Should MOOCs be free? | The problem of the MOOC completion rate

By Robert McGuire. One of the most attractive features of MOOCs is the price point. You can’t beat free, right? And if your goal is to offer an experience as widely as possible, then taking away the barrier to entry of cost is one of the quickest ways to that goal. On the other hand, one of the alarming flaws in the MOOC model so far is the low completion rate or “MOOC churn.” It sure sounds cool when 100,000 people sign up for a course, suddenly motivated by free access to a valuable resource they never would have been able to access before. But the reality a couple months later sounds a little ickier. Often only about 5-8 percent of the students enrolled make it through to the end. Read more...