{"id":3960,"date":"2014-07-04T11:44:35","date_gmt":"2014-07-04T17:44:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/?p=3960"},"modified":"2014-09-12T10:58:40","modified_gmt":"2014-09-12T16:58:40","slug":"mooc-completion-rates-do-matter-the-ed-techie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2014\/07\/04\/mooc-completion-rates-do-matter-the-ed-techie\/","title":{"rendered":"MOOC completion rates DO matter &#8211; The Ed Techie"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Approximate Reading Time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> &lt; 1<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minute<\/span><\/span><p><a href=\"http:\/\/nogoodreason.typepad.co.uk\/no_good_reason\/2014\/07\/mooc-completion-rates-do-matter.html\">MOOC completion rates DO matter &#8211; The Ed Techie<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/nogoodreason.typepad.co.uk\/no_good_reason\/2014\/07\/mooc-completion-rates-do-matter.html\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7078\/7324846936_41fbbc5d21_z.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"469\" height=\"351\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The commonly used argument against completion rates (or even worse &#8216;drop-out rates&#8217;), is that they aren&#8217;t relevant. <a href=\"http:\/\/halfanhour.blogspot.co.uk\/2014\/03\/like-reading-newspaper.html\" target=\"_self\">Stephen Downes has a nice analogy<\/a>, (which he blogged at my request, thankyou Stephen) in that it&#8217;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&#8217;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 <em>could<\/em> be like reading a newspaper. The problem is 95% of MOOCs aren&#8217;t designed that way. And even for the ones that are, completion rates are still an issue.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class='wp_likes' id='wp_likes_post-3960'><a class='like' href=\"javascript:wp_likes.like(3960);\" title='' ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-likes\/images\/like.png\" alt='' border='0'\/><\/a><span class='text'>Be the first to like.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class='like' ><a href=\"javascript:wp_likes.like(3960);\">Like<\/a><\/div>\n<div class='unlike' ><a href=\"javascript:wp_likes.unlike(3960);\">Unlike<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Approximate Reading Time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> &lt; 1<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minute<\/span><\/span>MOOC completion rates DO matter &#8211; The Ed Techie. The commonly used argument against completion rates (or even worse &#8216;drop-out rates&#8217;), is that they aren&#8217;t relevant. Stephen Downes has a nice analogy, (which he blogged at my request, thankyou Stephen) &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2014\/07\/04\/mooc-completion-rates-do-matter-the-ed-techie\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9,14,24],"tags":[41,389,186,393],"class_list":["post-3960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-educational-technology","category-general","category-teaching-learning","tag-education","tag-educational-technology","tag-mooc","tag-teaching-learning"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Hsb6-11S","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3446,"url":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2013\/04\/30\/where-ive-been-online-april-2013\/","url_meta":{"origin":3960,"position":0},"title":"Where I&#8217;ve Been Online (April 2013)","author":"Katrin Becker","date":"April 30, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a record of places I have bookmarked. (I also post them to Diigo, but since I don't like to leave stuff only in the cloud, I am also keeping a copy here. Careers in Games - Skillset Careers in Games Within these pages you can find information on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Computers&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Computers","link":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/category\/computers-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2949,"url":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2012\/10\/01\/what-happens-when-free-courses-arent-free-the-next-bison-social-computing-and-culture\/","url_meta":{"origin":3960,"position":1},"title":"What happens when free courses aren\u2019t free? \u00ab The Next Bison: Social Computing and Culture","author":"Katrin Becker","date":"October 1, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"What happens when free courses aren\u2019t free? \u00ab The Next Bison: Social Computing and Culture. Yup. She's right. I would not have taken the gamification course if it had cost a little money. But I am taking a 'real' course, for real money. \u00a0 So what' the difference? For one,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Educational Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Educational Technology","link":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/category\/educational-technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5926,"url":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2015\/11\/04\/worth-sharing-this-change-will-be-the-end-of-the-open-university-as-we-know-it-education-the-guardian\/","url_meta":{"origin":3960,"position":2},"title":"Worth Sharing: \u2018This change will be the end of the Open University as we know it\u2019 | Education | The Guardian","author":"Katrin Becker","date":"November 4, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Just because we can doesn't always mean we should. Yes, it is true that more and more people are taking courses online via MOOCs, but do we really know how successful that is? There are a whole host of problems with getting rid of face to face opportunities for online\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Academia&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Academia","link":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/category\/academia\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3739,"url":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2013\/12\/10\/bbc-news-harvard-plans-to-boldly-go-with-spocs\/","url_meta":{"origin":3960,"position":3},"title":"BBC News &#8211; Harvard plans to boldly go with &#8216;Spocs&#8217;","author":"Katrin Becker","date":"December 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"BBC News - Harvard plans to boldly go with 'Spocs'. How are \"Spocs\" different from other small private online courses (i.e. the ones we've been doing for well over a decade)? ... Aside from have a sexy new acronym, I mean. Is it because Harvard says it is? Because, honestly,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Educational Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Educational Technology","link":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/category\/educational-technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2978,"url":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2012\/10\/11\/nyu-using-codeacademy-to-teach-cs-who-got-fired-computing-education-blog\/","url_meta":{"origin":3960,"position":4},"title":"NYU using Codeacademy to Teach CS: Who got fired? \u00ab Computing Education Blog","author":"Katrin Becker","date":"October 11, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"NYU using Codeacademy to Teach CS: Who got fired? \u00ab Computing Education Blog. I agree with the concerns raised by Mark here. I would add a few additional concerns to this as well. See, I'm not as thrilled by the MOOC idea as some others are. Forgive my cynicism, but,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Academia&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Academia","link":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/category\/academia\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3627,"url":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2013\/07\/09\/double-barrel-critique-flipped-classrooms-moocs\/","url_meta":{"origin":3960,"position":5},"title":"Double Barrel Critique: Flipped Classrooms &#038; MOOCs","author":"Katrin Becker","date":"July 9, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The Tyee \u2013 The Problem with MOOCs. Jon Beasley-Murray takes a shot at 2 currently trendy educational \"innovations\".\u00a0 Well said and worth the read. First the \"Flipped Classroom\": Essentially, his pedagogical tweaks involve the use of technology to incorporate student feedback and discussion. His technique is for the lecturer to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Educational Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Educational Technology","link":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/category\/educational-technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3960"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3965,"href":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3960\/revisions\/3965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}