The Coursera platform has become a hub for leading universities to build and offer their online degrees to an eager audience of individuals worldwide. From the activities of thousands of students enrolled in our university partners’ degree programs, we are able to derive new insights on how individuals are engaging with online for-credit courses, what helps them succeed, and which activities most drive their retention. Throughout our new report, Drivers of Retention in Online Degree Programs, we offer data-driven best practices for driving greater retention in online degree programs.
We see a variety of factors driving student retention in degree programs offered on the Coursera platform. The following are actions universities can take to bolster their students’ likelihood of staying in their programs:
Build on open content success
Recommend relevant open courses on Coursera. Students who complete an open course are 12% more likely to persist in their degree. Those who take open courses that stack into the degree are 3% more likely to remain in their programs.
Set students up for a strong start
Provide resources, office hours, and one-on-one question answering to help students submit their first assessment successfully, which increases their retention in the program by 6%. Performance is a strong indicator of students’ later persistence, with first-term grades emerging as especially critical.
Include staff grading
Boost motivation through expert grading and feedback. Having at least one staff-graded assessment drives a 6% increase in student retention.
Encourage frequent learning
Use techniques like short videos and smaller assessments throughout the course to help ensure students return frequently to the degree courses. Having students learn across more days leads to a 5% gain in retention and is a more significant driver than total learning time.
Design hands-on projects
Keep students progressing with hands-on projects where they can apply their new skills. Across writing, coding, and creative projects, these opportunities drive 3% greater retention. A final project is a great opportunity to provide this type of hands-on project and culminating experience for the course.
Use practice opportunities
Include ungraded assessments for low-stakes testing and to further students’ understanding. Having practice assessments drives a 2% increase in student degree retention.
For more specifics and actionable takeaways, please visit our Drivers of Retention in Online Degree Programsreportin full. We look forward to our continued partnership with universities to create more efficient and effective designs, elevating faculty’s online teaching to new heights.
By Anthony Tattersall, Vice-President for EMEA, Coursera
The last two years have demonstrated the value of a highly-skilled public health workforce like never before. To equip the UK’s healthcare service with the skills needed to maintain a world-class level of care and meet future public health challenges, Coursera is excited to announce that it is partnering with Imperial College London to provide three free online courses for all NHS workers.
Through this partnership, learners will explore how participatory approaches can make healthcare delivery more inclusive. Each course will enable healthcare professionals to engage with relevant communities, critique the role of social-cultural factors in health contexts, and design an approach to public health challenges which are participatory in nature. High-quality content will also equip participants with the practical knowledge required to improve health systems.
The offerings will form part of Imperial College London’s Global Master of Public Health programme. Also offered via Coursera, this completely online Master’s program provides busy professionals the opportunity to learn from faculty who are shaping global policy at one of the world’s top ten universities. For example, this includes researchers who are leading the fight against the Ebola virus.
The courses have been designed by Professor Helen Ward, Clinical Professor of Public Health at Imperial College London, Dr Thomas Woodcock, Senior Research Fellow in the School of Public Health at Imperial College London, and Dr Bob Klaber, Director of Strategy, Research and Innovation at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. Enrolled NHS staff will receive free certification upon completion, ensuring they receive the credentials required to support professional development.
Professor Helen Ward said: “The COVID-19 pandemic and its impact have brought into sharp focus the importance of public health. These courses can help NHS staff develop knowledge and practical skills to involve patients and the public in research and quality improvement in healthcare, and how to understand and use health data. The courses are relevant for clinical and non-clinical staff, and will help them respond to future public health challenges. These free courses in partnership with Coursera will give NHS staff the opportunity to learn from world-class academics in this area, and further enhance their skills.”
Dr Thomas Woodcock said: “Our courses will showcase to NHS participants how data and evidence is utilised to identify areas of improvement in public health, and in health services, and the importance of using data in evaluating change. Research is vital to addressing public health issues and these courses will give participants insights into methods for applying research findings to drive improvements in health and care.”
Throughout the pandemic, Coursera has enabled hundreds of thousands of learners across the world to learn more about public health and to develop job-relevant skills. We’re honoured to be able to further these efforts by bringing skills-first learning to the NHS – a world-class health service – in collaboration with Imperial – a world-class university.
NHS staff interested in enrolling to enhance skill proficiency can do so here.
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By Betty Vandenbosch, Coursera’s Chief Content Officer
I was delighted to have the opportunity to host our 10th annual Coursera Conference. Our virtual platform made it possible to bring together a truly global community. All told, 3,156 participants from 2,111 organizations representing 149 countries were able to attend, and we were thrilled to welcome 132 partner organizations representing 34 countries.
Over the course of two days, we heard from more than 90 expert voices from 40 institutions and 15 countries. Together, we explored new opportunities for the future of learning and work in a digital world. As I reflect on the keynotes, fireside chats, and breakout sessions, I am reminded that pathways to careers were at the core of the conference.
In her keynote, Mia Amor Mottley, the Prime Minister of Barbados, outlined how e-learning can provide opportunities to learners around the globe and highlighted the critical role online education can play for the developing world—particularly during times of crisis. She challenged us to be the catalyst for change and do all we can to help those who have found themselves on the wrong side of the digital divide.
