Socioeconomic status and MOOC enrollment

Abstract

To minimize barriers to entry, massive open online course (MOOC) providers collect minimal demographic information about users. In isolation, these data are insufficient to address important questions about socioeconomic status (SES) and MOOC enrollment and performance. We demonstrate the use of third-party datasets to enrich demographic portraits of MOOC students and answer fundamental questions about SES and MOOC enrollment. We derive demographic information from registrants' geographic location by matching self-reported mailing addresses with data available from Esri at the census block group level and the American Community Survey at the zip code level. We then use these data to compare neighborhood income and parental education for US registrants in HarvardX courses to the US population as a whole. Overall, HarvardX registrants tend to reside in more affluent neighborhoods. Registrants on average live in neighborhoods with median incomes approximately. 45 standard deviations higher than the US population. Higher levels of parental education are also associated with a higher likelihood of registration.