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Online Education's Dirty Secret - Awful Retention

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Re: Online Education's Dirty Secret - Awful Retention

#21

Post by scott_s »

michaelt wrote: post #17
tkahn6 wrote: post #3

I usually sign up for a bunch of classes just so I can access the material at a later point when I have time or when I'm interested. I'm pretty sure that in most cases Coursera locks you out of old material unless you were enrolled. I don't follow along with the class. Synchronous learning, IMO, is an anachronism. We have video recording technology, practically infinite bandwidth, and near speed of light communicatio…

I usually sign up for a bunch of classes just so I can access the material at a later point when I have time or when I'm interested. How many of those classes have you done the work for? Personally I find the synchronous model helps me complete the course, as it removes the temptation to put things off.

I think the synchronous model makes it easier to have small communities of students working through the same thing at the same time, helping each other.

Re: Online Education's Dirty Secret - Awful Retention

#22

Post by goostavos »

viveutvivas wrote: post #4

The way that Udacity does it is perfect for me -- work through at your own pace. Coursera has a couple of self-paced classes, I believe, and I wish that more of the courses had that option. I think the majority of MOOC course developers want to run their online courses as closely to their university versions as possible, since that's what they're used to working with. It also provides a handy way for them to go off-d…

I agree completely on the Udacity model allowing you to work through at your own pace, as well as keeping the course open After it finishes. The strict scheduling thing with other sites drives me mad!

In addition to having a normal job, I'm a traditional university student, so any of the online classes I take are simply out of interest in the subject. I dip into the class when I have time, almost like a leisure activity. I just don't currently have the time to fit in more strict course work on top of my already over loaded class schedule and work week.

Re: Online Education's Dirty Secret - Awful Retention

#23

Post by denzil_correa »

One of the main problems the author has with Coursera or EdX is that it is "too fast". To address this problem, I urge the author to try Udacity [0]. You can set learning at your own pace.

That said, not all material on Coursera is "amazing". Some of the classes have very high completion rate like Functional Programming with Scala has a 19.2% completion rate [1]. Similarly, the class taken by Andrew Ng on Machine Learning is fantastic. However, many of my peers had bad reviews on Daphne Koller's Probabilistic Graphical Models class. Last year, I myself registered for one of these MOOC's and found that half of the course was good while the other half was quite bad - both halves had different professors.

At some point of time, universities would have to realize that great researchers do not make great teachers. Some excel in both - researching & teaching while some in just one of those two fields.

PS - Other problems on reengagement do stand though.

[0] https://www.udacity.com/ [1] http://www.katyjordan.com/MOOCproject.html

Re: Online Education's Dirty Secret - Awful Retention

#24

Post by fcorr »

I'm taking two Coursera courses at the moment - Calculus One and Pattern-Oriented Software Architectures for Concurrent and Networked Software. I'm very pleased with the material and presentation in both, but I don't think I could handle more than two such (relatively difficult) courses at any one time.

Codecademy and Udacity allow you to freely dip in and out of lectures and assessments, whereas Coursera courses demand that you deliver quizzes/assignments every week. It's hard to recommend one approach over the other -- with weekly deadlines I find I have more of an incentive to engage in the lectures and course materials, but the added failure conditions can push students to abandon the course.

Re: Online Education's Dirty Secret - Awful Retention

#25

Post by Paul_D_Santana »

tsiki wrote: post #16

I agree with the sentiment, but I wonder if having a low barrier of entry is really the solution, or does having a low barrier of entry average out to a low level of initial commitment. It'd be interesting to see if an online course for which you pay for would be better at retention. From a business point of view, they could even offer to give you the money back if you finish the course, or use some other retention t…

Hah, I was about to post the same idea, about paying for a course and getting the money back on completion. Maybe even redistribute the funds from prior students who hadn't finished the class to students who complete the class and go back to help others. Get paid for answering questions, kind of like a university TA.

Another idea I had was that students who completed a course, and achieved a certain level of proficiency, would get access to a special forum. This forum could be shared by potential employers.

Re: Online Education's Dirty Secret - Awful Retention

#27

Post by tunesmith »

For the past year, I've only been seriously interested in three Coursera courses - Scala, Ng's Machine Learning, and Probabilistic Graphical Networks.

All three overlap at the same time!! And they don't give assurances of when they will be offered again, or even if. Argh. I've started Scala but doubt I'll be able to continue if it I attempt PGN again. This happened to me last fall and I ended up completing none of the three.

Plus, it is apparently "known"... somewhere... that certain courses are easier if you take other courses first... but good luck finding that information when you want to refer to it.

Re: Online Education's Dirty Secret - Awful Retention

#28

Post by mani27 »

Even if 5% people(say 5000 people) complete the course, whats wrong in that ? 5000 is still a big number. Many Prof's wouldn't have taught that many students all their life. I have myself completed 7 courses from edX,udacity and coursera. Each of these have a different approach. Udacity for beginers while edX and coursera have some advance courses and I found these courses a great supplement to my course work at my school.

Re: Online Education's Dirty Secret - Awful Retention

#29

Post by jiggy2011 »

Does it matter if not everyone watches right until the end and completes the final coursework?

I want to know as much as I can about different subjects but I want to immerse myself in them to different levels.

Sometimes I am happy just to stick a few videos on in the background while I do something else, so I get the gist of what something is about and know what to focus on later if I need more information.

I don't necessarily care if I could pass an exam or not.

Re: Online Education's Dirty Secret - Awful Retention

#30

Post by jonathanjaeger »

mani27 wrote: post #28

Even if 5% people(say 5000 people) complete the course, whats wrong in that ? 5000 is still a big number. Many Prof's wouldn't have taught that many students all their life. I have myself completed 7 courses from edX,udacity and coursera. Each of these have a different approach. Udacity for beginers while edX and coursera have some advance courses and I found these courses a great supplement to my course work at my s…

True, that's a nice number. But you have to keep in mind many of these startups, while doing something noble, still need to make a big business (often they're VC-backed). Increasing retention rates is essential for business and for making online education viable. I'm not sure if 5% retention makes the model work or if you need >10%.
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