Coursera CEO Jeff Maggioncalda presented a compelling array of facts demonstrating the impact our work is having on the educational and economic health of our global community and highlighted the increasing importance of our partnerships as we work together to expand access to world-class learning.
Jeff also announced new degrees and credentials from leading universities to train people for jobs of the future. Among the partners making this possible are premier Indian universities including Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Indian Institute of Management Indore, Indian Institute of Science, and International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore. Two new master’s degree programs from top-ranked universities in India, the International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore and the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, will help prepare learners for in-demand careers. Three postgraduate programs from the Indian School of Business and Macquarie University willhelp learners advance in business and management and offer a chance to complete graduate-level learning from world-class institutions without committing to a full degree program. And, ten university-issued certificates from the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, and the University of Colorado Boulder, that generally take six months or less to complete, will help learners develop expertise in a specific field. Finally, in addition to academic partnerships, industry leaders including Accenture, ADP, CampusBBVA, Coinbase, Genentech, Goodwill, HeroMindmine, HRCertification Institute (HRCI), PwC India, SAP, and Tally Education will help expand our catalog of high-quality, job-relevant content.
During the Product Innovation session, our team announced a suite of new offerings and platform improvements to boost learner engagement, reduce time and complexity to author content, and help businesses, universities, and governments provide timely, accessible learning at scale. Here are a few that I am very excited about:
Career Academy gives any business, government, or academic institution the ability to offer individuals—even those with no college degree or prior work experience—an opportunity to learn the skills to enter a high-demand, entry-level digital job. Learners can access a full suite of Entry-Level Professional Certificates, practice their skills with Guided Projects, and explore career pathways and essential information on in-demand roles.
Self-service content migration from edX/Open edX and Canvas increases efficiency and ease of content authoring. During the pilot stages, our university partner Dartmouth College was able to seamlessly move more than 30 courses from edX to the Coursera platform with minimal effort from its program staff.
Adjustable and data-driven deadlines, scheduled nudges, and AI-generated lecture summaries work to better serve more than 100 Million learners on the Coursera platform and encourage them to continue with their learning journey.
Upgrades to our grading and assessment features now support awarding extra credit, viewing item history, and deterring plagiarism through text similarity scoring.
In our visionary panel, we learned how two university partners are collaborating to create degree pathways between institutions for the first time on Coursera. Students who graduate from the University of London’s online Bachelor of Science in Marketing or online Bachelor of Science in Business Administration will have a preferred admissions pathway into the University of Illinois’ online Master’s of Management degree—creating a seamless path for lifelong learning. The University of Illinois discussed plans to expand the pathway to other Gies online graduate programs, including the Master’s of Business Administration, Master’s of Science in Accountancy, and stackable Graduate Certificates.
To mark Coursera’s 10th anniversary, we took time to reflect on and celebrate what we have accomplished together as a community of innovative educators, and the impact we have had on learners across the globe. Coursera Chief Marketing Officer Kim Caldbeck led a discussion with CEO Jeff Maggioncalda, our former CEO Rick Levin, and Coursera’s founders, Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng, that explored milestones from the past 10 years—from that first Stanford course, through collaboration and innovation and Coursera’s international expansion, to the stackable learning and collaborations with partners, businesses, and governments that define us today and make us excited about the future.
A perennial favorite at Conference is the Outstanding Achievement Award Ceremony, hosted by Andrew Ng. This year we had the opportunity to recognize and celebrate six recipients for their work to advance our shared mission of expanding access to world-class learning. Sungkyunkwan University received the Learner’s First Award for their A Bridge to the World: Korean Language for Beginners course, which introduces learners to the language and culture of Korea. Google received the Career Transformation award for their UX Design Certification, which takes learners with no background in UX design through all the fundamental skills to become a UX designer. The University of Colorado Boulder received the Innovation award for their Data Structures and Algorithms Specialization, which provides a pathway into their innovative degree program. For helping its employees achieve extraordinary success and career growth through the power of online learning, Capgemini received the Talent Transformation award. Ghandi Institute of Technology and Management received the Campus Transformation award for enabling over 20,000 students across three campuses and nine departments to quickly go online during the height of the pandemic. And, the New York State Department of Labor received the Government Innovation award for deploying an accessible training solution that provides health and wellness training, foundational skills, technical certifications, and job readiness training to communities hardest hit by the shutdown. Please join me in congratulating all the award recipients.
Recordings for most of the sessions can be found under the session description on the agenda page of the event website. I encourage you to watch the sessions that interest you and share the recordings with your colleagues.
When I think about all the comments and conversations, I see unprecedented promise for a future with more equal opportunities than we’ve ever seen before. During the conference, we witnessed how this future is taking shape on Coursera today. There is no doubt in my mind about how important our work is. It’s powerful and life-changing. At the end of the day, learners and employers will tell us what they need. We must be bold, willing to experiment, and consistently looking for ways to innovate. Most importantly, we must work together.
I would like to thank our presenters, panelists, and participants for their time and their contributions. It was a wonderful experience for me. For those who were able to join us, I hope you had a great time and will come back next year. For those who were unable to join us, I hope you’ll watch the videos and join us next year.
