Initial trends in enrolment and completion of massive open online courses

By Katy Jordan. 2014

913 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The past two years have seen rapid development of massive open online courses (MOOCs) with the rise of a number of MOOC platforms. The scale of enrolment and participation in the earliest mainstream MOOC courses has garnered a good deal of media attention. However, data about how the enrolment and completion figures have changed since the early courses is not consistently released. This paper seeks to draw together the data that has found its way into the public domain in order to explore factors affecting enrolment and completion. The average MOOC course is found to enroll around 43,000 students, 6.5% of whom complete the course. Enrolment numbers are decreasing over time and are positively correlated with course length. Completion rates are consistent across time, university rank, and total enrolment, but negatively correlated with course length. This study provides a more detailed view of trends in enrolment and completion than was available previously, and a more accurate view of how the MOOC field is developing.

Subfields: Computer Science Applications, Education

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c9e024653cf9df20009e4cf70685a3726330a6a7

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In Computer Science Applications

In Education

Citations in the corpus

The MOOC dropout phenomenon and retention strategies (2020, background): “Despite high enrollment rates, MOOCs face the problem of dropout rates as high as 90% (Eriksson et al., 2017; Hew & Cheung, 2014; Jordan, 2014; Yang et al., 2017).”
Supporting Self-Regulated Learning in Online Learning Environments and MOOCs: A Systematic Review (2018, background): “However, the discrepancy between enrollment and completion rates in MOOCs (Breslow et al., 2013; Jordan, 2014) suggests that learning online presents unique challenges, and learners may require some form of additional support to become successful.”
Understanding the MOOCs continuance: The role of openness and reputation (2015, background): “: þ82 42 350 6311; fax E-mail addresses: khaled@kaist.ac.kr (K.M. Alraim 1 Tel.”
Self-regulated learning strategies predict learner behavior and goal attainment in Massive Open Online Courses (2017, neutral): “, 2016; Guo & Reinecke, 2014; Hansen & Reich, 2015; Kizilcec & Halawa, 2015), motivations for enrolling and intentions for the course (de Barba et al., 2016; Jordan, 2014; Kizilcec & Halawa, 2015; Kizilcec & Schneider, 2015; Reich, 2014), and self-efficacy (Wang & Baker, 2015).”
Motivation to learn in massive open online courses: Examining aspects of language and social engagement (2016, background): “Research on MOOCs, as described above, examined social engagement via large online groups (Alario-Hoyos et al., 2015; Kizilcec & Schneider, 2015; Jordan, 2014).”
Massive Open Online Course Completion Rates Revisited: Assessment, Length and Attrition (2015, methodology): “While course length, date and university ranking had previously been examined individually (Jordan, 2014), the larger dataset offered the opportunity to consider the factors together.”
Measuring student engagement in technology-mediated learning: A review (2015, background): “High dropout rates for online courses andMOOCs continue to be a challenge (Jordan, 2014; Patterson&McFadden, 2009; Rice, 2006; Roblyer, 2006).”
In Search of Quality: Using Quality Matters to Analyze the Quality of Massive, Open, Online Courses (MOOCs) (2015, background): “The alluring promise of MOOCs and what keeps people interested in them is their ability to offer free or low-cost education to anyone, anytime, anywhere, and on a massive scale (Delbanco, 2013; Jordan, 2014; Yang et al., 2013).”
A Systematic Analysis and Synthesis of the Empirical MOOC Literature Published in 2013–2015 (2016, background): “For instance, Jordan (2014) and Perna et al. (2014) found low completion rates (often less than 10% of registrants), and Reich (2014) showed that certification rates vary substantially among learners with different intentions. This line of research is often related to researchers’ attempts to identi”