The MOOC Research Initiative recently posted preliminary findings from their funded projects. The Chronicle of Higher Education provides a short synopsis of the more interesting findings, which include:
- If you are isolated, poor, and enamored of the prestigious university offering the MOOC you’re taking, you are less likely to complete it.
- Coaching students to have a healthier mindset about learning may not help in a MOOC.
- Paired with the right incentives, MOOCs can help prepare at-risk students for college-level work.
- Discussion forums in MOOCs are healthy places for the few students who use them.
- We still do not know if doing well in MOOCs will help underprivileged learners become upwardly mobile.
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/5-things-researchers-have-discovered-about-moocs/53585