Massive Open Online Courses became a worldwide phenomenon. Especially in Central Europe it is a subject of debates whether universities should invest more money or not. This research study likes to give first answers about typical MOOC participants based on data from different field studies of the Austrian MOOC-platform iMooX. It can be pointed out that the typical learner is a student or an adult learner, strongly interested in the course topic or just interested in learning with media and finally with self-contained learning competencies. The research work concludes that MOOCs broaden the educational field for universities and are a possibility to educate the public in a long run.

1. What do we
know about typical
MOOC participants?
19.05.2015
Michael Kopp
Graphic items on the
front page are not included

2. Cardinal Questions
• Do MOOCs really enhance teaching and learning?
• Do MOOCs need a special instructional design?
• How to anchor MOOCs firmly at the university?
• How long will MOOCs remain free and for whom?
• Are there any business models?

3. Participants are the answer
• Students of the own university
• Other domestic (employed) learners
• International learners
(students & employees)
Ø Demographics
Ø Intentions of participation
Ø Learning behavior

4. iMooX.at

5. Survey Method
• Three courses (summer-term 2014)
• 1.333 overall course-participants
• Different survey settings
(questionnaires after the first course unit,
at the end of the course, partially connected
to certificates)
• 199 completed questionnaires

6. Survey
Results

18. Conclusion
• MOOCS enhance learning –
but this in not true for everybody
(most participants are aged between 20 and 44
54% are older than 34 years; 57% of the
participants have at least a Bachelor degree)
• MOOCs need a special instructional design –
take care that students do not lose interest
• MOOCs can be anchored at the university
but students are only one target group among
others (Life Long Learning)

19. Conclusion
• MOOCS (hopefully) will remain free
although many participants are willing to pay a
small amount of money
using CC-licenses is a good strategy
• There are no business models
(unless we are talking about venture capital)

20. Thanks for your attention
Michael Kopp
@koanmi
michael.kopp@uni-graz.at
http://akademie.uni-graz.at
www.imoox.at
Presentation on Slideshare:
http://de.slideshare.net/anmw/emoocs