Advisor
Kendrick, David S.
Committee Member
Huang, Jingzi
Committee Member
Phillips, Michael M
Department
Educational Technology
Institution
University of Northern Colorado
Type of Resources
Text
Place of Publication
Greeley (Colo.)
Publisher
University of Northern Colorado
Date Created
8-1-2015
Genre
Thesis
Extent
149 pages
Digital Origin
Born digital
Abstract
Massive open online courses (MOOC) have become one of the recent innovations in the field of higher education. These courses are distributed via the Internet and free, attracting thousands of students in a course from all over the world. However, there is a serious issue concerning MOOC students’ completion rates. Previous research studies have explored a variety of factors that might lead to low completion rates for MOOCs. However, students involvement from various culture and language backgrounds was a factor not investigated in the literature a factor that could have affected students’ completion rates. This study redesigned an activity theory model to reflect cultural factors and examined several cultural indictors related to communication, self-efficacy, technology, and Anglo-American context to determine whether these factors predicted MOOC student completion rates. The sample of this current study consisted of 133 MOOC students from 52 different countries who were enrolled at a Midwest American university. Logistic regression was applied to identify if any of the selected cultural indictors predicted MOOC students completion. The findings suggested other cultural factors than the ones selected in this study need to be explored. Moreover, the findings of this study might enhance the research area in the MOOC field to improve students’ attrition. The potential of the redesigned activity model for investigating cultural influences in other domains was presented as a way to increase understanding of these factors.
Degree type
PhD
Degree Name
Doctoral
Language
English
Local Identifiers
Alabdullaziz_unco_0161D_10435
Rights Statement
Copyright is held by author.
