Abstract:

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are increasingly widespread in today's educational setting. Much is due to its scalability, absence of geographical barriers and flexible schedules. However, the conclusive rate is one of the challenges to be overcome in MOOCs. Reports in the literature indicate an average completion rate of 5 to 10%. This paper aims to describe the monitoring process carried out in a MOOC course in the area of Dentistry for Patients with Systemic Compromise, offered by a Brazilian university, in addition to presenting the results obtained after completing this course. A course with a 45-hour workload was offered for 25 weeks, available for free access nationwide, and aimed at professionals and academics of Dentistry. The process of student monitoring, carried out across the offers, consisted of two sequential actions: data collection and intervention. The survey was done through an auxiliary resource called MonSys, a data mining system that extracts quantitative information from the moodle platform. The interventions were then started after categorizing the students into groups, according to the access profile, and for each of these groups specific interventions of an encouraging or alert nature were carried out, using standardized messages sent via email, mobile phone and virtual learning environment. A total of 7,618 students were enrolled, with a total of 17,304 interventions and an average completion percentage of 30.1%. This result suggests that a well structured and executed monitoring process, together with other important elements related to pedagogical production and educational offer, can positively contribute to the achievement of a greater number of concluders in courses of this nature.

Keywords:

MOOCs, technology, health.