Literature review

Postive ratings by co-participants

Monllau Olivé D et al 2019 also identified "Positive ratings in database entries" and "Positive ratings in forums" as further indicators of the likelihood of drop out or completion. 

Adding a recipe to a Moodle database activity is one of the required tasks for completion. Rating the entries of others ("Delicious" " Not my thing") is not required, but as an optional task, some participants engage with it.

The MOOC includes several forums with ratings such as "Helpful". Again, adding ratings is not obligatory but the feature is well used.

Monllau Olivé and colleagues suggest two reasons for the link etween these positive ratings and eventual drop-out or completion. One possiblity is that participants, like all of us, feel more motivated when we are praised. Another possibility is that those particpants who receive positive ratings are those who are working harder in the course anyway, and therefore more likely to continue.

However, as with the previous indicator (Participation in automatically graded activities) the authors did not differentiate between 'All at once' and 'Step by step' group members so it is not possible to gauge how much this affects those who choose the one path or the other.