On May 14, 2018 the on-line course (MOOC) Estimation of measurement uncertainty in chemical analysis offered by University of Tartu finished successfully.
Eventually altogether 521 people registered (270 in 2014, 489 in 2015, 757 in 2016, 363 in 2017) from 76 countries (a number of participants joined after the start of the course). 358 participants actually started the course (i.e. tried at least one graded test at least once) and out of them 218 successfully completed the course (141 in 2014, 169 in 2015, 308 in 2016, 148 in 2017). The overall completion rate was 42% (52% in 2014, 34% in 2015, 40% in 2016, 41% in 2017). The completion rate of participants who started the studies was 61% (67% in 2014, 60% in 2015, 67% in 2016, 68% in 2017). The completion rates are nicely consistent over the last years and can be considered very good for a MOOC, especially one that has quite difficult calculation exercises, which need to be done correctly for completing the course.
The participants were very active and asked lots of questions. The questions were often very much to the point and addressed things that are really important to analysts in their everyday work. The course has several forums (general and by topic) and the overall number of posts to them during the course period reached almost 300 (!) (overall number of posts, both from participants and from teachers) and the forums are still active and posts are still coming in.
This active participation made teaching of this MOOC a great experience also for us, the teachers. The discussion threads gave a lot of added value to the course and some of them triggered making important modifications to the course materials, even during the course.
We want to thank all participants for helping to make this course a success!
We plan to repeat this course again in Spring 2019.
