Use the content of learners' written plans as an early-warning signal to identify students least likely to succeed¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 1 claim (1 for) · 1 study (1 associational), q3 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 1 claim rests on one study

Description¶

The article's forecasting result suggests a concrete implementation strategy: collect learners' open-ended plans at the start of a course and read their content for risk signals, since "the contents of students' plans could predict which students were least likely to succeed." Plans focused on specific times mark students who are unlikely to complete, so instructors or course teams can direct support toward these learners early. This strategy piggybacks on the same prompt intervention that raises completion.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Learners must submit written plans whose text can be reviewed; the plans are collected at the beginning of the course via the planning-prompt intervention.

Constraints¶

• The forecasting relationship is predictive rather than causal; the article does not show that changing plan content changes completion.

Target Learners¶

• MOOC learners who write plans at course outset

Target Learning Goals¶

• Early identification of learners at risk of non-completion

Claims¶

• The content of MOOC students' plans forecasts completion, with time-focused plans predicting lower completion [+W]

Related Strategies¶

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Yeomans, Michael and Reich, Justin. 2017. "Planning Prompts Increase and Forecast Course Completion in Massive Open Online Courses." Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). https://doi.org/10.1145/3027385.3027416