Achieving a Better Completion Rate in MOOCs Through a Blended Approach

Abstract

n the fast-changing globalised world, everyone needs to acquire new knowledge and skills continuously. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) help achieve lifelong learning to a large number of people all over the world by providing the freedom and flexibility to learn anytime, anywhere, irrespective of age, gender, religion and ethnicity. Even though MOOCs are gaining popularity worldwide, there are some challenges. Low completion rate, lack of learner's motivation, the feeling of isolation and lack of interactivity in MOOCs are perceived as some of the challenges. To address these challenges, we experimented with blended MOOCs on IITBombayX ( https://iitbombayx.in ) MOOCs platform. The instructors made learning more engaging and interesting for learners through live audio-video interactions once a week. Learners could ask questions to the instructors using an internet-based video conferencing software called A-VIEW. These interactions could be heard and seen by all the learners located at different geographical locations in the country. Since all the learners join synchronously during the interaction sessions, they feel part of a larger peer group. In the last three years (2015-2018), more than 200,000 students and teachers have benefited from this blended approach. It helped improve the motivation levels and increased the completion rate to more than 80% in some of the MOOCs. The average completion rate for blended MOOCs was found to be 30%, which is much higher than the global average completion rate of 15%. In this paper, we explain how live interaction combined with online learning material made learning more engaging, entertaining and empowering to the learners.// Paper ID 38