Measuring learned skill behaviors post-MOOC.

A team of ten engineers, instructional designers, and subject matter experts designed, built, and ran a Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) during a 6-week period in mid-2012 to teach search skills. We report on the attendance patterns of students in the MOOC and our first measures of the efficacy of teaching in this style. Of the 23,087 students who completed the entire class, we were able to show a clear 40% average improvement in their skills between the beginning and end of their MOOC experience. We were also able to show that for students who successfully completed the MOOC, their search behavior was substantially--and persistently--improved for the two-week period following the class. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the changes last for months afterwards as well.