We’ll have more MOOC veterans this time around (data updated 5/25/14; percentages rounded).
It stands to reason that, as time goes on and the number of people who have taken massively open online courses through Coursera has increased to more than 7 million, the composition and goals of the student body for any individual course would evolve. I’m certainly seeing that as I review data from my optional pre-course surveys in advance of launching Session 2 of “Understanding Media by Understanding Google” on May 26. For example, the chart above shows that the students this time will have more experience with MOOCs. The number of enrolled students who never before have taken a MOOC has dropped from about half to about a third, and a handful of respondents reported having taken more than 50 (I lumped everyone at or above 10 into a single group). It obviously follows that curiosity about the concept is shrinking in importance, but the table that follows shows some other interesting changes too. These numbers are those who said a given factor was “very” or “quite” important in their decision to enroll, the top two boxes out of 5 possible answers:
Relative importance, Session 1 vs. Session 2
| How important was the following factor when you chose to enroll? | Session 2: n=1,770 | Session 1: n= 3,000 |
|---|---|---|
| I'm curious about online courses | 24.3% | 40.4% |
| The subject is relevant to my academic field | 33.2% | 35.2% |
| I want to earn a credential for my CV / résumé | 29.9% | 43.5% |
| It's offered by a prestigious university | 33.0% | 42.0% |
| The class teaches ideas that will help my job / career | 62.0% | 69.6% |
| I want a different perspective on a subject I'm interested in | 69.4% | 75.1% |