How Knowledge Stock Exchanges can increase student success in Massive Open Online Courses.

Area of Science:

• Educational Technology
• Computer-Supported Cooperative Work
• Data Science

Background:

• Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) offer accessible education but suffer from low completion rates.
• Student engagement and interaction are critical factors for improving MOOC success.
• Existing methods for fostering interaction in MOOCs are insufficient.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate a novel market-based knowledge-sharing method to enhance student engagement and interaction in MOOCs.
• To address the challenge of low MOOC completion rates.
• To demonstrate the positive impact of MOOC engagement on student academic success.

Main Methods:

• The study proposes the "Knowledge Stock Exchange" (KSX), a system inspired by crowd-based intelligence and incentive-compatible information aggregation.
• An empirical study was conducted using a popular MOOC platform.
• The KSX method was implemented to facilitate knowledge sharing and interaction among participants.

Main Results:

• The KSX method led to a significant increase in student interaction within the MOOC.
• Implementation of KSX resulted in higher MOOC completion rates compared to baseline.
• Participation in KSX positively correlated with improved student performance on examinations.

Conclusions:

• The Knowledge Stock Exchange (KSX) is an effective mechanism for enhancing student engagement and interaction in MOOCs.
• The KSX approach offers a viable solution to improve MOOC completion rates and academic outcomes.
• Market-based knowledge-sharing strategies can be successfully applied to online learning environments to foster student success.