The second iteration of the Metadata MOOC launches tomorrow! You may recall that I wrote several posts after the first iteration wrapped up, presenting some descriptive stats from the course. I plan to do the same with the second iteration, of course, because I’m a geek and I love almost nothing more than a big dataset.
But that’s 8 weeks away. So to keep myself entertained in the meantime, I thought I could make some predictions about how student engagement in the course will play out over the next 8 weeks. My null hypothesis is that student engagement in the second round of the course will play out the same as the first round. By which I mean, I predict that the percentage of active students in the course will decline at the same rate in round 2 as it did in round 1.
I have no reason to think this will be the case, of course. But I also have no data to support a hypothesis of student engagement playing out in some specific different way. But that’s why they call it a null hypothesis.
As of today, the number of Total Registered Students = 10,824. So here are my predictions about the number of Total Active Students we’ll see at the end of each week throughout the course:
[table “” not found /]And I predict that 556 students will earn a Statement of Accomplishment.
In 8 weeks, we’ll see what the actual numbers are. And if they’re significantly different from these, then we’ll have something worth investigating.
On a slightly different note, I would like to conclude by saying that the number of registered students for round 2 is 39% of what it was for round 1. Which is a lot fewer students, to be sure, but still a pretty respectable percentage. I’m quite happy with this.
I’m hoping that fewer students translates to fewer discussion threads, and therefore my TAs and I being better able to keep on top of and contribute to the discussions. Of course, fewer students might also mean fewer students answering other students’ questions… which would require my TAs and I to contribute more to the discussions. On the other hand, fewer discussion threads might just mean fewer discussion threads, and the same percentage of students answering other students’ questions. Of course, all of these are empirical questions that we can investigate in 8 weeks.
2 Comments
Gaetana D'Agata
Hi,
I’ve missed taking this metadata MOOC and have registered for one in copyright that begins next week, but I would still like to take the metadata one. When will round 3 begin?
Gaetana (Gaye) D’Agata
Abbi
Hi Dr Pomerantz. I’m enrolled on this year’s metadata course and so far it’s been really useful and the quality of the lectures has been excellent. I’ve noticed that a lot of the students, myself included, are just about to start “real life” courses in Information and Libraries subjects, so the fact that this course ends in September is probably a real advantage. In fact, even though there appear to be fewer takers overall than for last year’s iteration, I would say that there are probably more students than non-students due to the fact that this is typically a holiday period so casual learners are less likely to start a course at this time of year. It’ll be interesting to see the final figures at the end of the course.