Teaching a Species-Specific Massive Open Online Course (MOOC): Lessons from the Horse Course

摘要

The Horse Course massive open online course (MOOC) was first offered through the Coursera platform in 2014. The course is a basic introduction to equine physiology, care, and use. It was offered over 6 weeks as an instructor-paced course in 2014, andagain in 2015. Beginning in 2016, the course was offered as self-paced (on demand). To date, a total of 36,737 learners have joined the course from 164 different countries. Of these, 20,722 learners visited the course and 17,296 viewed one lecture. Totallectures viewed have reached 490,552. Atotal of 57,977 weekly quizzes were taken with 65,184 submitted exercises. In the course message board, a total of 18,798 forum posts were made and viewed a total of 108,953 times. Of the students that enrolled, atotal of 3,154 (9%) went on to pass (>70%) all the quizzes and assignments to earn a course certificate. Of those learners that viewed at least one lecture, completion rates increased by 18%. Current data for the on-demand model indicates a sustained enrollment of 1,196 ± 35.5 new learners per month. These data would indicate an elevated level of interest and sustained enrollment in an equine-focused MOOC.