written by Michael Dubson, Ed Johnsen, David Lieberman, Jack R. Olsen, and Noah D. Finkelstein

In the fall of 2013, we taught the calculus-based introductory physics course at the University of Colorado at Boulder and, at the same time we taught a MOOC version of the same course, through Coursera. Students in both courses received identical lectures, homework assignments, and timed exams. We present data on participation rates and exam performance for the two groups. We find that the MOOC is like a drug targeted at a very specific population. When it works, it works well, but it works for very few. This MOOC worked well for older, well-educated students, who already have a good understanding of Newtonian mechanics.

• Download PERC14_Plenary_Dubson.pdf - 4489kb Adobe PDF Document

Published April 28, 2015
Last Modified April 28, 2015

This file is included in the full-text index.