Page 189 - Institusi Pendidikan Tinggi Di Era Digital: Pemikiran, Permodelan, Dan Praktik Baik

176 Institusi Pendidikan Tinggi di Era Digital: Pemikiran, Permodelan dan Praktek Baik

partipants). Jordan (2014) reported that less than 7% of MOOCs participants
completed their program, and from 58 % of students who actually planned
to complete course, only 22% earned certificate. Walker and Lock (2014)
acknowledged that MOOCs have high withdraw/dropout rates, the highest
completion rates achieved was 19,2% and the majority of MOOCs
completion rate is less than 10% (Meyer, 2012). Furthermore, Onah (2014)
also stated that although many thousands of participants enroll this course,
the completion rate for most courses is below 13%.
The high level of dropout of MOOCs indicates that improvements need
to be made in pedagogical and quality level. Low completion rate of MOOCs
indicates that educational process that is only up to a level of exposure to
content (broadband internet) cannot reach the stage of learning content
and verify that the content has been learned (James, 2015). Based on an
empirical research, Walker and Loch (2014: 58) found that “...a common
complaint was dissatisfied with material was just transferred directly from
an on campus course, with no thought to the online medium….”
Furthermore, Conole (2014: 66) stated that there are different opinions
which generate heated debate. The opinions are divided betwen the value
and the importance of MOOCs, some said that MOOCs provide opened
access to education and hence foster social inclusion, some others cynically
suggest that MOOCs are only for area marketing exercise, more about
learning income not on learning outcomes. MOOC start-up does not appear
to have clear business models. Many institutions participating in MOOCs
consider the courses they offer as branding and marketing activities at
present. The important point is the phenomenally high drop rates (typically
95-98%) for several experts is not seen as a problem, it depends on the
initial goal set by MOOCs. Stracke (2012) stated “if the aim is to give the
opportunity of access to free and high-quality courses from elite universities
and professor, then high dropout rate may not be primary concern.”
However, it is widely agreed that it would be useful to improve retention
rate of MOOCs by finding out why and at what stage students drop out
courses.
The problem of high level of dropout give a clue for the Open Distance
Learning (ODL) policy maker to reconsider MOOCs. Adjustments are needed
in order to strengthen the function of MOOCs platforms. Some adjustment
must be considered on the importance of reassessing the conceptual and
theoretical condition to run high quality MOOCs before entering MOOCs