Do professors matter? Using an A/B test to evaluate the impact of instructor involvement on MOOC student outcomes

This research investigates the impact professors, and other instructional staff, have on student content knowledge acquisition in a physical science MOOC offered through the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. An A/B test was used to randomly assign MOOC participants in either a control group (with no instructional interaction) or an intervention group (in which the professor and teaching assistants responded to comments in the discussion and complied summary weekly feedback statements) to identify the differences in learning outcomes, participation rates, and student satisfaction. The study found that instructor intervention had no statistically significant impact on overall completion rates, overall badge acquisition rates, student participation rates, or satisfaction with the course, but did (p<0.05) lead to a higher rate of forum badge completion, an area that was targeted by the intervention.