Students' Motivation to Enroll in the Programming MOOC
Name
Edgar Pašenkov
Abstract
In the field of information and communications technology there is a noticeable labour shortage. IT related MOOCs (Massive Open Online Course) designed for elementary and high school students could help bring additional workforce into the field. Understanding the motivation behind the students enrolment in a programming MOOC might increase the efficiency of MOOCs. Therefore, the goal of the bachelor's thesis is to find students’ main motives and to compare the motives of male and female students for enrolment in a programming MOOC. In order to achieve the goal, a quantitative study on motivation was conducted on the participants in the programming course „Introduction to Programming for students“ by Universtiy of Tartu. As a result of the study the highest rated motivational factors were „Interest and expectancies on course” and „Personal suitability of distance learning”, the lowest were „Social influence” and „Usefulness related to certification”. Five factors of six were statistically different in comparison of female and male students. Factor „Personal suitability of distance learning” was the only one, which didn’t have statistically relevant differences.
Graduation Thesis language
Estonian
Graduation Thesis type
Bachelor - Computer Science
Supervisor(s)
Piret Luik
Defence year
2018