The relationship Between Gender, length of MOOCs and the Completion of Massive Open

Online Courses MOOCs

The relationship Between Gender, length of MOOCs and the Completion of Massive Open

Online Courses MOOCs

ETR521-Fall 2016

Mona Alenezi

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The relationship Between Gender, length of MOOCs and the Completion of Massive Open

Online Courses MOOCs

Introduction

Over the last few years, millions of people have started enrolling in a new type of course called

a massive open online course or MOOC. MOOCs are a new platform of online courses that are

often offered free of charge and cover many different topics. The term MOOCs was first introduced

in 2008 by Siemens and Downes when they were developing their first online course in Canada.

The term MOOCs had first been defined in previous research. It referred to an online course that

allowed an unlimited number of learners to enroll at no cost through providers such as Coursera,

edX or various universities. In the last few years MOOCs have become a major source of personal

development among adults. In addition to providers such as Coursera and edX, Rwaq offers

MOOCs in the Arabic language. Also, elite universities such as Harvard University, Stanford

University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology have started offering MOOCs.

MOOCs have become very popular because of three features. First of all, they allow an

unlimited number of people to enroll in one course. A second feature involves cost. Many MOOCs

are free of charge and learners do not need to pay anything in order to enroll. Learners only need

a fast internet connection and a device in order to benefit from courses offered by some of the

worlds best higher education institutions. A third feature of MOOCs is that they are usually

flexible in terms of access, where learners can study and do tasks from a time and place of their

choosing. However, despite these benefits, there is a low completion rate of those who are taking

MOOCs. Jordan (2013) in his study stated that among 50,000 learners enrolled in MOOCs, only

10% of them completed their course. The reasons for this low completion rate need to be

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The relationship Between Gender, length of MOOCs and the Completion of Massive Open

Online Courses MOOCs

investigated in future scholarly research. Fini (2009) suggested that more research is warranted

concerning MOOCs participants profiles.

In general, little research has been conducted about MOOCs and their use, and the few studies

exploring them have applied different theories such as Adult Learning Theory and Connectivism

(Jordan, 2015; Liu, Kang, Cao and Lim 2013; Fini 2009).

Jordan (2015) conducted a study to explore the factors that affected learners enrollment and

completion of MOOCs. He collected data from different publicly available online sources.

Information about the number of learners enrolled and their completion rate were collected in order

to achieve the aims of the study. The results revealed that the enrollment number of students was

433,000, and among these learners only 6.5% finished the course. According to the result of the

study, length of the course was the main factor that influenced learners completion of MOOCs.

Jordan (2015) stated that Enrollment numbers are decreasing over time and are positively

correlated with course length (p.133). This means that students prefer to enroll in shorter MOOCs

rather than in longer MOOCs.

Christensen et al., (2013) conducted a study to provide information to bring about a better

understanding of the demographic information of adults enrolling in MOOCs. They surveyed

students who were enrolled in one of the thirty two MOOCs offered by the University of

Pennsylvania. The study results indicated that more males than females were enrolled in MOOCs,

especially in developing countries. Specifically, 56.9% of learners were male. Regarding the age

of the learners, the study found that 40% were under 30 years of age, while those over 60 years of

age made up 10%. Regarding the learners educational levels, the results of the study indicated

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The relationship Between Gender, length of MOOCs and the Completion of Massive Open

Online Courses MOOCs

that 83.0% of the students have a post-secondary degree, while 79.4% of the students have a

bachelors degree or higher.

A similar study was conducted by Alcorn, Christensen, & Kapur (2015) in India. 1.7 million

students who were enrolled in Penns Coursera courses were surveyed. According to the study,

6.9% of the students were from India. They also found that 80% of the students who were enrolled

in MOOCs were male. The researchers stated that different factors might cause gender disparity

in MOOCs such as unequal access to technology and limited jobs for females. The researchers

emphasized that this gender difference has become an obstacle for the use of MOOCs as a learning

tool in developing countries.

Another study conducted by Latanich, Nonis, & Hudson, (2001) compared the demographic

characteristics of distance learners and non-distance learners. The results of the study indicated

that there is a significant difference between the two groups in gender, age, and employment status.

Regarding the completion of distance courses and its relation to gender, Latanich et al. (2001)

found that gender is a significant factor that might affect the learners ability to complete online

courses.

Purpose of the study

The aim of this proposed research study is to examine the relationship between gender and

completion rate of Massive Open Online courses (MOOCs).

Research Questions

The research questions that will guide this study is:

Is there a relationship between gender and the completion rate of MOOCs?

Is there a relationship between length of MOOCs and the completion rate of MOOCs?

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The relationship Between Gender, length of MOOCs and the Completion of Massive Open

Online Courses MOOCs

Significance of the study

The result of this study will provide valuable information about the factors that might affect the

learners completion of MOOCs. This study will help stakeholders to better understand the nature

of MOOCs, the nature of learners, and what factors that limit MOOCs use. Specifically, the result

of this study will provide information to course designers about factors they need to pay more

attention to when designing MOOCs. In addition, this study will help designers to analyze what

features they need to add or remove from MOOCs. Researchers will also get benefits from their

contributions to this study.

Quantitative Research Methodology

Participants

A permission was obtained from Dr. Todd to use his data that he previously collected through

survey between 2008-2012. N= 16829 were surveyed about the use of massive open online courses

(MOOCs). The data was collected from 2008 to 2014 and the participants were worldwide. The

survey was distributed using different methods. First, the researcher looked at popular MOOCs

providers by visiting their websites, such as Courseera, edX and Udacity. The researcher identified

the instructors who were teaching MOOCs and sent them email requests to distribute the survey

to their students. Another method was by sharing the survey link on social media and discussion

boards among potential students. To increase the response rate, participants were asked at the end

of the survey to share the survey link with their friends and colleagues who they believe

participated in MOOCs.

