Are Highly Motivated Learners More Likely to Complete a Computer Programming MOOC?

Abstract

Computer programming MOOCs attract people who have different motivations. Previous studies have hypothesized that the motivation declared before starting the course can be an important predictor of distinctive dropout rates. The aim of this study was to outline the main motivation clusters of participants in a computer programming MOOC, and to compare how these clusters differed in terms of intention to complete and actual completion rate. The sample consisted of 1,181 respondents to the pre-course questionnaire in the Introduction to Programming MOOC. A validated motivation scale, based on expectancy-value theory and k-means cluster analysis, was used to form the groups. The four identified clusters were named as Opportunity motivated (27.7%), Over-motivated (28.6%), Success motivated (19.6%) and Interest motivated (24.0%). Comparison tests and chi-square test were used to describe the differences among the clusters. There were statistically significant differences among clusters in self-evaluated probability of completion. Also, significant differences emerged among three clusters in terms of percentages of respondents who completed the MOOC. Interestingly, the completion rate was the lowest in the Over-motivated cluster. A statistically significant higher ratio of completers to non-completers was found in the Opportunity motivated, Success motivated, and Interest motivated clusters. Our findings can be useful for MOOC instructors, as a better vision of participants’ motivational profiles at the beginning of the MOOC might help to inform the MOOC design to better support different needs, potentially resulting in lower dropout rates.

Teachers’ Perception About MOOCs and ICT During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…This study shares the ideas of various authors (e.g., Kara, 2021;Persson & Nouri, 2018;Zhang & Zuo, 2019) about the use of technological tools to improve the teaching-learning conditions. As mentioned by Luik and Lepp (2021), the use of a MOOC facilitated the development of digital skills and increased the motivation of the students in the Introduction to Programming course. As a result of the analysis performed, 47.54% of the teachers (n = 58) thinks that the use of ICT in the educational field facilitates very much the learning of the students.…”

“…Today, teachers use MOOCs to create new learning spaces and carry out creative school activities (Cisel, 2019;Li et al, 2020;Wise & Cui, 2018). For example, the use of MOOCs improved the teaching-learning conditions in the courses of Bioelectricity (Zhou, 2017), Education (Brooker et al, 2018), Introduction to Programming (Luik & Lepp, 2021), Poetry (Chiu & Hew, 2018), Pedagogy (Bozkurt et al, 2018), Informatics (Ji, 2016), Modern Educational Technology (Li, 2017), Administration (Kang, 2020), News Transmission (Shen, 2018), Statistics (You, 2019), and Psychology (Martin et al, 2018).…”

“…In the Introduction to Programming course, the students developed their computer skills, increased their motivation and participated actively from anywhere through a MOOC (Luik & Lepp, 2021). In the same way, Duke University transformed the teaching-learning process about bioelectricity through the incorporation of technology in the school activities (Zhou, 2017).…”

Modelo de aprendizaje desarrollador de la informática para el preuniversitario cubano.

“…Este nivel se divide en tres años denominados décimo, onceno y duodécimo grado y su función fundamental es preparar a los estudiantes como futuros estudiantes universitarios. Aunque existe una variada literatura acerca de la enseñanza de estas disciplinas informáticas (Ahmad Basuhail, 2020;Luik y Lepp, 2021), lo disperso de esta literatura y la heterogeneidad de sus resultados hace que resulte es necesario un modelo que guíe las estrategias y principios de su enseñanza. Es por ello objetivo de este artículo elaborar un modelo de aprendizaje desarrollador de la informática para el preuniversitario cubano.…”

NANO-MOOCs to train university professors in digital competences

“…At the moment, family and educational environments look for a permanent, growing and systematic offer of open and free online courses. These are offered and required from sectors of the population of all kinds in the world ( Abad et al., 2014 ), despite its popularity, this system continues to show high dropout rates ( Luik and Lepp, 2021 ), only 5% and 10% of the people who enroll complete and finish a course in a MOOC format ( García-Peñalvo et al., 2018 ). Recent studies indicate that this issue is due to various factors, including: users’ individual behavior, context (geographical, socio-economic, cultural, among others) in which they develop ( Rizvi et al., 2022 ) and the instructional design (ID) of the course ( Gómez-Galán et al., 2017 ).…”