Students’ demographics and behaviour in a series of Australian massive open online courses

Abstract

I investigate the demographics and behavior of students in a series of four Astrophysics Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) offered in 2014-15 by the Australian National University, via the edX Consortium. 135,000 students enrolled in one or more of the courses. These students came from 175 countries: only 6% came from within Australia and less than half had heard of the Australian National University before enrolling. MOOCs are thus an effective way to increase awareness of Australian universities amongst populations where such awareness is extremely low. Only 30% of those who enrolled in the first course ever logged in, and only 10% passed the first homework. Amongst those who passed the first homework, however, 75% would go on to pass the course. Students in the age range 20-30 years were particularly likely to enroll in the course but never log in. The students found the MOOCs to be an effective educational experience: 87% said that they learned as much or more from these MOOCs as they had from on-campus courses. They particularly praised the ability to pause and re-wind the short videos used in the course.