COMPLETERS' ENGAGEMENT CLUSTERS IN PROGRAMMING MOOC: THE CASE OF ESTONIA

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) provide a unique format for lifelong learning and skills development. Courses vary in covered topics, duration, type and amount of offered learning materials, number of assessments, completion criteria, etc., and have a diversity of participants with different goals and engagement levels. Some prefer to work with all available materials and thereby obtain wider knowledge, others do just enough to pass a course. The first decade of MOOCs existence has almost passed but information on the characteristics of completers is still contradictory. Consideration of different activities in MOOCs can help researchers and instructors understand learners' needs. In the 4-week MOOC "About programming", learners from Estonia make their first steps in programming in Python. The MOOC on programming, with completion rate at about 60%, is based on individual work with course content where some parts are optional. To pass the course, all mandatory tests and tasks should be completed successfully. The current research revealed four different engagement clusters based on completers' stated interaction with provided activities including demos and help from non-traditional troubleshooters. The relationship with demographic and social background characteristics within each cluster was analyzed.