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Wait, am I reading this right? 160,000 people signed up, and 4% completed the course. That's 6,400 students that completed! This isn't even an easy course it

Wait, am I reading this right? 160,000 people signed up, and 4% completed the course. That's 6,400 students that completed! This isn't even an easy course it's AI for crying out loud. I had a friend that had to take this course, because the one taught at his local university was worse. He loved it. How is this a failure?

adidash 13y ago
Only about half of those who registered for a course ever viewed a lecture. If this were a physical class were only 50% ever attended a lecture and only 4% cleared the class, it would be a disaster scenario. The key issue I feel is improving the benefits of completing a course and the way the course is delivered. A physical class in a college or private course for entrance tests like Gmat see a significantly higher degree of engagement and follow through because of very clear benefits. They are a mean to an end - be it getting a job on completing college or getting admission into a college after taking Gmat. With the MOOCs, there is no recognized benefit which would really matter for the larger audience. Most of them sign up because its available for free. Having said that I have also heard of the gym subscription syndrome in case of paid online courses - paid the fee but rarely saw a video/performed a task or didn't utilize the service completely. The second and a more bigger problem is the way the courses are conducted. Learning is a very social experience. Most of us done all our learning in group settings in schools, colleges, and even at work place. The best lectures/classes were usually highly entertaining/engaging and generated high degree of student interaction. MOOCs fail in most of them with no scope for the mentors/instructors to scope the students and improv on their presentation. Additionally, there is hardly any student interaction. The biggest benefit of any offline class were the networking and relationship building opportunities. Its very difficult and superficial in cases of MOOCs. I guess some form of middle path (combination of online/offline classes) will lead to larger interest levels.

adidash 13y ago

Only about half of those who registered for a course ever viewed a lecture. If this were a physical class were only 50% ever attended a lecture and only 4% cleared the class, it would be a disaster scenario. The key issue I feel is improving the benefits of completing a course and the way the course is delivered. A physical class in a college or private course for entrance tests like Gmat see a significantly higher degree of engagement and follow through because of very clear benefits. They are a mean to an end - be it getting a job on completing college or getting admission into a college after taking Gmat. With the MOOCs, there is no recognized benefit which would really matter for the larger audience. Most of them sign up because its available for free. Having said that I have also heard of the gym subscription syndrome in case of paid online courses - paid the fee but rarely saw a video/performed a task or didn't utilize the service completely. The second and a more bigger problem is the way the courses are conducted. Learning is a very social experience. Most of us done all our learning in group settings in schools, colleges, and even at work place. The best lectures/classes were usually highly entertaining/engaging and generated high degree of student interaction. MOOCs fail in most of them with no scope for the mentors/instructors to scope the students and improv on their presentation. Additionally, there is hardly any student interaction. The biggest benefit of any offline class were the networking and relationship building opportunities. Its very difficult and superficial in cases of MOOCs. I guess some form of middle path (combination of online/offline classes) will lead to larger interest levels.