What It Takes to Build a MOOC

MOOCs

What It Takes to Build a MOOC

Feb 19, 2013

MAKE-A-MOOC: What did it take for Duke University to build and deliver its first MOOC through Coursera? According to this report from the university: over 620 hours from the instructor, TA and support staff, 11.3 hours of finished videos, 18 graded exercises, 22 GB of data--and more. The eight-week Bioelectricity course, launched in September last year, saw over 12,000 students across over 100 countries enrolled--1/3 from the U.S. Unsurprisingly, only 346 attempted the final exam and 313 passed. However, the report dives deeper into the different motivations and participation levels among dropouts and those who earned a certificate. (One interesting barrier to student completion: "Making the leap from concept [videos] to application [exercises and quizzes].") And despite putting in more hours than they expected, the faculty found the experience generally positive. Phil Hill on e-Literate called this "the most thorough description I have yet seen from a university about their experience selecting, development, delivering and analyzing a MOOC."

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