Dive Brief:
- Owen Youngman recently taught a MOOC and asks: How should pass rates be calculated when many students who sign up never even look at the course material?
- Youngman says he surveyed the students in the MOOC to get their answer: "Just count the ones who were at least trying to pass."
- In Youngman's case, about 55,000 students enrolled and 1196 passed; on the other hand, just 2385 students turned in two assignments, an indicator that they were somewhat engaged and trying to pass.
Dive Insight:
MOOC promoters may sometimes want to have it both ways. On the one hand, impressive sign-up numbers create the impression that they truly are a massive phenomenon. On the other hand, if only a very small fraction of those initial sign-ups pass the class, the outcome statistics suffer. This does sound like a reasonable way to calculate the pass rate, but determining "students who try" may sometimes be a slippery figure.