{"id":15055,"date":"2013-08-19t14:16:56","date_gmt":"2013-08-19t19:16:56","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/?p=15055"},"modified":"2013-08-19t16:33:49","modified_gmt":"2013-08-19t21:33:49","slug":"lessons-learned-from-vanderbilts-first-moocs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.imrbdigital.com\/2013\/08\/lessons-learned-from-vanderbilts-first-moocs\/","title":{"rendered":"lessons learned from vanderbilt’s first moocs"},"content":{"rendered":"

by derek bruff, cft director<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>when vanderbilt announced its massive open online course (mooc) initiative almost twelve months ago, one of the stated goals of the project was to explore ways that digital technologies might enhance vanderbilt’s teaching mission. as faculty, staff, and students worked over the last year to launch vanderbilt’s first three moocs, we grappled with the following question: how do you create effective learning environments online for thousands and thousands of students? we haven’t fully answered that question, but we have learned much about the design and implementation of moocs. as vanderbilt prepares to launch its next two moocs in september and as the instructors of those first three moocs look ahead to leveraging their online experiences in their on-campus courses, it’s a good time to reflect on some lessons learned over the last year.<\/p>\n

but first, as they say on marketplace<\/em>, let’s do the numbers.<\/p>\n

participation data<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>vanderbilt’s first mooc, launched on march 4, 2013, was pattern-oriented software architectures for concurrent and networked software<\/a> (posa) by doug schmidt. the course ran for ten weeks and enrolled about 31,000 students. of course, “enrolled” doesn’t mean much in the world of moocs. it’s a bit like clicking “like” on a facebook page; it’s no guarantee of active engagement. a more meaningful statistic is the number of what coursera calls “active” students. these are students who did something beyond enroll–watch a video, take a quiz, visit the discussion forum. there were 23,313 active posa students.<\/p>\n

of those 23,313 active students, 20,933 of them (90%) watched at least one lecture video, 5,702 (24%) took at least one quiz, 2,072 (9%) submitted at least one assignment for peer grading, and 942 (4%) posted at least once in the discussion forums. earning a standard statement of accomplishment in posa required only quiz completion, but earning a statement of accomplishment “with distinction” required quiz completion and submission of programming assignments for peer grading. neither statement was based on discussion forum participation. thus, the lower participation rates for peer-graded assignments and forum posts.<\/p>\n

how many students completed the course? of the 23,313 active students, 1,051 (4.5%) earned a standard statement of accomplishment and 592 (2.5%) earned a statement of accomplishment “with distinction” for a total of 1,643 (7%) students earning some form of statement. of course, one can’t compare mooc completion rates with those of traditional online or on-campus courses. since mooc students neither pay tuition nor earn credit, the motivation for completing a course is largely intrinsic. the statements of accomplishment earned might have value for some students, but they are not equivalent to course credit. that said, it would take maybe 15 years for professor schmidt to teach 1,643 students in his on-campus courses.<\/p>\n

what about participation and completion rates in vanderbilt’s other moocs? our second mooc, leading strategic innovation in organizations<\/a> (lsio) by david owens, launched the day after posa, and our third mooc, nutrition, healthy, and lifestyle: issues and insights<\/a> by jamie pope, started up in may 2013. let’s compare the data across all three courses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\nposa<\/strong><\/td>\nlsio<\/strong><\/td>\nnutrition<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
active students<\/td>\n23,313<\/td>\n24,560<\/td>\n42,842<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
watched a video<\/td>\n20,933 (90%)<\/td>\n21,399 (89%)<\/td>\n33,221 (78%)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
took a quiz<\/td>\n5,702 (24%)<\/td>\n8,578 (35%)<\/td>\n17,064 (40%)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
submitted a peer-graded assignment<\/td>\n2,072 (9%)<\/td>\n4,664 (19%)<\/td>\n0 (0%)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
posted to the discussion forums<\/td>\n942 (9%)<\/td>\n5,435 (22%)<\/td>\n2,532 (6%)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
earned standard statement<\/td>\n1,051 (4.5%)<\/td>\n3,281 (13%)<\/td>\n979 (2%)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
earned “with distinction” statement<\/td>\n592 (2.5%)<\/td>\n758 (3%)<\/td>\n5,554 (13%)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
total statements<\/td>\n1,643 (7%)<\/td>\n4,039 (16%)<\/td>\n6,533 (15%)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

some context for these numbers:<\/p>\n