What's in It for Me? Incentives, Learning, and Completion in Massive Open Online Courses

Abstract

This study investigated the distribution of incentives (e.g., certificates, badges) for massive open online course (MOOC) completion, and relationships between incentives and MOOC outcomes. Participants were 779 MOOC students internationally who participated in at least 303 different MOOCs offered by at least 12 providers. MOOC participants most commonly intended to receive, and in actuality received, free and paid course certificates of completion; other incentives (e.g., digital badges, postsecondary credits) were far less common. In addition, MOOC participants' intentions to receive both free and paid certificates were consistently and positively related to perceived learning and course completion, net other factors. (Keywords: massive open online courses, MOOCs, motivation, incentives, microcredentials, certificates of completion)

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Notes

¹ We use “institutions” to refer to entities which directly offer MOOCs (e.g., colleges and universities, foundations, banks).

² Race and ethnicity data were gathered in accord with guidance from the U.S. Department of Education (2008). The “two or more races” race category includes individuals who identify as being in two or more of the following five race categories: White; Black or African American; Asian; American Indian or Alaska Native; and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander.

³ These analyses included only cases for which the course title, affiliated institution, or affiliated provider was known (62.6%, 63.8%, and 99.4%, respectively). The nonsignificant intercept variance may be due to cluster numbers and sizes in this data set.

⁴ In the final model, tolerance and variance inflation factor (VIF) indices did not suggest collinearity problems (minimum tolerance was .65 and maximum VIF was 1.54).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Todd D. Reeves

Dr. Todd Reeves is an Assistant Professor of Educational Research and Evaluation at Northern Illinois University, and holds a Ph.D in Educational Research, Measurement, and Evaluation from Boston College. He researches problems related to assessment, educational technology, and teacher education and development, as well as problems at the points of intersection among these domains.Please address correspondence regarding this article to Todd D. Reeves, 204A Gabel Hall, Northern Illinois University, 1425 W. Lincoln Highway, DeKalb, IL 60115, USA. E-mail: [email protected]

Andrew A. Tawfik

Andrew A. Tawfik, PhD. All work presented in this article was completed while serving as an Assistant Professor within the department of Educational Technology, Research, and Assessment at Northern Illinois University. Dr. Tawfik's research interests include problem-based learning, case-based reasoning, case library instructional design, and computer supported collaborative learning. Dr. Tawfik is now affiliated with the University of Memphis.

Fortunata Msilu

Dr. Irfan Şimşek is an assistant professor at Computer Education and Instructional Technologies Department, Hasan Ali Yücel Faculty of Education, Istanbul University. He took part in different projects, three of which was supported by the EU, as an executive and researcher. He is also carrying out a Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) project with Harvard University, Sakarya University and Istanbul University.

Irfan Şimşek

Fortunata Msilu is a doctoral student in Instructional Technology at Northern Illinois University and holds a Master's degree in Development Studies, as well as Bachelor's degrees in Psychology and Social Sciences. Currently work as a Graduate Research Assistant for the ETRA Department, and Graduate Staff Assistant for College of Education in the Blackwell History of Education Museum.