Moving Through MOOCs: Understanding the Progression of Users in Massive Open Online Courses

This paper reports on the progress of users through 16 Coursera courses taught by University of Pennsylvania faculty for the first time between June 2012 and July 2013. Using descriptive analyses, this study advances knowledge by considering two definitions of massive open online course (MOOC) users (registrants and starters), comparing two approaches to measuring student progress through a MOOC course (sequential versus user driven), and examining several measures of MOOC outcomes and milestones. The patterns of user progression found in this study may not describe current or future patterns given the continued evolution of MOOCs. Nonetheless, the findings provide a baseline for future studies.