“ Turn on , Tune in , Drop out ” : Anticipating student dropouts in Massive Open Online Courses

In this paper, we explore student dropout behavior in Massive Open Online Courses(MOOC). We use as a case study a recent Coursera class from which we develop a survival model that allows us to measure the influence of factors extracted from that data on student dropout rate. Specifically we explore factors related to student behavior and social positioning within discussion forums using standard social network analytic techniques. The analysis reveals several significant predictors of dropout.

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