openSAP: Learner Behavior and Activity in Self-Paced Enterprise MOOCs

Authors

  • Tobias Rohloff Hasso Plattner Institute, Potsdam, Germany
  • Florian Schwerer SAP SE, Walldorf, Germany
  • Nathanael Schenk SAP SE, Walldorf, Germany
  • Christoph Meinel Hasso Plattner Institute, Potsdam, Germany

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3991/ijac.v13i2.16531

Keywords:

MOOCs, Self-Paced, Learning Behavior

Abstract


Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have been a subject of research since 2012, especially in the context of professional development and workplace learning due to their flexible schedule and format, which is a prerequisite for on the job learning. But MOOCs often do not fulfill the promise of flexible learning as it is only possible to achieve a certificate during the course runtime. An unpredictable workload and thus a lack of time often results in not showing up to a course or dropping out during the course runtime. Therefore, some platform content remains accessible even after the course runtime in self-paced mode. These courses differ from live courses as participants still can access all of the content and the discussion forum in read-only mode, but are not able to take the graded assignments and exams which are a prerequisite to achieving a certificate at the end of a course. Even though it is only possible by paying a fee to earn a graded certificate for these self-paced courses, we identified a high share of additional enrollments after the course end that suggests there is still interest from participants. Nevertheless, learning behavior in self-paced courses has not been a major subject of research, yet. This work contributes to closing this research gap by exploring the learner behavior in self-paced courses. The results show tendencies of more time-efficiency and engagement of self-paced learners under certain conditions and pave the way for further research and practical applications.

Author Biographies

Tobias Rohloff, Hasso Plattner Institute, Potsdam, Germany

Tobias Rohloff is with the Learning Engineering Research Group, Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam, Germany (e-mail: tobias.rohloff@hpi.de).

Florian Schwerer, SAP SE, Walldorf, Germany

Florian Schwerer is with openSAP, SAP Knowledge and Education, SAP SE, Walldorf, Germany (e-mail: florian.schwerer@sap.com).

Nathanael Schenk, SAP SE, Walldorf, Germany

Nathanael Schenk is with openSAP, SAP Knowledge and Education, SAP SE, Walldorf, Germany (e-mail: nathanael.schenk@sap.com).

Christoph Meinel, Hasso Plattner Institute, Potsdam, Germany

Prof. Dr. Christoph Meinel is President and CEO of the Hasso Plattner Institute and Dean of the Digital Engineering Faculty of the University of Potsdam, Germany (e-mail: christoph.meinel@hpi.de).

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Published

2020-09-18

How to Cite

Rohloff, T., Schwerer, F., Schenk, N., & Meinel, C. (2020). openSAP: Learner Behavior and Activity in Self-Paced Enterprise MOOCs. International Journal of Advanced Corporate Learning (iJAC), 13(2), pp. 30–40. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijac.v13i2.16531

Issue

Vol. 13 No. 2 (2020)

Section

ICELW Papers

License

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