An Analysis of Course Characteristics, Learner Characteristics, and Certification Rates in MITx MOOCs

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Date

2020

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Athabasca Univ Press

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Software Engineering
(2005)
Department of Software Engineering was founded in 2005 as the first department in Ankara in Software Engineering. The recent developments in current technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Big Data, and Blockchains, have placed Software Engineering among the top professions of today, and the future. The academic and research activities in the department are pursued with qualified faculty at Undergraduate, Graduate and Doctorate Degree levels. Our University is one of the two universities offering a Doctorate-level program in this field. In addition to focusing on the basic phases of software (analysis, design, development, testing) and relevant methodologies in detail, our department offers education in various areas of expertise, such as Object-oriented Analysis and Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Software Quality Assurance, Software Requirement Engineering, Software Design and Architecture, Software Project Management, Software Testing and Model-Driven Software Development. The curriculum of our Department is catered to graduate individuals who are prepared to take part in any phase of software development of large-scale software in line with the requirements of the software sector. Department of Software Engineering is accredited by MÜDEK (Association for Evaluation and Accreditation of Engineering Programs) until September 30th, 2021, and has been granted the EUR-ACE label that is valid in Europe. This label provides our graduates with a vital head-start to be admitted to graduate-level programs, and into working environments in European Union countries. The Big Data and Cloud Computing Laboratory, as well as MobiLab where mobile applications are developed, SimLAB, the simulation laboratory for Medical Computing, and software education laboratories of the department are equipped with various software tools and hardware to enable our students to use state-of-the-art software technologies. Our graduates are employed in software and R&D companies (Technoparks), national/international institutions developing or utilizing software technologies (such as banks, healthcare institutions, the Information Technologies departments of private and public institutions, telecommunication companies, TÜİK, SPK, BDDK, EPDK, RK, or universities), and research institutions such TÜBİTAK.

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Abstract

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), capable of providing free (or low cost) courses for millions of learners anytime and anywhere, have gained the attention of researchers, educational institutions, and learners worldwide. Even though they provide several benefits, there are still some criticisms of MOOCs. For instance, MOOCs' high dropout rates or predominantly elite participation are considered to be important problems. In order to develop solutions for these problems, a deeper understanding of MOOCs is required. Today, despite the availability of several research studies about MOOCs, there is a shortage of in-depth research on course characteristics, learner characteristics, and predictors of certification rates. This study examined MOOC and learner characteristics in detail and explored the predictors of course certification rates based on data from 122 Massachusetts Institute of Technology MOOCs (MITx) on edX platform as well as data about the 2.8 million participants registered in these MOOCs. The results indicated that as the number of courses offered and the number of learners enrolled increased in years, there was a decrease in the certification rates among enrolled learners. According to our results, the number of average chapters completed, total forum messages, and mean age predicted course certification rates positively. On the other hand, the total number of chapters in a course predicted the course certification rates negatively. Based on these results, shorter and more interactive MOOCs are recommended by considering the needs of the learners, course content design, and strategies encouraging the enrolled students to enter the courses.

Description

Cagiltay, Nergiz Ercil/0000-0003-0875-9276

Keywords

online learning, massive open online courses, MOOCs, MITx

Turkish CoHE Thesis Center URL

Citation

22

WoS Q

Scopus Q

Q1

Source

Volume

21

Issue

3

Start Page

121

End Page

139

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14411/8971

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WOS