y ago

The last MOOC I took was MIT's introduction to solid state chemistry (great course, BTW). Before an actual MIT student can take that course on campus, the go through a pre-screening process that ensures: 1. The student has the necessary background knowledge that the course assumes, 2. The student has the necessary skill required for the course, 3. The student has the necessary motivation to do the work, 4. The student has the time to devote to the course. There's also a pre-screening process for people who wish to take the online course through edx.org. This pre-screen process ensures: 1. The student can successfully create an edx.org account and click a sign up button for the course. Given this huge difference in screening of students, and the fact that the online course is for the most part not "dumbed down" compared to the on campus course[1] , I would absolutely gobsmacked if the MOOC version of the course came within an order of magnitude of the completion rate of the on campus course. [1] Online students were given 72 hours on the exams, to allow for computer and network outages, and to give more flexibility in accommodating their lives outside of the course. On campus students were given 3 hours for the exams. I think they said the content of the exams was the same.

diminish 14y ago
MOOCs are still in the experimental phase. I finished 1, and about to finish another soon. I believe, there is still a lot to innovate when it comes to giving the lecture and evaluating the student. I also believe, a major goog/fb scale company will raise for everyone to get continuous education.

bayesianhorse 14y ago

I don't care about Mooc completion rate at all. If for example only a few hundred people completed the course, this means that the course had brought educational value to thousands. For some professors the kickback value might play a bigger role. Some courses on coursera are just not taught as widely as the professors would like to have it. For example Hinton's Neural Network course, or the one about Quantum Computation. In these cases, a few hundred completers would be plenty to justify the effort of the authors (in my opinion at least).