Exploring Reasons of High Attrition Rates of MOOC Using Theories of Motivation Abstract MOOC is becoming increasingly popular but the high attrition rate has become a hurdle in the way of the development of it. This study, based on the course report of 8.02x Electricity and Magnetism MITx on edX, tries to use Incentive theories (intrinsic and extrinsic motivation) to explain the high attrition rates. And based on the analysis, some measures to solve the problem are presented including persifying the course structure by adding more kinds of materials, designing prep courses for those who are not advanced degree holders and keeping contact with registers after their registration.66798

Key words: MOOC; high attrition rate; theories of motivation 

运用动机理论探索慕课的高辍学率的原因

摘  要慕课日渐兴盛，但是慕课的高辍学率已经成为其发展的一大阻碍。这篇论文，以麻省理工学院在大规模开放在线课堂平台（edX）上所开设的一门电磁学课程的课程报告为基础，通过对报告中的数据及图表的分析，试图运用诱因论（包括内在动机和外在动机）来解释慕课的高辍学率。此外，根据对课程报告的分析，本文也提出了三类解决措施，包括通过增加材料种类来丰富课程的多样性，设计预备课程来帮助那些低学历者以及保持与慕课参与者的联系来减少他们辍学的可能性。

毕业论文关键词：慕课；高辍学率；动机理论

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literary Review 2

3. Theories of Motivation 4

3.1 Incentive theories: intrinsic and extrinsic motivation 4

3.1.1 Intrinsic Motivation 4

3.1.2 Extrinsic motivation 5

4. The Introduction of 8.02x 7

5. The Analysis of Course Report of 8.02x 8

6. Suggestions to increase low levels of retention of MOOC using Theories of Motivation 13

6.1 Diversifying the course structure 14

6.2 Designing Preparation courses 14

6.3 Keeping contact with registers 14

7. Conclusions and Discussions 15

References 16

1. Introduction

In recent years, the exploding popularity of Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) has attracted enormous attention from our whole society - institutions of higher education who are actively implementing MOOCs, registers from all corners of the world trying to be part of it, and the media. Though, as a special form of online learning model, MOOC is difficult to be defined distinctly (Stephen Haggard,2013); typically, MOOC is considered to be online courses with no cap on enrollments, minimal to no student costs, and no prerequisites or enrollment restrictions (Allen & Seaman, 2013; Yuan & Powel, 2013). One can easily get access to these educational resources available through the Internet with a computer and a connection. 

With the seemingly seductive benefits, MOOCs have entered the mainstream via the establishment of several high-profile MOOC platforms (primarily Coursera, EdX, and Udacity), offering free courses from a range of elite universities and receiving a great deal of media attention (Daniel, 2012).Current studies indicate that only about 32% of major universities stated they had no intention of pursuing Massive Online Open Courses (Allen& Seaman, 2013). As for the amount of participants, according to an official report from HarvardX and MITx, in the year from the fall of 2012 to the summer of 2013, there were totally 841,687 registrations from 597,692 unique users registered on the edX platform where the first 17 HarvardX and MITx courses launched.