Data analysis

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The relationship Between Gender, length of MOOCs and the Completion of Massive Open

Online Courses MOOCs

N= 16829 responses were received, and based on the table, the data missing from this survey

is 65.6%. This high percentage of missing data might be due to the large number of participants.

33.6% of the participants were from the United States, while 55.5% were from other countries.

The mean age of the participants was 25.94. 34.3% of participants were male, and 30.4% were

female. Regarding the first question of this study, the independent variable is Gender and the

dependent variable is completion of MOOCs. Regarding the second question of this research, the

independent variable is length of MOOCs and the dependent variable is completion of MOOCs.

As all these variables are considered nominal, a Chi-square test will be applied to find out if there

is a relationship between Gender and completion rate of MOOCs, and if there is a relationship

between length of MOOCs and completion rate of MOOCs.

Hypotheses

The first Hypothesis:

H0= There is no relationship between the gender of learners and completion rate of MOOCs.

H1= There is a relationship between the gender of learners and completion rate of MOOCs.

The second Hypothesis:

H0= There is no relationship between the length of MOOCs and the completion rate of MOOCs.

H1= There is a relationship between the length of MOOCs and the completion rate of MOOCs.

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The relationship Between Gender, length of MOOCs and the Completion of Massive Open

Online Courses MOOCs

Research Question 1:
Is there a relationship between gender and the completion rate of MOOCs?

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The relationship Between Gender, length of MOOCs and the Completion of Massive Open

Online Courses MOOCs

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The relationship Between Gender, length of MOOCs and the Completion of Massive Open

Online Courses MOOCs

Research Question 2:
Is there a relationship between the length of MOOCs and the completion rate of MOOCs?

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The relationship Between Gender, length of MOOCs and the Completion of Massive Open

Online Courses MOOCs

Result of the study

Research Question 1:
Is there a relationship between gender and the completion rate of MOOCs?

The researcher applied the Chi-square test to find out if there is a significant relationship between

gender and the completion rate of MOOCs. The result of the Chi-Square indicates that there is a

significant relationship between gender and completion of MOOCs. Table 2 shows that (X2 with

df= 3) = 24.33, and p=.00 and the critical value is as calculated in the online calculator is 3.84. As

the Chi-Square is (X2=24.33) which is greater that than critical value (3.84), the null hypothesis

must be rejected. Another evidence is that the p value (p=.00) is less than (alpha=0.05). The

researcher looked at Cramers V measure the effect size the relationship between the two variables.

Table 4 shows that Cramers V is .059 which considered as a weak relationship based on the

general guidelines for interpreting V. Based on the result of this test it can be seen that female are

more likely to drop out or do not complete MOOCs than male (Table2).

Research Question 2:

Is there a relationship between the length of MOOCs and the completion rate of MOOCs?

To answer the second research question, the researcher applied Chi-Square test because both of

the variable are nominal. Based on the result of the test and as can be seen on table 6, there is no

relationship between the length of MOOCs and the completion of MOOCs. First evidence is that

Pearson Chi-Square is (X2=1.69) which is less than the critical Chi-Square value (3.84). The

second evidence is that p value (1.92) is less than .0.05. Based on this result, the researcher failed

to reject the null hypothesis.

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The relationship Between Gender, length of MOOCs and the Completion of Massive Open

Online Courses MOOCs

Discussion

The result of this study indicated that there is a significant relationship between gender and

completion of MOOCs. Spastically, female are more likely to drop out or do not complete MOOCs

than male, while male is more likely to complete MOOCs. The finding of this study is consistent

with the finding of the study of Latanich et al. (2001) where they found gender as a factor that

affect the completion of online course. This difference can be caused for many reasons. For

example, female might be not comfortable of online such a MOOCs because they feel they are

neglected or not welcome. Designers of MOOCs must pay more attention of gender equity when

designing and building courses or program.

Regarding the relationship between the length of MOOCs and the completion of MOOCs, the

current study found that there is no statistical significant relationship between the length of

MOOCs and the completion of MOOCs. The result of this study is contradictory with the finding

of previous study (Jordan, 2015). Jordan, (2015) found that learners tend to complete MOOCs

when the course is not too long.

Conclusion

Based on the finding of this study, gender differences in MOOCs play an important role in the

completion of online course in general and specifically in MOOCs. Universities, colleges and

institutions who offer MOOCs should pay more attention to this difference when planning and

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The relationship Between Gender, length of MOOCs and the Completion of Massive Open

Online Courses MOOCs

designing their courses. Moreover, further researches are needed about the factors that might affect

the completion of MOOCs such as educational level, computer skills, kind of activities and

assessments.

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The relationship Between Gender, length of MOOCs and the Completion of Massive Open

Online Courses MOOCs

References

Alcorn, B., Christensen, G., & Kapur, D. (2015). Higher Education and MOOCs in India and the

Global South. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 47(3), 42-49.

Christensen, G., Steinmetz, A., Alcorn, B., Bennett, A., Woods, D., & Emanuel, E. J. (2013).

The MOOC phenomenon: who takes massive open online courses and why? Available at

SSRN 2350964.

Fini, A. (2009). The technological dimension of a massive open online course: The case of the

CCK08 course tools. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed

Learning, 10(5).

Jordan, K. (2015). Massive open online course completion rates revisited: Assessment, length

and attrition. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning,

16(3).

Latanich, G., Nonis, S. A., & Hudson, G. I. (2001). A profile of today's distance learners: An

investigation of demographic and individual difference variables of distance and non-

distance learners. Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, 11(3), 1-16.

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