The Coursera Incentive
Coursera, being an MOOC ( Massive Open Online Courses ) platform, has a problem which is not necessarily a problem for its business, but an issue.
According to a recent study, targeted at coursera specifically, it has been identified that less than 10% of the people enrolling for a course actually complete the course entirely.
If we keep aside the statistics, and look at the numbers, there are still thousands of students getting educated every day. That’s a huge impact on society.
We will be trying to increase that percentage with this assignment.
We will start with deducing the UNDERSTANDING of why the issue exists. Followed by a STRATEGY to tackle the same. And lastly, IMPLEMENTATION of those strategies.
THE UNDERSTANDING
Coursera, or for that matter any of the leading MOOC platforms increase their business by not showing the number of completions but by increasing the engagement on their platform.
In this particular assignment we will not be focusing on the business perspective, but specifically on how to increase the completion rate of the course taken by the users on the platform.
1. Courses are easy to get into
Compared to an offline academic class, getting yourself enrolled into online courses is very easy. You don’t have to go to the institute, the fees are relatively cheaper, no traveling effort. User is at ease and his/her comfort when attending these classes, making it significantly easy to get yourself enrolled into it.
As a result of that, users are very likely to enroll themselves into multiple courses at a time thinking they would be able to complete them after a certain time.
2. Procrastination
A course on an MOOC platform like Coursera might last for not only weeks, months, but even years altogether. This leaves a place for procrastination. Since the user has freedom to choose when he/she wants to listen to the lecture, and there are no deadlines, the majority of users would procrastinate and keep delaying where it becomes increasingly tough to motivate yourself to get back into learning.
3. Hoarding mentality
Just as I mentioned in the previous point, due to easiness to get yourself enrolled in a particular course, users tend to impulsively buy a lot of other courses & hoard them.
Hoarding a lot of courses might look good on screen for a user, but the commitment required to complete those increases with time.
4. Lack of commitment
Online courses are majorly targeted towards users who have it as their secondary or even tertiary priority.
There was a report published by Justin Reich form MIT, with the title “The MOOC Pivot” which talks about why platforms like Coursera targets users who are NOT from the category of the first generation students or students from a low income family background, despite them being the ones who can benefit more than any other type of users
5. Lack of social benefits
Offline classes including schools & degree courses will give a person a community of friends & live interactions. These interactions act as an incentive for the user, which also significantly affects the decision of completing the MOOC curriculum.
Lack of any kind of social interaction makes the user feel alone & there is no sense of competition.
6. No peer pressure
Just as mentioned in the above point, there is no peer pressure from the cohorts as well.
When you see your teammates performing well, or completing the course, you are motivated enough to put in the required efforts.
7. Not enough recognition
There have been instances when a user has completed a certain skillset, but the certification / degree is not enough to land a job or score an increment.
Online degrees / certifications are often considered less worthy compared to their regular counterparts.
8. Partial interest in topic
Users might be interested in only a certain part of the course and not entirely in the curriculum. Since it is relatively easy to enroll / get into the course compared to their offline counterparts, they would have enrolled only to attend a certain part of it.
9. Platforms unable to create a habit
Nir Eyal ha written a book called “ Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products ”
In the book, he has mentioned 4 key steps of a loop, to ensure the habit creation.
Step 1 : Internal & External Triggers
Step 2 : Action
Step 3 : Variable Rewards
Step 4 : Investment
In case of platforms like Coursera, there are numerous triggers, as discussed in the previous pointers.
They have made it very easy for the users to enroll into the course, which is the action.
But there is an absence of Variable Reward.
Unless a variable reward is introduced, we won’t be able to trigger the investment, which in this case, is course completion.
THE STRATEGY
Coursera co-founder Daphne Koller described their Business Model as a “Blue Ocean Strategy”. Which basically means, they have created a product which had never been created before in a space that no one knew existed.
Now that we have successfully identified the possible issues, we can discuss how to really tackle & solve them, for increasing the course completion rate.
1. Gradual release of course material
Coursera releases the entire curriculum onto the user immediately after he/she enrolled in.
Considering the fact that it has been very easy for the user to enroll himself / herself, there is a very good chance that the user is quite motivated to consume as many lectures as possible in the first week of enrollment itself. It does create good engagement, but hampers the retention rate in long run.
Releasing a course in step by step fashion, preferably weekly, gives the platform a chance to Nudge the users at the beginning of every week to complete their weekly course material.
When research was conducted by EdX , it was found that nudging
“ improves the task completion rate by 30%. ”
Weekly release of course material will create a space just for that.
2. Show current ranking in Cohort
As mentioned in the previous section, there is no “peer pressure” on the individual users.
Showing the current ranking of the user on the page will show where the user stands in the current cohort and will improve retention rate.
3. Creating collaboration forum for Cohorts
We cannot induce peer pressure just by introducing ranking.
An MOOC platform will have users coming & enrolling themselves from various parts of the world. If there is no interaction of any form, the requirement to fit in won’t be created.
The users should be able to ask doubts to the creator, responses should be recorded in public. The trigger to the same should be highlighted & encouraged.
4. Create a sense of selectivity
There are 100s of courses on Coursera & they must be having 1000s of enrollments everyday. It’s not practically possible to create a selection procedure for each individual.
If the user has to answer a certain set of questions before the enrollment, there will be an illusion of selectivity, which in turn will increase the perceptive value of the course taken.
This WILL reduce enrollments significantly.
Its not the best advisable way, but if rate of completion matters more than number of enrollments, this method could be considered.
5. Incentive to high scoring users
If any users appreciate something the most, it is a sense of appreciation for their achievement. That can trigger commitment & consistency in their efforts as well.
Incentives can be of 2 types :
- A percentage of refund on the enrollment fees.
Not only monetary benefits create a habit easily for the users to complete the task, which is good for the business. It can also have problems in the long run when such schemes are pulled back.
They could possibly result in a boost of completion rates for a small term. - Give out distinction on certificates.
If a user scores more than a certain threshold ~80%, the platform can award him/her a distinction marked certificate.
THE IMPLEMENTATION
1. Weekly Tracker
Currently, there exists a weekly tracker on top which shows almost the same data shown on the primary navigation. It should be clubbed.
2. Show progress bar for points
We should use a progress bar for score on top instead of weekly progression, where can highlight the current score by the user till that date. According to a Behaviourst Clark Hull in 1932, The Goal Gradient Effect states that,
“ People are motivated by how much is left to reach their target, not how far they’ve gone. ”
3. Mark distinction pointer
Mark distinction pointer on the progress bar to show the anticipation of scoring more to reach the required minimum goal & a point of distinction.
4. Show user’s current rank
Highlight the user’s current rank in cohort depending on how promptly the user finished the course & how much he/she scores in the same.
5. Mark completed, available & non available material
Create 3 states for marking the material on the primary navigation.
6. Sequencing of Information
We can see the weekly placement at 3 places on one page. It is unnecessary and can be avoided to meet our target goal. Same could be :
- Score
- Instructor’s Note
- Weeks ( current highlighted ) — with “ start ” CTA
THE REDESIGN
The Primary Navigation has been redesigned to show weekly tracking & completion. Hovering over the same would display the detail of that particular part.
States for the same are as mentioned above.
The My Score Section has been redesigned the current score of the user. With marked passing and distinction score on the progress bar. It also displays the rank, mentions the requirement, and has a trigger to start the given Chapter of the particular Week.
Sequencing has been changed according to data priority for the required task completion.
Hope you like it !!
