Learn Moodle: Step by Step or All at Once?

Although the data suggests it makes little difference to eventual completion (or partial completion) whether a participant opts to see all course content at once or released weekly, the choice is popular with participants and during the paired facilitator discussion it was agreed that there is a social benefit in offering the choice. Thus we shall continue to do so.

The one activity with a deadline may prevent some participants obtaining full completion, but the peer assessment 'Workshop' is a very powerful activity and merits being showcased. The partial completion report data demonstrates that not completing the workshop does not, on its own, prevent participants from completing the MOOC. If it were a more significant factor, then the figures for the Certificate of achievement would be much higher. Possible action could involve restricting sign up to the MOOC so that, once the first workshop deadline is passed, it is not possible to join. This would limit the number of people who could fail but would also limit the number of people who could both experience the course with no wish to complete, and limit the number of people who could obtain a Certificate of achievement by partially completing. This course of action is unlikely to be chosen.

This study only used secondary datasets to obtain information about participants. An improvement on this would be to select a certain number of participants - perhaps by asking for volunteers at the start of the MOOC - and interviewing them at various stages of the MOOC. A short interview in the first week, the third week and at the end of the MOOC might provide more insight into the motivations and ongoing pressures of participants than the basic survey (feedback activity) and completion reports have done.

In terms of overall completion, it is proposed to enable Analytics on the site, in accordance with the paired facilitator discussion.  Moodle core offers  powerful analytics features which can, for example, alert the facilitators to  students at risk of dropping out or at risk of not completing, allowing the facilitators to contact and encourage the students in question. It is felt that actively engaging with individuals to support them could be a valuable way forward, and would have the added advantage of providing a live, large-scale testing ground for Moodle's Analytics features. Thus it is recommended that for the Learn Moodle 3.8 Basics MOOC in January 2020, this be trialled. Recent research carried out by Moodle HQ's Lead Data Scientist (  Monllau Olivé D et al, 2019) used datasets from eight  Learn Moodle Basics MOOCs to develop an analytics framework. Using the  Analytics features in the January 2020 Learn Moodle Basics MOOC would provide useful collaboration between the researchers of the previous project and the MOOC facilitators' desire to identify and minimise factors predicting drop out. This would link in with the participant interviews proposed earlier.

A recommendation for further data analysis might give a greater insight into the motivations of those participants who actually completed the MOOC. The participant survey included responses from 1127 participants who did not all go on to complete. The method of collection did not allow for filtering those who had completed. A future useful exercise would  be to extract the data such that the responses of those who completed could be compared with those who did not and identify any possible trends in, for example, confidence, experience or other motivations.

Since it would appear from the results of this study that the path learners choose does not affect the completion results, then the reasons for low completion (and for this MOOC, partial completion) must be sought elsewhere. What is is that makes so many sign up in the months before the MOOC and then either fail to begin the MOOC,  or begin  the MOOC and fail to complete? 

Another recommendation is to explore the process for participants signing up and first joining the MOOC. Currently sign up is a couple of months before the MOOC is launched -for example, at the time of writing the next Learn Moodle Basics MOOC will begin on January 13 2020 and the course will be open for sign-up from mid-November. Is this too distant a time from the launch, so that participants forget or lose interest? Or is it too close to the launch and there should be a much longer period - for example -should registration be open as soon as the previous MOOC has ended? The promotion on Social media could also be investigated to identify whether it is adequate and targetting the appropriate channels. The reminder email to participants who signed up should be reconsidered and the possiblity of a futher reminder email (or other notification) sent out at the end of the first week to those participants who have not yet engaged with the course. This can link in with the Learning Analytics feature discussed earlier, where alerts ("insights") can be sent out to participants and to course facilitators to help ensure learners are on track.

It is felt, therefore, that the most positive way forward is both to focus on maintaining the early  interest of participants who sign up for the MOOC by reminding them and encouraging them in the days prior to and early on in the course. We should follow Jiang et al (2014), who  stress the importance of monitoring learners' behaviour during the first week, as they claim it can point to subsequent completion. Additionally, it is recommended to make use of Moodle's Learning Analytics features to monitor and support them during the subsequent weeks until final certification. 

 By being more proactive in our support of participants via this closer monitoring, we hope to increase the number of completers and partial completers, in line with Adamopoulos (2013) who considers the online presence of the facilitator a significant factor in MOOC completion rates.