Positive Impact Of Collaborative Chat Participation In An Edx Mooc

A major limitation of the current generation of MOOCs is a lack of opportunity for students to make use of each other as resources. Analyses of attrition and learning in MOOCs both point to the importance of social engagement for motivational support and overcoming difficulties with material and course procedures. In this paper we evaluate an intervention that makes synchronous collaboration opportunities available to students in an edX MOOC. We have implemented a Lobby program that students can access via a live link at any time. Upon entering the Lobby, they are matched with other students that are logged in to it. Once matched, they are provided with a link to a chat room where they can work with their partner students on a synchronous collaboration activity, supported by a conversational computer agent. Results of a survival model in which we control for level of effort suggest that having experienced a collaborative chat is associated with a slow down in the rate of attrition over time by a factor of two. We discuss implications for design, limitations of the current study, and directions for future research.