Completion rates of massive open online courses (MOOCs)
may be low, but a survey by the Western Interstate Commission for Higher
Education (WICHE) found that more students are finishing online classes taken
on campus. The study, Managing Online Education,
reported that 78% of the students completed online courses taken on campus,
just 3% lower than the rate for in-person classes.
The problem, according to the WICHE report, is
publicity surrounding the much lower MOOC completion rates.
“Some have confused MOOC completion rates with those of
‘traditional’ online courses,” the report said. “These results show that online
completion rates track more closely with those in on-campus courses than is
found in MOOCs.”
The study also found that more than 85% of responding
institutions have developed standards for online course, but 65% were unable to
provide on-campus completion rates and 55% didn’t report the online rates.
“As is the case with all of higher education, there is
room for improvement,” the report concluded. “Perhaps the needed improvement is
not as much as some critics might claim.”
Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology followed
the WICHE study with data from 17 MOOCs offered by the two schools over the
last two years. The study found completion rates are misleading when judging
the potential of MOOCs.
“People are projecting their own desires onto MOOCs and
then holding them accountable for criteria that the instructors and
institutions, and, most importantly, students don’t hold for themselves,”
Andrew Dean Ho, associate professor at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education
and director of the MOOC research at the university, told The Chronicle of Higher Education.
