Why Most Online Self-Learners Don't Finish: Evidence on Completion Rates, First-Week Dropout, Returning, and Planning Prompts
In HarvardX and MITx courses, about half of registrants on average never entered the course; among those who did enter, only 3.13% passed in 2017–18. A prompt to write a study plan raised completion from 13.8% to 17.7% in three courses, but at 247 courses no difference in completion was detected. These are all MOOC numbers; this site has no data on reader behavior.