So, it’s time to see if this experiment is working. Which experiment? MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). I explained how these work (or at least the Harvard/MIT/UC Berkeley version, called edX) and explained that MIT also has had open courseware for more than a decade.
The big boy in MOOCs is Coursera. This for-profit venture has accumulated 5 million student subscribers this year. edX, the non-profit MOOC version from MIT and Harvard, has some 1.3 million who may be benefiting. (I will describe the various attributes of the programs below- you can then decide if these are succeeding or not.) Most of the users are in the US; edX has some 20% from outside the US (12% India, 9% Africa).
The question is the what is the goal- to educate folks, to reduce the cost of education, or to generate additional funds for teachers and institutions. After all, it is clear that watching a computer monitor (which at that point resembles a TV screen, if you consider it) is not quite an engaging method to involve students. So, it’s not surprising that only about 10% of those who sign up for a course manage to complete it.
It seems that the key factor leading to success is support- interaction and/or help proffered by the sites. Dr. Shanna Jaggars (Columbia University) is examining the effects of online and in-person courses at community colleges. (This Community College Research Center [CCRC] program is sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.) Her initial study (September 2013; the April working paper that does not require a subscription to the journal is found here) found that MOOC students in Virginia withdrew or failed about twice as often as those engaged in in-person instruction (32% v. 19%). The other groups of students she studied were in Washington (state) where students who had lower GPA’s (in general), men (over women), and Black students performed worse than average- and they all did better when the classes were in-person.
This may explain was Coursera found that congratulating students for completing their assignments worked far better than sending them reminders that work was due soon. Another vendor has decided that mentors, who can interact with the online students, are a crucial addition.
edX has tried blending online and in-person courses- lectures are viewed online and projects and faculty interactions occur in traditional classrooms. (To be honest, this is the method that MIT employed more than four decades ago when folks like me were offered some specialized courses taught by world-renowned researchers augmented with in-class professors. For what it’s worth, it took me several hours to recall Dr. Overbeek’s name who was behind the surface chemistry course I took- but I can recall every prof for every class I took in-person.) These blended classes may be the final result of the MOOC experiment. Even Coursera is considering this model.
Another factor in determining success could be tuition. When the MOOCs are free, there is no imperative to ‘get your money’s worth”. Coursera charges from $ 30 to $90 for a special program [Signature Track identity verification to provide proof of successful completion]- and the completion rate for these offerings are higher than those without the fees.
edX finds that spending time on homework from the MOOC is a valuable predictor of success. That seems to be far more important that watching the lectures or reading the textbooks. I don’t doubt that- I found in my in-person teaching that students who routinely completed the home assignments did better than did the rest of my students. (Of course, they all claimed they read the materials; the only discriminator upon which I could rely was homework completion.)
The length of each instructional video- which can be broken up into smaller segments by having the students complete a short assignment- is also critical. Extending the video beyond some 10 minutes without a break seems to leave too many behind. The ideal “act” ranges from six to nine (6-9) minutes.
Now, most of these courses are technical in nature- not covering things like poetry or other subjects in the humanities. That may also color the obtained results. But, Dr. Jaggars did find that community college students fared worse in English than science courses, when compared to in-person classes.
So, you tell me- are MOOCs a success or not?
Sounds like the jury’s still out on that question, Roy!
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I certainly think so, Amy. It depends upon what success is considered, of course.
I suppose that technical courses could be successfully taught this way, but I can’t see teaching topics that need interpretive discussion being taught well. I am feeling more and more “old school” everyday….
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I have been able to pick up texts and learn from them. But, the interaction with others is a vital part of our learning. And, I have seen way too many students who have been unable to pick up a text, without the additional input from and discussion with a professor. So, I am with you, Alessa, on this matter.