MOOCs, SPOCs and next generation Open Access Learning

Coursera’s software engineer Chuong (Tom) Do showed a bar graph that indicated 70 or 80 percent of paid users are finishing courses.

Do, like others, also urged higher education officials not to put too much emphasis on a standard completion rate that simply measures users who finish MOOCs against users who sign up.

“When we talk about completion rate, there’s one thing we forget to account for,” he said, “and that’s student intent.”

Some users never plan to finish the course and some are just signing up to watch lectures and look at material rather than to take quizzes, he said.