Effects of bias, gamification and monetary compensation on MOOC dropouts

Abstract

The dropout rate is the most significant disadvantage in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC); most of the time, it exceeds 90%. This research compares the effect of cognitive bias, gamification, monetary compensation, and student characteristics (gender, age, years of education, student geographical location, and interest in the course certificate) on dropout. We use survival analysis to identify the predictors of dropout and its related factors. The results showed the lowest dropout (74.2%) for cognitive bias and gamification. The results showed that the Peanut effect bias favors the lowest risk of drop up. Likewise, the findings showed the interest in the final certificate as a predictor of retention to complete a four-week MOOC.