Harvard and MIT free online course popular with teachers

A new report on Harvard and MIT free online courses shows they are popular with teachers at 32% of students (Chuang & Ho, 2016). The rate at which students complete is 5.5%, increasing to 30% for students who say they plan to earn a certificate, 36% for those who get through half  a course and 60% for those who paid for a verified certificate.

These findings are similar to those observed for conventional paper based DE courses half a century ago, more recent on-line course experience and common sense. Not surprisingly, teachers make enthusiastic students and the more a student has invested in a course, in terms of money or time, the more likely they are to complete.

The lesson for course promoters I suggest are:

1. Target teachers as students, and recruit people from other disciplines to be teachers (and thus students),
2. Have Students Invest Early: Charging students even a token amount for a course will increase their rate of completion. Alternatively, or in addition, have the students do a significant amount of work early on.

Reference

Chuang, I., & Ho, A.  (2016). HarvardX and MITx:  Four Years of Open Online Courses. Retrieved from https://poseidon01.ssrn.com/delivery.php?ID=189069123081090108030086003094030103025072088045028034119097093076097066072088126027106016006035108029051125112103082065083028038010070008020104090093005098101029111020033003094095007070119004118090030016119118026067006078027076020028075028093021116031&EXT=pdf