Success, activity and drop-outs in MOOCs an exploratory study on the UNED COMA courses

Abstract

This paper presents an exploratory study about two language learning MOOCs deployed in the UNED COMA platform. The study identifies three research questions: a) How does activity evolve in these MOOCs? b) Are all learning activities relevant?, and c) Does the use of the target language influence?. We conclude that the MOOC activity drops not only due to the drop-outs. When students skips around 10% of the proposed activities, the percentage of passing the course decrease in a 25%. Forum activity is a useful indicator for success, however the participation in active threads is not. Finally, the use of the target language course is not an indicator to predict success.