This paper reports on the progress of users through 16 Coursera courses taught by University of Pennsylvania faculty for the first time between June 2012 and July 2013. Using descriptive analyses, this study advances knowledge by considering two definitions of massive open online course (MOOC) users (registrants and starters), comparing two approaches to measuring student progress through a MOOC course (sequential versus user driven), and examining several measures of MOOC outcomes and milestones. The patterns of user progression found in this study may not describe current or future patterns given the continued evolution of MOOCs. Nonetheless, the findings provide a baseline for future studies.

This article critically reviews recent literature on the relationship between family formation and academic-career progression, emphasizing obstacles women face seeking a tenured position and beyond. Evidence indicates that the pipeline model is dominated by "ideal worker" norms. These norms impose rigid, tightly coupled, sequential, time-bound requirements on aspiring academics, making the raising of young children and advancing an academic career incompatible. Studies indicate that women with PhDs and young children are disproportionately more likely to leak out of the tenuretrack pipeline. Lack of family friendliness is one of the chief reasons why women opt out of tenure-track careers. One way to increase the proportion of tenured women is to adapt the pipeline model by bolstering institutional work-family policies and providing child care centers. Departmental leaders can ensure that making use of work-family policies does not negatively affect tenure decisions. Collecting longitudinal data to evaluate how well policies are working is critical.

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This paper examines the extent to which prospective engineers follow in their parents' footsteps. Specifically, we investigate the connection between fathers' and mothers' employment in the engineering profession and the career plans of sons and daughters. We develop a number of reasons to expect an occupation-specific intergenerational association in this field, as well as hypotheses regarding gender-specific role-modeling. Data are drawn from the UCLA HERI Freshman Survey data spanning 1971 to 2011. The results point to clear and substantial effects on sons and daughters' plans to pursue engineering, connections that cannot be explained by typical pathways such as social background, education and values. The evidence points to a pattern of increasing salience of mothers with respect to the career plans of their children, especially their daughters. The implications of these findings for the under-representation of women in engineering and for gender-specific family dynamics are discussed in the conclusion.

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