Discussion

Co-facilitator paired discussion

Here is the transcript of the discussion in PDF form



Issues considered during the paired discussion with the co-facilitator were:
  • Although more participants opt for the All at once path, the actual percentage who complete the MOOCs is not very different. This result surprised both facilitators who expected one pathway to have more success than another. Helen expected the Step by step group would have a higher completion rate because, working through the MOOC week by week, they would feel more supported. On the other hand, I had expected the All at once group to have a higher completion rate as they demonstrated more confidence and experience.
  • Despite adding an additional certificate for partial completion, the Certificate of achievement' this has not motivated participants to aim to obtain it. It was speculated that only the Certificate of completion is considered to be worthwhile. Despite the apparent lack of interest in obtaining it, it will still remain an option for those who do not fully complete.
  • The  high confidence levels in the participant survey were suggested by Helen to be because it was the first week and participants were motivated. She also believed it was because those participants who log in and do the first week activities actually hope to complete. This supports the early engagement indicator of Jiang et al (2014)
  • Finding other ways to identify participants at risk of dropping out and ways to motivate others to complete prompted the suggestion to trial the Learning analytics feature available in core Moodle (Since the paired discussion was recorded, a report has been published (Olivé et al, 2019) demonstrating that such a learning analytics framework could be very useful in future MOOCS.)