Learning how to learn is a vital part of this list because online courses are notorious for having people burn out and lose interest so it's especially important that these people can stick with a course using actual techniques.
Why would someone burn out more with online courses (compared to e.g. university). Do you have any sources for this claim? I am very interested in knowing more about this!
I don’t know about burnout, but lose interest seems real. I graduated from MIT having dropped perhaps 2 or 3 courses. I’ve “dropped” at least 10x that number on EdX and Udacity.
I think it’s mostly a matter of engagement and commitment (no real penalty to dropping a MOOC and it didn’t cost much, if anything) and not that burnout is any worse. IOW, the rate of loss of interest might be no higher, but the initial level of interest might be lower, putting you closer to the threshold of dropping out.
Full time university is also the last time I had no other life obligations...
> I’ve “dropped” at least 10x that number on EdX and Udacity.
I think many online learning places are making a large mistake by not letting people sample the first 3 or 4 lessons.
I too have signed up for and left a rather large number of MOOC style courses simple because signing up for the course is often the only way for me to see if I enjoy the course material, the teacher, and the teaching style—all three of which vary wildly course by course on every site.
It seems to me they would be getting much more accurate numbers on completion if they didn’t hide the courses behind so much mystery. It would also have the benefit that we wouldn’t feel like we’ve “dropped” so many courses.
And also like you, I didn’t drop many courses at uni, but there was also more information available about the exact course material and there was much more consistency of teaching style. Also many were required for a degree and getting the degree was my primary purpose at the time, MOOCs however are more of a free time fun time thing for me so I’m much more picky.
I do agree that the "free lick" would lead to dramatically lower drop out rates, but think that the sites probably care more about "active users" or "course enrollments" as a primary metric of growth/market share.
Learning how to learn is a vital part of this list because online courses are notorious for having people burn out and lose interest so it's especially important that these people can stick with a course using actual techniques.