CSAIL researcher Anant Agarwal, who serves as president of edX, recently wrote a piece for Huffington Post about why it's important to look at more than just completion rates in assessing the value and success of massive open-online courses (MOOCs).
From HuffPo:
"The goals of our learners are as diverse as they are. When they first enroll in a course, some may be interested in engaging with homework or other interactive labs, or in completing the coursework to earn a certificate (we call these "active learners"). Others may simply want to browse and view a few of the videos.
...Our experience in this first year has taught us that many of our learners don't fit a traditional mold. So we need to change the lens through which we view them."
Read more here: http://huff.to/1lURIAW