The relationship Between Gender, length of MOOCs and the Completion of Massive Open
ETR521-Fall 2016
Mona Alenezi
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The relationship Between Gender, length of MOOCs and the Completion of Massive Open
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
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
investigated in future scholarly research. Fini (2009) suggested that more research is warranted
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
Christensen et al., (2013) conducted a study to provide information to bring about a better
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
that 83.0% of the students have a post-secondary degree, while 79.4% of the students have a
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
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.
The aim of this proposed research study is to examine the relationship between gender and
Research Questions
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
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
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
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
Hypotheses
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.
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
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
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The relationship Between Gender, length of MOOCs and the Completion of Massive Open
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
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
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The relationship Between Gender, length of MOOCs and the Completion of Massive Open
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
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
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
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
References
Alcorn, B., Christensen, G., & Kapur, D. (2015). Higher Education and MOOCs in India and the
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
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