Jordan, K. (2013) Emerging and potential learning analytics from MOOCs. Presentation given at 'Let the Learners Speak for themselves: The Potential of Learning Analytics and Big Data', 8th 'What the research says' seminar, London Knowledge Lab, 21st March 2013.

1. Massive Open
Online Courses
Emerging and Katy Jordan, The Open University
Katy.jordan@open.ac.uk
potential learning @katy_jordan
analytics from
MOOCs 11/04/2013

2. +
What is a MOOC?
• MOOCs: Massive Open Online Courses
• Main platforms: Coursera, EdX, Udacity
• Lots of attention in education and the media, but
little data

3. +
Some basic questions
• In the MOOC context, how massive is massive?
• Completion rates are reputedly low, but how low?
• What factors might affect completion rate?
• Can I explore this using data that is publicly-
available online?

4. +
Synthesis of enrollment and
completion data

5. +
Some observations
• While MOOC enrollment has approached 180,000 in
some cases, the median average is just over 50,000
• Completion rates can be as high as ~20%, but the
average is approximately 7%
• Assessment types may possibly play a role in
completion rate
• Longer courses do not appear to have higher attrition
• Weak correlation between enrollment and completion
is interesting
• but need more data

6. +
Emerging challenges
• Openness of data
– Data is a valuable commodity. But is ‘closed’ feasible or
ethical in massive and open courses?
• Is completion rate important?
– Completion rate may not be the only way to acknowledge
achievement or measure success
– But if completing the course is significant, it should not be
ignored
– Potential for learning analytics to develop understanding
how to enhance MOOCs & alternative ways of recognising
meaningful interaction

7. +
Further information
• Discussion about what types of data the Learning Analytics community
would like to see from MOOCs:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/learninganalytics/rQmAophTas4
/discussion
• Audrey Watters blog post and comments ‘Massive MOOC dropouts: are
we really ok with that?’: http://hackeducation.com/2012/07/23/mooc-
drop-out/
• Kizilcec et al. (2013) – an example of applying LA to Coursera data:
http://tinyurl.com/kizilcec2013
•Interactive version of my chart of enrollment and completion figures:
http://www.katyjordan.com/MOOCproject.html
• My MOOC blog: http://moocmoocher.wordpress.com