New research recently published by Dr. Guo at the University of Rochester and Dr. Reinecke at the University of Michigan looks at data from over 100,000 students who took edX courses in the fall of 2012 and was able to draw some valuable conclusions on design changes to MOOCs in general that will improve the platforms.
The following are design implications excerpted from Dr. Guo's blog post summarizing the research:
- MOOCs should augment certificates (which indicate only pass/fail) with richer metrics such as discussion forum participation, peer ratings, or time-on-task. These new metrics could provide an incentive for greater participation and engagement by students.
- MOOC UX designers could experiment with adaptive interfaces that adjust based on a student's demographic or behavioral profile.
- Social dashboards (e.g., “other students spent 45 minutes on this part”) could motivate students to keep forging ahead toward completion of a months-long course.
The full research paper can be read here.
