Can Facebook boost MOOC retention? - LAURA DEVANEY, eCampus News

A new study on MOOC course design reveals that students prefer Facebook’s collaboration and interaction features to those of built-in MOOC communication tools. Social media tools might be the key to keeping students engaged in MOOCs and preventing course dropouts, according to new research on MOOC course design that was presented at the annual ACM conference on Learning at Scale on April 26. A study comparing students’ use of their MOOC course’s built-in message boards and forums to the same students’ use of course Facebook groupe revealed that students seemed more engaged in the Facebook groups. Students told researchers they preferred social media interaction to interacting with the MOOC communication tools. Results of the study have implications for future MOOC course design, the researchers said in their paper, parts of which are available by registering for the Learning at Scale flipped conference online. http://www.ecampusnews.com/featured/featured-on-ecampus-news/mooc-course-design/