The effects of participants’ engagement with videos and forums in a MOOC for teachers’ professional development

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) for teachers have emerged as a new wave of MOOCs that provide free professional development for teachers around the globe. These MOOCs for teachers often rely primarily on discussion forums and videos to drive participant engagement. Using logistic regression models this paper presents the degree to which participants’ engagement with videos and forum posts can predict completion in a MOOC designed for statistics teachers’ professional development. It also explores the extent to which participants’ professional background can be considered as a modifier of their achievement in this MOOC. Findings indicated that the number of videos watched by participants is not significant in predicting MOOC completion. However, their participation in forums and their professional background shed light on understanding participants’ engagement. The study makes recommendations for MOOC designers and facilitators regarding the importance of balanced activities to foster participants’ engagement and completion in MOOCs.