A friend of mine posed a question that
I have been reflecting on. I am in the process of participating in no
less than four MOOCs, and have noticed some patterns.I've also been reading about poor retention rates for MOOCs and also the nature of community in MOOCs. This has led me to the following questions and ideas about the dynamics of communities and the nature of learners in these environments.
Several people enrolling in MOOCS that
I am participating in seem to check in for a short period of time and then leave, not completing the entire course. That seems
natural enough to me given that most MOOCS, at least the ones that I
have been involved in so far, have no tuition, and no credit hours
associated with them. That means no investment, and so no requirement to
complete. A few in the introduction discussions state flat out that
they are in the course for the parts that interest them
specifically..
So when I was asked what a MOOC that
was designed for the short term learner would look like, I suspect it would
look much the same as the MOOCs that I am in now, where the goal, at
least ideally is to have students complete the entire course. My
reasoning for this is that ultimately, unless we are talking about
modules for e-learning for some sort of incremental professional
development, the goal of a course is to build ideas and concepts
across a series of lessons to a consummate whole of some sort.
Individual modules don't do that. There are always students in any
fairly well designed course who will stay for the duration in
order to get the whole picture, obtain the certificate, or simply
learn all that they can about the subject matter. So maybe the MOOC
has a dual purpose where some view it as a complete course while
others view it as a shorter term educational opportunity.
The benefit to those that stay with the
course only long enough to gain information on some subset of the
content is that they do not have to sit through an entire course in
order to get it. It is essentially just-in-time education to them.
But what is fascinating me is the role of those students who complete
the whole course.
If we assume that one of the building
blocks of a successful online course is the establishment of a
learning community, then those who stay with the course the entire
length and participate in the discussions in an engaged and deep
sense develop into that learning community. They also become a sort of
corporate knowledge for the course. If that is the case, then those who are there only for a short period have access not only
to the content that is specific to their needs and goals, but
also to a community that has developed around these materials. So for
the length of time that students participate in the MOOC they are
also gaining the benefit of a community that reflects more depth and
variety of understanding than could be had if they were only accessing the content itself.
So in the end, the long term MOOC
participants add value for those only attending for specific content
and ideas. The learning community becomes a source of instant
expertise and support for those who are only there a short period of
time.
I'm finding this a very interesting
concept. So far I have seen a few people enter the MOOCs with what
appears to be a single question that they would like to have
answered. Maybe that is part of why MOOCs succeed. There is depth
enough for those seeking it and at the same time a community that can
address the needs of those who are there to simply mine the course
for specific answers.
It could be that current means of
measuring retention in a MOOC is not reflective of its success. If we
only measure those who complete the entire course we may be missing
some different kinds of learning that the MOOC is successful providing. Also, perhaps creating a MOOC that gives some sort of
incremental credit based upon time in the course might make a better
measure of the relative success of the course. Interesting to ponder.
