Methods for observational studies using data from massive open online courses

Measuring the effect of a course component in online classes present an opportunity to use propensity score methods. Propensity score methods aim to balance the effect of self-selecting biases and other confounding variables that arise in observational studies like this, as each student decides what components they engage in throughout the course. This method is applied to an edX course, 6.002x, to estimate the effect of attempting homework and other assessments on students' final exam performance.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2016

Author dc:creator

• Helbert, Justin (Justin C.)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Kalyan Veeramachaneni.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/106126

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/106126