MOOC completion rates DO matter – The Ed Techie.
The commonly used argument against completion rates (or even worse ‘drop-out rates’), is that they aren’t relevant. Stephen Downes has a nice analogy, (which he blogged at my request, thankyou Stephen) in that it’s like a newspaper, no-one drops out of a newspaper, they just take what they want. This has become repeated rather like a statement of fact now. I think Stephen’s analogy is very powerful, but it is really a statement of intent. If you design MOOCs in a certain way, then the MOOC experience could be like reading a newspaper. The problem is 95% of MOOCs aren’t designed that way. And even for the ones that are, completion rates are still an issue.
I do not think MOOCs are merely a passing fad, but I DO think they are not worthy of the hype. In the end, what makes or breaks a course is good design combined with good teaching. This is true no matter how the course is delivered.
