Attrition in MOOC: Lessons Learned from Drop-Out Students

Despite the popularity of Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), recent studies have found that completion rates are low with some reported to be significantly lower than 10%. The low retention and completion rates are major concerns for educators and institutions. This paper investigates motivations fo...

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Main Authors: Guetl, Christian, Hernandez Rizzardini, R., Chang, V., Morales, M.
Other Authors: Lorna Uden
Format: Book Chapter
Published: Springer 2014
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/2743
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author Guetl, Christian
Hernandez Rizzardini, R.
Chang, V.
Morales, M.
author2 Lorna Uden
author_facet Lorna Uden
Guetl, Christian
Hernandez Rizzardini, R.
Chang, V.
Morales, M.
author_sort Guetl, Christian
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Despite the popularity of Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), recent studies have found that completion rates are low with some reported to be significantly lower than 10%. The low retention and completion rates are major concerns for educators and institutions. This paper investigates motivations for enrolling in a MOOC on the topic of ‘e-learning’ and discusses reasons for the attrition rates during the course. A survey of 134 students who had not completed the MOOC reveals that only 22% of the students had intended to complete the MOOC but was unable to due to various factors including academic and personal reasons. A big majority of the students indicated that changes in their job, insufficient time, difficulty with the subject matter and unchallenging activities are some of the reasons for the drop-out.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-27432023-02-13T08:01:36Z Attrition in MOOC: Lessons Learned from Drop-Out Students Guetl, Christian Hernandez Rizzardini, R. Chang, V. Morales, M. Lorna Uden Jane Sinclair Yu-Hui Toa Dario Liberona Completion Rate Attrition Rate Retention Rate Massive Open Online Course Despite the popularity of Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), recent studies have found that completion rates are low with some reported to be significantly lower than 10%. The low retention and completion rates are major concerns for educators and institutions. This paper investigates motivations for enrolling in a MOOC on the topic of ‘e-learning’ and discusses reasons for the attrition rates during the course. A survey of 134 students who had not completed the MOOC reveals that only 22% of the students had intended to complete the MOOC but was unable to due to various factors including academic and personal reasons. A big majority of the students indicated that changes in their job, insufficient time, difficulty with the subject matter and unchallenging activities are some of the reasons for the drop-out. 2014 Book Chapter http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/2743 10.1007/978-3-319-10671-7_4 Springer restricted
spellingShingle Completion Rate
Attrition Rate
Retention Rate
Massive Open Online Course
Guetl, Christian
Hernandez Rizzardini, R.
Chang, V.
Morales, M.
Attrition in MOOC: Lessons Learned from Drop-Out Students
title Attrition in MOOC: Lessons Learned from Drop-Out Students
title_full Attrition in MOOC: Lessons Learned from Drop-Out Students
title_fullStr Attrition in MOOC: Lessons Learned from Drop-Out Students
title_full_unstemmed Attrition in MOOC: Lessons Learned from Drop-Out Students
title_short Attrition in MOOC: Lessons Learned from Drop-Out Students
title_sort attrition in mooc: lessons learned from drop-out students
topic Completion Rate
Attrition Rate
Retention Rate
Massive Open Online Course
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/2743