ABSTRACT
Retention rates have become one of the concerning dilemmas and conundrums for implementation of massive open online courses (MOOCs). The current dilemma is that while enrollments in MOOCs are very high, numbering in the thousands, retention rates are quite low over time, and most of the students in MOOCs do not complete courses. Although this could be viewed as an alarming scenario, can this be considered a dilemma or a conundrum of MOOC learning? Additionally, can this be considered an appropriate approach in understanding the success of learning in MOOCs? This chapter aims to investigate retention rates in Malaysia MOOCs by focusing on two case studies: an MOOC with a large community and another MOOC with a smaller enrollment. The investigation is conducted by analyzing learning patterns using learning analytics with regard to retention rates and number of comments over time. The chapter ends with a discussion on dispersion of learning time that is linked to the learning analytics of both the large-scaled community MOOC and the smaller-scaled one.
