Impact of Free-Certificate Coupons on Learner Behavior in Online Courses: Results from Two Case Studies
© 2019 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). Publication rights licensed to ACM. The relationship between pricing and learning behavior is an increasingly important topic in MOOC (massive open online course) research. We report on two case studies where cohorts of learners were offered coupons for...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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ACM
2021
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/137161 |
| _version_ | 1826208560722214912 |
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| author | Littenberg-Tobias, Joshua Ruipérez-Valiente, José A. Reich, Justin |
| author_facet | Littenberg-Tobias, Joshua Ruipérez-Valiente, José A. Reich, Justin |
| author_sort | Littenberg-Tobias, Joshua |
| collection | MIT |
| description | © 2019 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). Publication rights licensed to ACM. The relationship between pricing and learning behavior is an increasingly important topic in MOOC (massive open online course) research. We report on two case studies where cohorts of learners were offered coupons for free-certificates to explore price reductions might influence user behavior in MOOC-based online learning settings. In Case Study #1, we compare participation and certification rates between courses with and without coupons for free-certificates. In the courses with a free-certificate track, participants signed up for the verified certificate track at higher rates and completion rates among verified students were higher than in the paid-certificate track courses. In Case Study #2, we compare the behaviors of learners within the same courses based on whether they received access to a free-certificate track. Access to free-certificates was associated with somewhat lower certification rates, but overall certification rates remained high particularly among those who viewed the courses. These findings suggests that some other incentives, other than simply the sunk-cost of paying for a verified certificate-track, may motivate learners to complete MOOC courses. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:07:34Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/137161 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:07:34Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publisher | ACM |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1371612021-11-03T03:15:48Z Impact of Free-Certificate Coupons on Learner Behavior in Online Courses: Results from Two Case Studies Littenberg-Tobias, Joshua Ruipérez-Valiente, José A. Reich, Justin © 2019 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). Publication rights licensed to ACM. The relationship between pricing and learning behavior is an increasingly important topic in MOOC (massive open online course) research. We report on two case studies where cohorts of learners were offered coupons for free-certificates to explore price reductions might influence user behavior in MOOC-based online learning settings. In Case Study #1, we compare participation and certification rates between courses with and without coupons for free-certificates. In the courses with a free-certificate track, participants signed up for the verified certificate track at higher rates and completion rates among verified students were higher than in the paid-certificate track courses. In Case Study #2, we compare the behaviors of learners within the same courses based on whether they received access to a free-certificate track. Access to free-certificates was associated with somewhat lower certification rates, but overall certification rates remained high particularly among those who viewed the courses. These findings suggests that some other incentives, other than simply the sunk-cost of paying for a verified certificate-track, may motivate learners to complete MOOC courses. 2021-11-02T18:33:33Z 2021-11-02T18:33:33Z 2019-06-24 2021-04-15T18:37:47Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/ConferencePaper https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/137161 Littenberg-Tobias, Joshua, Ruipérez-Valiente, José A. and Reich, Justin. 2019. "Impact of Free-Certificate Coupons on Learner Behavior in Online Courses: Results from Two Case Studies." Proceedings of the 6th 2019 ACM Conference on Learning at Scale, L@S 2019. en 10.1145/3330430.3333654 Proceedings of the 6th 2019 ACM Conference on Learning at Scale, L@S 2019 Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ application/pdf ACM Other repository |
| spellingShingle | Littenberg-Tobias, Joshua Ruipérez-Valiente, José A. Reich, Justin Impact of Free-Certificate Coupons on Learner Behavior in Online Courses: Results from Two Case Studies |
| title | Impact of Free-Certificate Coupons on Learner Behavior in Online Courses: Results from Two Case Studies |
| title_full | Impact of Free-Certificate Coupons on Learner Behavior in Online Courses: Results from Two Case Studies |
| title_fullStr | Impact of Free-Certificate Coupons on Learner Behavior in Online Courses: Results from Two Case Studies |
| title_full_unstemmed | Impact of Free-Certificate Coupons on Learner Behavior in Online Courses: Results from Two Case Studies |
| title_short | Impact of Free-Certificate Coupons on Learner Behavior in Online Courses: Results from Two Case Studies |
| title_sort | impact of free certificate coupons on learner behavior in online courses results from two case studies |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/137161 |
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