Model thinking

Abstract

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are seen as an opportunity for individuals to gain access to education, develop new skills to prepare for high-paying jobs, and achieve upward mobility without incurring the increasingly high debt that comes with a university degree. Despite this perception, few studies have examined whether populations with the most to gain do leverage these resources. We analyzed student demographic information from course surveys and performance data of MOOC participation in a single course. We targeted students who stated that they were motivated to take the course because they "cannot afford to pursue a formal education," and compared them to the group of all other students. Our three key findings are that 1) a higher percentage of non-traditional enrolled students are in this population than the comparison population, 2) in an independent t-test, a statistically significant portion (28%) of this group has less than a 4-year college degree versus 15% of the comparison group, and 3) the completion rate between both groups are relatively equal.

Rethinking MOOCs

“…Althoughparticipantswereidentifiedthroughconveniencesampling,theycorrespondwellwiththe demographicsofMOOCusersinIndia:thetypicalMOOCuserinIndiaismale,inhisearlytwenties, andpossessingabachelor'sdegree (Trehanetal.,2017;Trehan&Joshi,2018).Aswiththisstudy's sample,30%ofIndianMOOCregistrantsarefemale (Mullaney&Reich,2015).Furthermore,just over30%oftheintervieweeswereenrolledinfull-timeeducationattraditionalinstitutes,asimilar percentage to a previous study (Dillahunt et al, 2014). Whilst the interviewees were typical of MOOCusersinIndiaintermsofage,sex,andeducation,theyarenotrepresentativeoftheIndian populationingeneral-thisholdstrueforMOOCusersinallcountries (Christensenetal.,2013;van deOudeweetering&Agirdag,2018) Finally,oneareainwhichthisstudy'sMOOCusersarenottypicalistheircompletionrateof 30%comparedto5%onEdXand4%onCoursera (Pretz,2014).Whilethispaperoffersarichpicture ofMOOCuseamongstthissampleofIndianusers,itsfindingcannotbegeneralizedtousersbased outsidethemajormetroswherefewerEnglishspeakersresideandgreaterbandwidthproblemsexist, norcanitbegeneralizedtostudentsfromnon-scienceandtechnologybackgrounds.…”

Modelling Online Course Services and Comparison of its Major Providers

“…Due to his excellent achievement, Battushig was offered an admission to MIT with full scholarship [10]. His story is just one of many others revealing the existence of individuals with great potential and eagerness to learn but limited by access, time, and financial availability to pursue a formal education at the best universities [9]. Their motivations are simply seeking educational and/or career benefits [7].…”

“…Onah et al analyzed the dropout rate of online courses and the reasons behind it [8]. Dillahunt et al has investigated which online course services providing more assistance for economically disadvantaged populations [9]. Additionally, the report by The Learning House, Inc. presents comprehensive data about online college trends and its key findings in 2017 [4].…”

Understanding Student Experiences in a Blended-Learning MOOC: A Phenomenographic Study

“…Students hail from a wide variety of countries and cultural backgrounds 6 , language groups 7 , and education levels 8 , all factors likely to shape their educational experiences. Further, there is evidence that MOOC users enroll in the courses with widely varying intentions, from college preparation to casual curiosity, and from refreshing one's understanding of a topic for future work goals to gathering material to use as a teacher of similar subject matter 9 .…”