Statistics show that completion rates for massive open
online courses (MOOCs) are around 7%. Open Culture, a web site that
curates and provides free cultural and educational media, came up with some
reasons why the totals are so low.
The site got responses from 50 of its readers and found
the main reason for dropping a MOOC was that it took too much time.
Readers also felt MOOCs assumed students had more knowledge
about the subject than they did, while at the same time tended to be too basic.
Others listed a formal lecture format that was “obsolete and inefficient,” poor
design, clunky communication tools, bad peer reviews, and hidden costs of
course materials as reasons.
Finally, students dropped MOOCs because they were
shopping around to find topics that interested them and because they didn’t
take the course to earn a certificate anyway, just as a recent University of
Edinburgh study suggests.